The 8 Best AR-15 Buffers in 2024

Here Are The 8 Best AR-15 Buffers Reviewed

‘A mere cog in the machine’ is definitely not the right way to think about your AR buffer. Novice shooters, and even more experienced ones will often neglect the importance of having a proper buffer in their rifles. They will either go with the stock option that came with the rifle or in worst-case scenarios, use the wrong one and wonder why their AR isn’t working properly. No matter how insignificant it may seem to some, the Best AR-15 Buffers with the correct weight and the best buffer springs for your system will provide a much more effective shooting experience than you might think.

What is An AR-15 Buffer?

So, what exactly is a buffer? Well, inside the buffer tube of every AR-15 style rifle are two important elements that help with the proper cycling of your bolt carrier group. The buffer and the recoil spring. The buffer’s main job, besides mitigating the recoil of the gun, is to act as, just as the name tells us, a buffer between the bolt carrier group and the recoil spring.

It is a simple hollow cylindrical tube, filled with steel, aluminum, or tungsten weights separated by washers. On one end, when it comes into contact with the bolt, it is sealed shut, while on the other end it has a removable plastic or polyurethane cap.

There are several types of buffers, but the two main ones are rifle and carbine buffers. The types differ in length and weight and in the majority of the cases are not interchangeable, but nevertheless, their main job still remains the same.

How AR-15 Buffer Works

An AR-15, like most popular semi-automatic rifles today, is a gas-operated rifle, and without getting too technical, let’s just say it uses expanding gases from the fired cartridge to push the bolt carrier group back in order to eject the spent round.

That’s where the buffer system springs into action, literally. The buffer system as mentioned above consists of a buffer inserted into a recoil spring, and it is encased inside a buffer tube. When the bolt starts acting against the buffer, pushing it backward, the recoil spring reacts by pushing the buffer and the bolt forward, cycling the action of the gun.

That Means that the bolt carrier group is forced forward into the upper receiver, picking up a new round from the magazine and loading it into the chamber.

It is a fairly simple action, but a delicate balance is necessary in order for it to work properly. Using a buffer that is too light will cause the felt recoil to be too strong to effectively control the rifle over a prolonged period of shooting. The wear and tear of your inner components will also be significantly increased. If you use a buffer that is too heavy, the bolt will not cycle properly, it will fail to feed a new round or fail to extract the old one.

Balancing your buffer system with your gas system

Balancing your buffer system with your gas system is crucial for the smooth functioning of your rifle. Some like to compare it to carefully tuning your AR like you would tune a guitar, some like to compare it to tuning a piano, an extremely deadly piano. But considering I can’t play either instrument, I like to think of it as a seesaw.

The same way you wouldn’t let a full-grown male polar bear play on a seesaw with a 4-year-old kid, over gassing your AR in combination with a light buffer will cause the bolt carrier group to violently slam back and forth inside your buffer tube. Doing the opposite, using a buffer that is too heavy, with a harder recoil spring, and under gassing the rifle, will probably prevent the bolt from cycling properly. Therefore a perfect balance is necessary.

You can easily check if your AR is properly set, by looking at the angle of ejection of spent casings after firing. If the spent casing is ejected in a direction closer to the barrel or towards your shoulder and arm, that means you need to make some adjustments. The sweet spot is when shells are ejected at an angle right around 90-degrees.

How To Choose The Most Reliable AR-15 Buffer

So, there are two main types of buffers, right? Carbine and rifle buffer. Most likely, if you are using a standard AR that you either built or bought, you will be using a carbine length buffer.

But how to know if this is the best choice for you?

It all depends, as I said, it needs to be in the perfect working symbiosis with the gas system and the bolt. Depending on your gas port size, gas tube length (which also varies in length between rifle, mid-length, or carbine), and the weight of your bolt, the ideal weight of your buffer will vary. A rule often repeated is to use the heaviest buffer possible while still making sure your rifle will cycle properly. This means that you will have to experiment with various models before choosing the one that suits you best. If you’re not sure or don’t want to bother with that, a standard weight buffer will get the job done. As buffers come in various weights, and let’s explore what those weights are.

What AR-15 buffer weight options are there?

Carbine buffer weight is the standard for most AR carbines. It weighs 3 ounces and consists of a hollow aluminum tube, filled with three steel weights, separated by rubber washers which prevent the weights from slamming against each other. It is a great option because it can be used with a really wide variety of ammo, and is not just for carbine length rifles, but also works well with mid-length gas systems.

The next one is the Heavy or “H” buffer, weighing in at 3.8 ounces. The added weight is accomplished by replacing only one of the steel weights with a tungsten weight. Considering most AR’s are over-gassed on purpose, even if you do choose to go with this option, you won’t experience any issues with the cycling of the weapon.

By replacing two steel weights with tungsten ones, you will get an “H2” buffer, weighing in at 4.6 ounces. If you think this will probably be too heavy for your carbine, you are right. Even though they can be used with carbine-length systems, most people choose to use them in AR pistols.

A buffer with all tungsten weights is, no surprises here, called an “H3” buffer, weighing in at 5.4 ounces. Where and why would you use this one? If you’re planning on shooting a larger caliber from your rifle, and there are a myriad of options available today, even the .458 SOCOM, you will need a heavier buffer to absorb the recoil from a more powerful round.

And the heavyweight title definitely goes to buffers designed to work in AR pistol platforms. The main reason being the difference in how the gun operates, a design called direct blowback, which puts significantly more pressure on the bolt carrier group causing it to slam harder into the buffer. The buffers usually weigh around 5 ounces, but there are heavier ones, like “HSS” which is 6.5 ounces and “XH”, at about 8.5 ounces.

