Today watching the video to assist me with the installation of a Jumbo Head Safety on my 870. I looked at some of the other video’s by Wilson’s Combat and came across a Shok-Buff video
Edit: just did a google and located: The Shok-Buff prevents the slide from battering the frame during recoil by sandwiching a 1/10" thick poly fiber buffer between the slide and frame contact areas. Provides the optimum balance between shock absorption and longevity. Easily replaceable after absorbing up to 1,000 rounds of repeated firings, the Shok-Buff slides over the recoil spring guide between the guide and spring.
Let me change my question: is it really needed? Changing every 1K rounds seems sort of wasted.
I bought a Wilson 1911 in 2002. It came with a shock buffer installed in the gun.
It made the felt recoil a tad bit less, just a tad. The thing was starting to get pretty ate up after about 350-400 rounds or so though. I took it out and have never replaced it.
I do replace my recoil springs every 3k rounds though.
If you really want to get into tuning your gun to your loads for competition you can play around with shock buffs and spring weights.
The Wilson ones are junk. They tear up in ~500 rounds.
CP buffs are better for a synthetic buff
Aluminum buffs are really where its at. The alluminum acts like a dead blow hammer and doesnt wear out. They can be hard to get the gun to run with though, so you may need to take them down and tune it in.
The bigger issue with shock buffs is that they take that 1/10 out of the slide travel. That can cause reliability issues and can make it more difficult to work the slide to lock back or drop it without the slide lock.
Also the sythetic ones, while taking the shock out of some of the recoil they do bounce the slide back faster.
Id think about what the guns for and what the pros/cons of the buffs are before using them, and if you decide to try them out just try them out on the range and take them back out if you carry the gun until you decide what your doing and wehter or not you can get them to run how you want in your gun.
I know Wilsons come with them (I shoot a Wilson), and I ran them for a long time without issue (CP’s) but I got sick of replacing them, thought about the other factors and pices of torn up plastic inside my action and I dont run them anymore.
I agree. Unless it’s a range toy or a gamer, ditch the buffs. Perceived recoil difference is neglegible, their meantime-to-failure is unpredictable, and an all steel 1911 sould outlast your son’s lifetime, without a buff messing with the slide travel and reliability.
They add one more thing that could go wrong in your duty/defense gun.
Shock-buffs of any kind are useless and cause more problems rather than add benefits. They can be useful for a comp/game gun when tuned to a specific load but offer nothing for a social gun.
I’ve used shok-buffs on two 1911 in 30 + years of 1911. Wilson’s and MEU (SOC) 1911’s. I don’t know if current MEU (SOC) 1911’s use them but the early models were real parts guns with some really old slides and receivers so I guess they figured every bit helps to keep the things from falling apart. I don’t see the need for them with current metallurgy and if anything view them as a liability.
A few years ago I read that the military was getting about 500,000 rounds out of 1940s vintage frames and about 50,000 to 100,000 rounds out of the original military issue slides before retiring them in their special ops 1911s. What could a “buffer” do to improve on this???
I also read that Bill Wilson referred to his buffers as his “cash cow”