I have not done any 3 gun as of get but I am really interested in it.
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Would I see any benefit going from a h buffer to a h1 or h2 in a 16" carbine?
H= H1, your options are H, H2, and H3 just to clarify.
It depends on the upper, not all gas ports are drilled the same size (depending on manufacturer). The H is a good starting point.
There are a lot of brand lovers on this site, I’d suggest you put hands on before buying anything, especially if you have any intention to take this into harms way. Read thru the posts on this site and check others as well. There is a wealth of information on the AR and all the products availiable for it.
Putting hands on something is different from breaking it down. SO, in such case I recommend he reads everything on this site, then breaks the gun down he’s holding or looking at. Anyone can hold a gun, but very few can pull the bolt out, see just what’s wrong with it, or fine with it, look over other parts on the gun etc and then come to a conclusion.
Also checking with other sites? What barfcom or the uninformed road? I’m yet to come across another site with as much (AND ACCURATE) information as this one.
Remember, out of “all available products” for the ar-15, probably 5% are worth a damn. This forum isn’t about “brand whoring”, it’s about brands that have proven themselves to actually be worthwhile for the serious/defensive shooter (or even military/competition shooters). I had a bad insight on the sight about “brand bias” here, until I actually started really digging into things, and now, everything posted on here, especially by mods, vendors/mfg’s, or regular members seems to make more sense than ever.
Btw, not to push others away from other sites, but man, name a site as good or accurate as this one, and you get a golden cookie. I have other sites I like for the specific caliber of guns I like, IE 5.7, 9mm etc, but any other AR sites are pretty much jokes. Other forums which cover all like THR are jokes as well, with a bunch of old, grumpy, obsolete, post war veterans from the 60’s to the 90’s who really don’t know squat about the AR other than their gun “owned x amount of soldiers back in ‘nam’ or ‘desert storm’”
Just like there are those who refuse to believe that some companies actually produce substandard AR’s and gear.
For those who shoot 50 rounds a month into the dirt, no problem. For those who take their weapons seriously, it’s a problem.
I am building my weapon so it is the parts I am selecting. I know military grade weapons and that knowledge I am trying to take over into my civilian weapons. I appreciate all the help you guys have supplied and yet to have found real fault with the spikes lower nor the enhanced lpk. I have decided to go with a single stage for now and if I feel I need it later upgrade to a 2 stage. I know the KAC rail system quite well, but have yet to try out the dd or the Mi I am looking at. Not a lot of places around Fort Hood that I know of to get my hands on them. LaRue is about an hour from here so I might be able to get down there and check out their products. I am not that familiar with the area and if anyone else lives around here and could give me advice on where to look and shoot I would appreciate it.
The problem is this, and I see this a LOT…
For guys whose only experience is with issued guns, all they know are issued guns. If you didn’t read it on the internet, would you know what the barrel steel was on your issued gun? Bolt steel? bolt and barrel testing method? There are a whole host of other points as well. And if you did, you are the exception BY FAR not the rule. This goes for mil, LE, whatever. The vast majority of guys who are issued guns for work know only that gun, and know relatively little about that gun, and in general it does not take much to be seen as an SME in those circles. They may know how to use it and be very proficient in it’s use, but there’s generally very little reason for them to know and understand the minutiae, but the minutiae is what often matters on commercial guns because that is where the lesser companies cut their corners.
You mentioned getting down to Larue, and I would strongly suggest that. You might just get to bypass all of this and get yourself one of their complete guns! 
