What exactly is an accuwedge for and why would I want one? Somebody at work today asked me this very question and I didn’t know what to tell him. Thoughts?
An Accuwedge is a piece of plastic that fits inside your lower receiver behind the rear takedown pin. The intended purpose is to reduce slop between the upper and lower receivers when the weapon is assembled.
They are controversial, since receiver fit is not considered to affect accuracy.
I might submit that for a wikipedia entry. 
What is an accuwedge for?
Increasing the chance that your weapon will fail.
How so?
They are made of a fairly soft material so they can compress. It is possible (rare but not unheard of) for them to come apart and get wedged in the actual workings of the weapon.
Perhaps.
Lighting strikes happen too. Apply common sense and there is nothing to fear. Routine visual inspection when pulling PM.
And if the piece isn’t sloppy loose, there isn’t really a need for one anyway.
I bought one for the heck of it once, I had it in the gun for a year, shot all the time back then. But does it do anything for accuracy???Probably not. I could hit the 300m pop-up with my open sighted colt M16-A2 at least half of the time when I was in the Army. I must admit that I bought the accu-wedge for my first “civilian” AR. I don’t think I would have needed or even bothered with such a thing when I was in Iraq. It does make a “loose” gun feel “solid” but I’ve owned a couple other AR’s since my first one and found no reason to add one. They’re like 4 buks or something like that, if you don’t like or need it, just throw it away.
i’ve actually seen a bunch of examples of accuwedges un-wedging and getting caught up in the FCG, and then everywhere else. there’s been a number of posts here, in fact.
they’re a problem, not a solution. doesn’t “fix” anything, and can hang you up at the worst moment.
One also caused one of my rifles not to cycle properly. That was the first and last accu-wedge I ever bought, years ago.
OCD Treatment.
This is the only type of Accuwedge anyone should ever buy.
Saw one of those break once and render a rifle ooc too. The owner almost cried. Guess it was a bit more than $4.
If mine broke, you could leave “almost” out of that statement.
Separating a fool and his money…
Ok, I get the point; steer clear of them.
The reason why I was asked in the first place was that a customer was worried because his upper and lower did not fit together perfectly, meaning that you could see daylight through the gap between them, but that’s all I know about his situation. He just wanted to know if an accuwedge would solve the problem.
An Accuwedge is used to give nerds more accurate wedgies.
you can see daylight through basically every upper and lower on earth… even my MUR/aeroprecision, which is as perfect (not tight, just perfect) and snug a fit as i’ve ever seen in my life, would show daylight if i held it just right.
tell him with confidence: it’s a non-issue
I’m sorry but I’ve never seen a single issue with one. Even Colt used to send them in some of their rifles and it’s still a Colt stocked part. Does anyone have a pic of how it might have went south? I mean it’s locked in by the pin and then the lug sits on top of it, how could it cause problems?
If you let one get old and fall apart, that’s a maintinence issue I would think. I also don’t think there’s a need for one to begin with other than to eliminate slop if that bothers you. I’ve never even seen one look like it could come apart. I would just like to see some proof rather than hear all these stories on the net.