Vorpalis

Jesse and Nick, you guys nailed it - thank you for replying! In case anyone else has the same question I did, stumbles across this thread and would like nitty-gritty details, there's a thread on m4carbine dot net where a guy from Vltor who goes by Phreakish lays it out (I'm apparently so new I can't post URLs yet, but if you go to m4carbine dot net and search for "M16A5 Stock by Vltor" you should find it). The gist of it is that the A5's magic has nothing to do with the distance the buffer travels (in fact it's pretty much identical to a carbine buffer's travel) and only a little to do with the heavy weight of the buffer; the big deal is the characteristics of a longer spring with more coils and under a specific amount of pre-compression. The relevant part of the thread goes on for several pages and they're worth reading if you're curious. As a life-long nerd, especially about physics and mechanics, it was humbling to learn something new about such a simple device as a spring.

Thanks for the reply, Jesse. Those videos from Vuurwapen you linked to are actually what made me ask my question. The "Initial Impressions" video shows decreasing bolt bounce with increasingly heavy buffers, and the last carbine buffer he shows, weighing 4.7 oz., caused almost no bolt bounce. The standard A5 buffer he shows weighs 5.3 oz. and causes no bolt bounce. So, if a 4.7 oz. carbine buffer causes almost no bounce, and a 5.3 oz. A5 buffer causes no bolt bounce, wouldn't a 5.3 oz. carbine buffer also cause no bounce? I just don't see a difference, especially given that the A5's increased buffer length negates the longer RE, but wondered if I was missing something. Anyway, thanks for the response!

Does anyone have experience with both the Vltor A5 and standard carbine buffer/spring/receiver extension? The differences made sense until I realized that the A5 buffer is longer than a carbine buffer, and this seems to negate the additional travel of the A5's longer receiver extension. So, what does an A5 setup offer over a 5.3 oz. buffer in a carbine setup?