I agree with you and I have read quite a bit before I have posted. I have done a lot of research in the past when I was purchasing my RRA and was active on several forums. Since that time the civilian companies have multiplied like bunnies and that is why I posted asking questions. I don’t want to buy a complete gun. I want to move on from shooter to builder and gunsmith. I feel this is a good step in the direction. There is a vast amount of knowledge out there. Issue I am finding is there is so much conflicting information on parts and it is hard to weed through the fanboys and haters to the true knowledgeable un-biased gunsmiths or experts. You get some saying most forged lowers are the same and come from a few mfg and others say pay the extra 200 on a lower because of a name. I am getting to the point where I buy something I feel is going to be good and put it through the tests. Action parts I do a lot of research on as with uppers. I am going BCM because the specs, and the praise I hear. Mil spec is not the end all but it is a start. The contract goes to the lowest bidder that can maintain the specs. Is that a bad thing? On some things yes, but it is still a standard to start with. I will be using usgi standard ammo for the most part but will dabble with match grade ammo and that is why I will only settle for mil spec or better. I listen to the masses and decide what to use with my judgment and experience. We all make mistakes and learn. I feel that makes us better, but if we listen to the true knowledgeable, then the mistakes are smaller and less dangerous.
I agree with you re: fanboy/hater, but you can use that to your advantage.
First you need to understand where it matters to spend money (barrels) and where it typically doesn’t (lowers). Then you need to understand the limits of where spending money actually means “better” (“milspec” bolt) vs. a waste of money (whale jizz coatings on bolts).
Then you can use the fanboy/hater thing to your advantage. How many “haters” do you see of BCM, DD, Colt, or Noveske? Once you weed out the “you’re only paying for a name” morons. There’s a reason for that, and it’s not just because their “fanboys” are more rabid. The loudest fanboys tend to be of the most sub-standard products because they can’t separate their ego from their purchase and they NEED to shriek loudest to drown out reality. Cognitive dissonance.
DD, Noveske, BCM, and Colt can afford to largely sit back and let their products do the talking. Those companies that do not meet those standards have to make it up somewhere, and marketing is typically where.
The sad thing about “milspec” is exactly what you said, it’s the minimum standard. What is truly pathetic is how many companies can’t even meet the minimum standard and prefer to mislead, and even outright lie to, their customers and potential customers to cover up that fact.
Something to keep in mind re: any specification is that it’s going to include:
material
assembly
dimensions
testing
what most companies mean when they say “we’re milspec” is dimensions only, and even that is a lie because they’ll us a 1.17" OD receiver extension instead of a 1.14".
I prefer not to use the term “milspec” at all because companies like these have made it meaningless.
The good news is that even the crappiest ARs tend to have a relatively low failure rate, and outside of the few people that are putting thousands of rounds a year on their guns not many will see an actual failure. I see people say things all the time like “I don’t see many xyz brand guns fail” but what they miss is that virtually none of the owners of xyz brand are getting out there and shooting the damn things.
You are looking wayyyy to deep into my post. When the op said he was looking at a Spikes lower, by the end of the page he was being advised against it, not for poor quality…but for industry support reasons? When he said he was considering “getting another contract” I take that as armed escort/security in the mid-east, as that area has a large need for that type of individual. That was also my rational for touching rather than reading about it. I said nothing about any certain brand, but you took it as that. My point was not to discount any brand without holding, shooting etc. that item before disreguarding. As for other sites, Arfcom, THR…no. Try ACTS, IDPA and the many availiable 3-gun sites. As these are driven for “combat shooting”, and the OP said he was rusty, those would be a good place to start. Most advanced combat and shooting tecniques come from competition Therefore training there, or reading into the equipment that functions well in that environment, would be another good place for information.
Wait, so now this is about spikes lower? It was me, who in a nice way asked him why he chose spikes. I wasn’t putting his decision down, I was just curious to why he did such.
Now, on your comment, that is what the replies have kind of been about. We are replying to you, with your comment…
“There are a lot of brand lovers on this site, I’d suggest you put hands on before buying anything, especially if you have any intention to take this into harms way. Read thru the posts on this site and check others as well. There is a wealth of information on the AR and all the products availiable for it.”
in the end. It’s nothing about the OP. Sure it’s a bit off topic from the OP of the thread, but it’s replying to basically what you were trying to convince him to believe. IMO the replies in the last page for the most part have just been backing up the forum, and people on it. “Brand lovers” IMO is another way to say “fanboy” imo.