Buff And Guide Rod

[Flyin40]

How should the buff mate to the guide rod?? Should the buff match the bottom of the guide exactly. I'm talking about the curve and edges that rest on the barrel. I tried some Wilson buffs and they are quite abit larger than the guide rod end.

Pics would be great.

Thks

Flyin40

[Jasonub]

try it. i dont think it will jam been doing it for 17000 rounds on my sv. but if it does then trim it as big as the head of the guide rod. same shape by using a dremel or knife

[.40AET]

CP Recoil Buffers

After lots of positive input from the forum, I tried the CP buffs. They fit the guide rod head a little better than the Wilson's. Less trimming is good.

[cking]

I like cp buffers, one thing I've noticed lately with ISMI springs is spring bind. Put your buffer in with no spring, mark slide and frame with pencil with slide all the way back. Next put spring and see if still comes as far back.

[J.L. Hardy]

Cking, when you put a buffer in it absolutely will not come back as far as without one. This will be by the thickness of the buffer. buffers do not cause spring bind. the spring being too long to colapse inside the spring plug is what causes bind. to check for spring bind put the spring on the guide rod then put the spring plug on the spring and colapse it down just as if the slide was in recoil. the spring plug should come against the head of the guide rod or shock buff. if it does then there is no spring bind. if it doesn't then trim a half coil off until it does. I have made a tool to make this easier. i take an old bushing wrench and drill a half inch hole in the middle and fit this over the spring plug. then i colapse the spring sort of like pushing the plunger on a syringe. If you are using a bushing type barrel with a short spring plug then you must perform this test with the barrel and bushing in the slide. you simply assemble the top end as though it was on the gun and use your thumb to push the guide rod up as in recoil and see if the head or shock buff goes all the way against the spring tunnel on the slide. if it does, no spring bind. if it doesn't then trim the spring as above until it does. good shooting, J.L. Hardy

[.40AET]

Thanks JL, that's a simple, easy test. Much better than how I've been testing.

[Jasonub]

i now use brazos custom buffs. looks like it will last 1000 rounds like my old red heitt. put in 300 and so far so good

[cking]

JL never said it would come as far back with buffer as without.

The pencil mark is just marking a reference point of how far it should come back.

So that with the spring in you have easy to see reference point if is coming back all the way or binding on the spring.

I didn't say buffers cause spring bind.

Usually when people are putting in buffers they put in new springs also. I recently switch from Wolf to ISMI. Turns out their compressed length was longer than the wolf. Also happens if you change plugs you can change the spring channel length.

It is hard to see if your slide is impacting the buff or recoil plug head. That's why the pencil mark without the spring in.

I copied this right off the label in ISMI package. Its simple it works.

If you gun uses the old flange style reverse plug, make sure it is in when you mark the reference point with the pencil.

I don't know I re read my post it seems clear to me?

[J.L. Hardy]

CKING, reread your post and your are right you did say put in the buffer and mark. which would give you the answer you would be looking for as well as my method. Good shooting, J.L. Hardy

[tfs]

Just trim the buff to fit as close as the guide rod's shape. Also, Wilson's recoil springs are a little shorter than Wolff recoil springs (in my experience). The shorter recoil spring was probably purposely made to accomodate the recoil buffers. If you have a Wolff recoil spring (which is a longer spring than Wilson's), try checking how the gun cycles. What I experienced on Wolff springs with buffers installed is that the slide stop sometimes can't capture the slide which is not a big deal unless you use the gun for defense.

My gunsmith in the Philippines doesn't allow us to use buffers on carry guns. Carry guns are "carried a lot and shot little," so recoil buffers have little or no significance in these guns.

[Flyin40]

I tried both ways, not trimming buff and trimming buff, no malfunctions either way for 300 rounds. I'll just use the trimmed one.

Flyin40

[CenTX]

The EGW buffs fit well without trimming, IMHO.

Also remember to check for coil bind, some springs are longer than others when compressed. You can have coil bind even without a buff.