450Bushmaster.net

Look around the web wherever you choose and you'll find the number one reducer in perceived recoil is not a gadget. Its more weight. I put weight in my A1 ad A2 stocks to balance the rifle right at the chamber. You can take the weight further, as in an active (moving) weight system and though it doesn't reduce the recoil energy content, it does lengthen its delivery out in time. That stretched impulse reduces the perceived recoil as its not so sharp. Though they help with muzzle climb, the impact of a muzzle brake is more appreciable with smaller bullet, large charge weight, bottleneck calibers such as the 7mm and 300 Win Mags. At least that's been my experience. I realize that retractable stocks ala M4 Carbines are more popular lately but they don;t leave many places to increase the weight and balance the rifle further rearward towards the chamber. Longer barrels move the muzzle blast further away from the shooter and encourage all the powder being burned before the bore seal is broke. While that reduces the recoil, it adds nose heaviness to the setup, necessitating offsetting weight in the stock to keep the balance more centralized. Just to clarify, I don't mean for the buffer to be misidentified as a recoil reducing active (moving) weight. I'm talking about spring weight inserts for more conventional A1/A2 stocks.

Hoot

I bought a 16" APF mid gas 450 BM complete upper last month. I e-mailed APF told them I had a 6 position stock and asked about buffer and spring, they said my standard 3oz buffer and spring would work. It does, so I have not tried a heavier buffer.

i ran a standard 3oz buffer and carbine spring in my 6 position stocked lower for a while when i first got my 450, but it was a little hard on the brass - nicks and stuff on the case rim, etc, from the lock time being a little off.

added hoots CCWS to the system and fixed that issue right smart quick.

went to a h2 buffer recently and things are still very smooth and i'm essentially running the equivalent of roughly an 8-8.5oz buffer on a standard carbine spring in a 6 position stock.





however a 16" barrel isnt probably quite as overgassed as the 20" barrels are due to the dwell time difference from the port. and while im comfortable that a 3oz buffer will run having done it, it doesnt mean it runs as efficiently as possible.


most, or at least many, ar uppers these days are intentionally over gassed to provide reliable operation on as wide a variety of lower configurations as possible. They dont know if you're putting it on a lower configured around a 6 position buffer extension with a 3oz buffer, or on an A1/A2 fixed stock with a 5.2oz buffer. or even lower with an XH 6-8oz buffer in it. they just want to ensure that it works for as many customers as possible right out of the box. bearing that in mind you can understand how the lighter weight configuration could very easily be ejecting a few milliseconds earlier than ideal and being rougher on your brass than necessary while still being very very functional.

and since reloaders are relatively speaking still a very small segment of the shooting public, thats really not an issue in the design consinderation since they dont care what happens to their brass once its empty. as long as it cycles reliably, and goes bang every time you pull the trigger, life is good for most folks - including those in the QC department.



just some food for thought when it comes to reciprocating mass manipulation on ar's for efficiency.

Plant_one,
Was yours carbine or midlength gas? I reload so what I am looking for is reduced perceived recoil...push instead of a rap.....I have a 3.0 oz to try and tungsten powder to add weight if need be

Gutpile wrote:Plant_one,
Was yours carbine or midlength gas? I reload so what I am looking for is reduced perceived recoil...push instead of a rap.....I have a 3.0 oz to try and tungsten powder to add weight if need be

all the bushmaster uppers, both 16 and 20" are carbine gas.


you can get tungston replacement weights from amazon for $24 http://a.co/0d73LGX

its super easy to swap them out if you want to play around and mod your current buffer


carbine buffer (3oz) = 3 steel weights
H1 buffer = 1 tungston + 2 steel
H2 buffer = 2 tungston + 1 steel
H3 buffer = 3 tungston

I'm gonna replace my carbine weight buffer and spring with a H2 Armaspec buffer set up. I have a mid gas 16" barrel.

Plant one....May want to check...tromix and gryphon make MID LENGTH barrels 16 and 18

Gutpile wrote:Plant one....May want to check...tromix and gryphon make MID LENGTH barrels 16 and 18

think he was referring to the factory uppers are both carbine length

Al in Mi wrote:

Gutpile wrote:Plant one....May want to check...tromix and gryphon make MID LENGTH barrels 16 and 18

think he was referring to the factory uppers are both carbine length

thats correct. i was refering to bushmaster branded product. good to point out though, i should have been more clear. this is the hard part about a company putting its name on a caliber :/

mid-length gas Gryphon 16 inch barrel With CTR and a limbsaver pad with factory brake and 3oz carbine buffer and standard spring the recoil is a gentle push with near zero muzzle climb that is with hornady factory ammo