I’m WAY behind on my reviews. So, I apologize for writing a bunch of them back to back the way I’m going to. I just want to ensure that I meet all my obligations prior to my upcoming Afghanistan deployment. But, the good news is that you’re about to learn about a bunch of great products I had the privilege to test and review. While I was provided with these products for review, I was NOT provided any incentives, payment, or other offers to write positive reviews. For the most part, I won’t write a bad review publicly. I’ll send the product back with a negative write-up and hope they fix whatever I think was wrong with it. I only write reviews on products I think are uber-cool and usable.

The first of these products is a new AR-15 Rate and Recoil Reducing Buffer from MGI-Military. I used my DPMS Panther AP4 Carbine AR-15 for this test.

As I’ve said before, I’m not a spec nerd. I write my reviews for the “everyperson” that will use them. If you’re one of those gun buffs that needs to every spec about a product, there are plenty of ways to find that information. So, I’m not going to tell you that my “11 1/2 inch barreled carbine was initially firing about 1016 rounds per minute (rpm). After installing the MGI Buffer, the rate of fire dropped 271 rpm to a rate of 745 rpm.”

Installation was easy for the most part, except for the little “D” shaped ring that is placed over the extractor spring of the bolt assembly. Supposedly, the D-ring eliminates extraction issues and can increase extractor spring force by four-times. While getting it on was easy peasy, getting the extractor back on the bolt assembly required additional tools. I had to use pliers to push onto the bold assembly far enough to get the extractor pin all the way through. By the time I finally had it on, I actually got a little worried if it would extract expended rounds from the chamber. My fingers hurt. And I’m not looking forward to having to put it back on after cleaning.

But, that was the hardest part. Replacing the buffer requires no additional modifications to the firearm. The rest of the installation took all of 2 minutes to complete.

What I will tell you is that I noticed an IMMEDIATE difference in recoil once I installed the MGI buffer. I almost felt as if I was shooting a .22 variant AR instead of a 5.56mm widowmaker of a rifle. The MGI patented buffer is a self-adjusting, completely mechanical buffer with fewer parts to fail and none of the leakage associated with the common hydraulic or pneumatic buffers currently used. With no springs in the MGI buffer system to interfere with feed reliability, more rounds successfully hit the target with greater control and accuracy. While I don’t have a comparative video, you can see from this video that muzzle climb is drastically retarded with the MGI buffer installed.

I know it’s a little difficult to see with the camera angle, but pay close attention to the muzzle and the background. You’ll see that with the MGI buffer the front of the rifle barely moves. The bullet transition is smooth and my worries about rounds not being ejected were allayed. The rounds were dead on with the rate reduction as well. Not having to find a whole new site picture after every round gets more of them on target.

The MGI Rate and Recoil Reducing Buffer is available at www.mgi-military.com for $165.00(MSRP). For full-length stocks, MGI offers the Rate Reducing Buffer Rifle Stock adaptor for only $19.95 and for .308 rifles (AR-10) the Buffer Adaptor is available for just $19.95.