AR-15 buffer length options

When Eugene Stoner designed the AR-15, the buffer he used was the rifle variant, 6 inches long. The original buffer tube it was housed in is significantly longer than the modern carbine version, at 9.625 inches versus 7.625 inches, because it was meant to be used within a fixed A2 buttstock. The longer buffer was deemed necessary in order to fill the extra space in the buffer tube. As most modern AR’s now use a collapsible or telescopic stock, a short carbine buffer, commonly 3-¼ inches long, is used in those tubes. Using a longer rifle buffer inside a carbine tube will potentially cause it to slam inside the tube, potentially damaging the weapon. The length of your buffer will depend on your choice of stock.

Best AR-15 buffers material options

By now we have established that a buffer is a simple hollow aluminum or stainless steel tube filled with weights, separated by rubber washers. The weights, as the main component of the buffer, are in control of how hard or soft the buffer system reacts with the bolt carrier group. Lighter buffers generally use weights made of steel or aluminum, and if you decide you want to increase its weight, it can be easily done by replacing one or more of the steel ones with weights made of tungsten, which are more dense and hence heavier. Or if you are somewhere outdoors and performing such a procedure isn’t easy, you can just buy heavier weights and carry them with you.

But buffers have also been improving constantly and there are buffers on the market now that use a simplified hydraulic system instead of weights. The added benefit of this type of buffer is the fact that it significantly dampens the recoil and stabilizes the rifle, so most competitive shooters will probably be interested in purchasing and using one.

Mil-spec vs. commercial buffer tubes

Again, let’s get back to Mr. Stoner and his original design. Back in those days, the material used to make buffer tubes was different than the one we use today. The process was also different, much costlier than today. A mil-spec buffer tube is usually made from 7075 T6 aluminum, the threads on the tube are rolled into metal, and its diameter is 1.146 inches. Something had to be done to lower the cost of the production, so manufacturers used a new method and improved materials. New commercial buffer tubes are extruded from 6061 T6 aluminum, with the threads now being cut into the metal, and the diameter of the tube has become 1.170 inches.

The main advantage commercial buffer tubes have over mil-spec ones is the lower cost of production, however, they are still not as widely available as the mil-spec ones. In both cases, the materials used are sturdy and rigid enough. No matter which one you choose, most stocks that go on them come in both variants. Due to differences in sizes, stocks for commercial buffer tubes can be mounted on mil-spec ones, but they will rattle a bit. As you would probably assume, mil-spec ones will be too small to be mounted on commercial buffer tubes.

How do you know when to replace your AR-15 buffer spring

All parts of an AR-15 have an expiration date, including recoil springs. Solid advice would be to change the recoil spring before you start experiencing issues with cycling or jamming. Considering that most springs are made of stainless steel and are fairly cheap, investing in a couple of spare ones is a good long term plan. There are several springs today made out of chrome silicone, a much more durable but equally elastic material, however, the price can be a bit higher than the stainless steel versions.

But the main question most people ask is how often should you change your buffer spring. There are people who like to use measurable data, like a number of rounds fired, whether it’s 2000 or 5000 rounds fired, or an interval of time, e.g. changing the old spring on a yearly basis. The easiest way to determine if the spring is in dire need of change is actually a numeric value, that is, the minimum and maximum length of the spring. A rifle spring should have a length anywhere between 11-¾ and 13-¾ inches, while carbine spring must be between 10-⅛ and 11-¼ inches. If it has deformed to any other length, the spring needs to be replaced.

How to test the proper function of your AR-15 buffer spring

As mentioned in the section above, make sure the spring is still the proper length. Now that you have all this information before you, it’s fairly easy to determine if your spring will properly function. With the right ar15 buffer weight, and the correct length of the recoil spring, your AR-15 should properly cycle no matter the quality of ammo you put through it.

How to install an AR-15 buffer

Installing a new buffer is an easy procedure, and it shouldn’t take more than ten minutes of your time, granted you do need a reasonably flat surface to do that and a new buffer and a spring.

The first thing that needs to be done is to separate the upper from the lower receiver, because the new buffer will be inserted into a buffer tube connected to the lower receiver. You will notice a small pin holding the old buffer in place, push the old buffer slightly inside the tube, and with one finger press down on that pin. While still holding the pin down, release the old buffer, and it should slide easily out because that small pin was all that was holding the buffer and the spring inside the tube.

Take your new buffer, with the steel end facing the bolt carrier group, and place it inside the spring. Should you choose to, you can also do some cleaning and lubing of the inside of the tube before you install it. Push the new buffer and the spring down into the tube, all the way down until it passes the holding pin, and as soon as the pin pops up, release the buffer and it will fall into place. Now, all you have to do is to reassemble the rifle and take it out for testing to see how it all works together.

So, What is The Best AR-15 Buffer?

I don’t have one clear winner but two of them. The Odin Works Adjustable Buffer and The Spikes Tactical AR-15/M-16 Carbine Recoil Buffers offer great value for the price, and you won’t make a mistake if you choose either one of them.

The Adjustable Buffer from Odin Works offers versatility in a small package, and a relatively affordable price while still maintaining the high standard of quality. The fact that you can use one buffer for several different AR versions, or can experiment with your gas system or ammo loads and make appropriate adjustments to your buffer weight, makes this device a great option.

Spikes Tactical Carbine Recoil buffer also scored high on my list, not just because of the unique use of tungsten powder instead of traditional weights, but also because the low price definitely doesn’t match up with the outstanding quality of the product. For those who want to reduce recoil, lower the spring noise and smooth out the action of their favorite AR carbine, I warm/y recommend going for this buffer.