Is AK Buffer really neccesary?

[Neil McCauley]

I've shot about 200 rnds through my AK and I'm wondering if its worth spending 10 -15 bucks on a recoil buffer. I have no experience with these things and they sound like a good idea in theory. The manufacture claims it'll prolong the life of the rifle by stopping the bolt from slamming the receiver. Would an AK really destroy itself like that?

My AK does kick a little bit, I figure its just normal, what do you guys think?

[bwiese]

My 'smith (Rich Saunders at CGW) told me to not put one on the FAL refinish/rebuild he did for me. Said 'extras' like this not part of orig design largely cause more problems than they solve.

I'd figure an AK is the same way.

[dwtt]

The Buffer Tech stuff are mostly useless. There is no need to put one in you AK. I never had one of these recoil buffers in my Chinese AK when I owned it and never had any problems. There are millions of AK's out there in the world shooting fine without one of these buffers installed.

[Neil McCauley]

Thanks you guys, seriously this question has been eating me for months. Just saved me 15 bucks and a trip to the gun show. ^5

[grammaton76]

The only time I've read that those buffers are really important, is if you have too much gap on the rear rails and your bolt carrier likes to try and jump out at the rear stroke of your action's cycle. In those cases, the buffer is the only way you're going to have a usable rifle, short of some fairly involved metal work.

[onley11]

The buffers are good in custom guns that need them as a standard part to keep the gun from beating itself to death. I have a custom mini and a custom 2011 (sti) 40 cal that are both so tight that it makes a difference. But a stockish properly designed gun doesn't need it. If it did, they would have specified for it(ar -15 comes to mind)

[NwG]

Antything that stops the action from a full cycle can't be a good thing.....

[juha_teuvonnen]

The recoil buffer is useless. AK is world's most popular military rifle, yet I don't know a single manufacturer who would equip an AK with a buffer. Mikhail Timofeevich came up with a very good design, and I am yet to see a significant and worthy improvement to it.

[JPglee1]

http://www.bsg-dornier.de/schiessen/filme/hsp/kalashnikov.mpg

The bolt carrier doesn't really slam into the trunnion that much, occasionally but it seems like the ammo isn't real consistent in it's charge. (see video above)

The only thing I would use one for is to keep the carrier from jumping out of the rails if your take down slots are too big (out of spec)

Otherwise, let it beat itself to death

JP

[dwtt]

Mikhail Timofeevich came up with a very good design, and I am yet to see a significant and worthy improvement to it.

Timofeevich? Is that Kalashnikov in Russian?

[Ironballs]

on a ruger 10/22 its nice as it cuts noise...
most other applications are nonesense... glock and ak especially...

[juha_teuvonnen]

Timofeevich? Is that Kalashnikov in Russian?

That's Mr. Kalashnikov's patronymic. In Russian, when you address somebody with respect, typically someone older than you or somebody who is your boss, you add patronymic after the first name. A patronymic is the person's father's name with 'vich' or 'evich' added at the end.

In Russian it's "Михаил Тимофеевич Калашников" (Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov).