http://www.defense-training.com/quips/2008/13Feb08.html
Recoil Buffers
13 Feb 08
After-market, recoil buffers
Now and then, students bring 1911 pistols with after-market, recoil buffers, sometimes installed by a custom gunsmith, sometimes installed by the owner himself. We had such a custom 1911 in a Course in CA last weekend. The pistol was beautiful, but it gave us nothing but trouble!
Normally, with bitter experience as my guide, I remove all such recoil buffers when I inspect guns at the start of the Course. However, this particular 1911 had a full-length ejector rod, and I calculated that getting rid of the buffer would be more trouble than it was worth. I told the student to shoot the pistol as it was. A mistake, as it turns out! Failures to feed and eject were rampant. The student waxed frustrated, to say the least!
During the first break, I recanted, and the student and I conspired to remove the buffer. It was a pain in the ass getting it out, but, once we did, we were rewarded with a pistol that functioned normally! Feeding and ejection problems instantly disappeared, and the gun ran fine for the duration.
The foregoing scenario is all too common. Rubber/plastic recoil buffers, usually consisting of a "doughnut" that fits over the recoil-spring guide-rod, prevent the slide from going all the way backwards, resulting in forward movement of the slide that is weak and ineffective. In addition, buffers often make it impossible to send the slide forward by pulling it all the way to the rear and subsequently releasing it, because the slide can't move far enough to the rear to cam down the slide lock lever.
As if that weren't enough, buffers, in my experience, typically fall apart and break in half, usually within two hundred rounds. The halves then fall off the recoil rod, and the slide subsequently seizes completely, renderingthe pistol useless!
Recoil buffers are seen mostly on 1911 pistols, although they can be made for others. Per the foregoing, none are recommended on any serious pistol.
As Kipling put it, "With all the pain and sorrow in store, why do we always arrange for more?"
/
John
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Copyright © 2008 by DTI, Inc. All rights reserved.
created on Wednesday February 13, 2008 23:59:1 MST
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