Dawson Aluminum Shock Buffs

[GBertolet]

Has anyone on this forum tried these? The claim is that they act like a dead blow hammer, deadening the rebound of the slide. I was wondering how long they hold up, and are there any unintended pitfalls of aluminum over the polymer. I have been using the regular shockbuffs for years with good results, and recently learned of these being available. Does anyone have any experiences to share?

[bountyhunter]

No, I also use the polymer. I believe the polys would do a much better job of cushioning than aluminum, but aluminum would last longer.

[Forgetful]

I've started using one recently, my intended use is to take the battering instead of the frame. I don't know if really makes any shooting difference. I'm paranoid to use the polymer ones.

Edited August 3, 2013 by Forgetful

[ivan]

I tried them until the shards of aluminum gummed things up. Cleaning the gun more often would obviously be a step in the right direction to deal with that, but regardless, I no longer use them.

-ivan-

[jrbet83]

I tried them until the shards of aluminum gummed things up. Cleaning the gun more often would obviously be a step in the right direction to deal with that, but regardless, I no longer use them.

-ivan-

You must run a very light spring or heavy slide, buecause your the first I've heard complain of that. Consider this, how much abuse is your frame now taking, if your slide was hitting so hard to tear a solid piece of aluminum into shards. Cleaning the gun a few extra try's will seem silly when you find your first crack.

For the op, I have over 10k through one with no issues. It's just to save the slide and frame. It will feel the as shooting the gun with no buff at all, where the soft ones tend to feel smushy under recoil.

Edited August 4, 2013 by jrbet83

[wes777]

I started using them recently. At first, I was using them in an open gun to stack buffs without shredding the plastic ones. One day I decided to try shooting my 9 major ammo in my 9 Single stack minor gun. Lots of battering, so I threw in the aluminum buff. Beat the snot out of that thing. Now I am running them in every Major gun. its easy to see why guns get loose so fast, Major PF really beats up the gun.

[424D57]

My used 6" .40 had a polymer buffer in it; felt a bit squishy so I tried switching to the aluminum. Not convinced its required but around 6k rounds later the buff just has a little indentation and the gun shoots fine so I've left it in.

-424D57

[wgj3]

If your gun will run with it, the aluminum buffer over a polymer one concept has been great for me.