O Ring Buffer Thread - P22 w/Pictures

[1917-1911M]

I whipped out a thread with pictures on installing an O ring on the guide rod to hopefully act as a buffer. Will it work? I have no idea but so far with hand cycling I can't feel or see any damage even after 100 hard cycles. Shooting is another story though.. I'll leave that for those of you who are interested. This solution is worth what you just paid for it BTW..... In the meantime I though some of you might need to know you can carry a quick attach, emergency hammer spring. It looks and works like this....and, yes it works.






Slide fully retracted, recoil spring muzzle cup pressed against the polymer slide stop. Note position of the front edge of the slide in relation to the polymer housing.



Picture showing the position of the front of the slide when the front of the grooves are pressed against the rear of the frame rails. At this point the slide will disengage from the rails and pop up due to pressure from the hammer. Comparing these two pictures shows just how little amount of wear to the polymer stop would be necessary to allow the slide to disengaged from the frame rails. I measure appx 1/16".



Here the recoil spring is installed with the guide rod. The stop is down and the recoil spring fully compressed. The slide will move no further rearward with the stock spring/guide rod installed. Note that the recoil spring fully compresses before the muzzle cup would hit the frame.



The picture above shows the maximum rearward movement of the slide with no recoil spring installed or guide

The idea of this thread is to visit an auto parts store and find an O ring with sufficient inner diameter to fit over the recoil spring but of sufficient diameter to mate against the face of the muzzle cup. An O ring buffer of a known size that anyone can install if they want to experiment. Off to the store to see what I can find. Back in a few. Yeah, I'm taking the gun.



The proper size seems to be a #83 rubber O ring at Lowes plumbing. 1/2" o.d. x 5/16" i.d. x 3/32" thick. There is also a similar sized #31 that shares the same inner dimension but is 1/8" thick. 9/16" o.d. x 5/16 i.d. x 1/8". Looks the same, just fatter around the middle. Probably work just as well, perhaps even better...I don't know. These were $2.45 with tax at Lowes for 10 of them. There is also no end to gromets, washers, fittings, etc. that also might work well. The grommets if cut in half looked like the inner portion would fit inside the muzzle cup leaving the rubber rim held in place on the muzzle cup. I'm saying rubber, I have no idea what these are made of. Danco, I didn't Google for the specs. You guys have to do something.



Here is one sitting on the muzzle cup rim.



Here is one with the recoil spring and guide rod through it. Hard to hold and photo too...especially with moly on the guide rod.



The next question to answer is will the O ring interfere with the breech face picking up the rear of a round. Above is a picture of the stock pistol with the slide fully retracted, slide stop up. Normal shooting position. Almost 1/4" behind the rim.



Above is the slide fully retracted with the O ring installed. Seems like there is still plenty of room. Only shooting will tell. I cycled the slide by hand 100 times and could not feel any problems or find where any bites were taken out of the O ring by the spring. Shooting might be a different story. Will this buffer the slide? Will the slide crack with the first shot? Will the O ring bind the slide on the guide rod somehow? How long will the O ring last? Beats me.....that should be enough to get some of you guys going who are interested in this. Me, I've never broken a slide. :bthumb: M1911

[PPQ]

M1911...didn't see that you were the OP on this at Rimfire Central...let us know how the test fire goes.

I just picked up my P22CA from "Gun Jail" today...bought it via PPT, a 2010 model with less than 150 rounds through it.

My daughter will be using this weekend for CCW qualifying!

[1917-1911M]

Fired fifty quick rounds with some old Federal bulk and 10 RGBs. Other than 6 dud Feds everything worked fine. Not much of a test but the pistol cycled fine, there were no marks on the O ring and the thing didn't blow up. Had one spent case stove pipe. Very rare on a 100% pistol.....slide bouncing back too quickly or dud ammo. Hard to tell in this short test but the pistol works and the ring showed no damage. Your turn. M1911

[gunbunny]

Great idea. I'll try to get a pack for this weekend and see how it goes.

[1917-1911M]

Has anyone added the O ring buffer? I'm not having any issues with the one I installed. Still don't know if it helps or not but it seems to have a bit softer recoil with RGBs which is mostly what I shoot now. Of course I've never broken a slide but am really wondering if other pistols function properly with the addition of an O ring buffer. M1911

[1917-1911M]

Here is an update on the O ring buffer 1,000 rounds later and a picture of the take down lever in the closed position. Both seem to be 100% still. Even a few Stingers fired in there. Something I rarely shoot.



No damage to the take down lever face.



The O ring has some moly and powder on it but no deterioration after a fair amount of shooting. The only thing I noticed is that the O ring doesn't let the slide move as far rearward which is probably a good thing for most folks since only about 1/8" of rail/slide groove is engaged at that point which the hammer is still lifting the slide 100%. Not much wearing surface. The O ring probably adds about 1/8" more metal to metal contact. The only issue would be if you have modded your breech block like I did and cut it close with regard to how much material you left on the bottom of the breech to cock the hammer......the ring might not allow the slide to move back far enough. This would not be an issue at all with a stock pistol nor one where sufficient block material was left. Still don't know if the O ring helps anything or not. Probably does, it is rubber so it has to soften the impact a bit. M1911

Oh yeah, I Phone photos so they aren't too good.

[roadkill45]

i'm dumb...so the o ring is keeping the RSA on the rod and the rod still goes out the front upon recoil? looks good to me....what size o ring....the size that fits!!

[1917-1911M]

Originally Posted by roadkill45

i'm dumb...so the o ring is keeping the RSA on the rod and the rod still goes out the front upon recoil? looks good to me....what size o ring....the size that fits!!

Go back to post #1 of this thread and click on the link......it's all in there. M1911

[roadkill45]

gonna put the o rings in tonite, found at Lowe's .52 for 4 of them. good work 1917!!

[1917-1911M]

It was brought to my attention by a P22 owner in Slovakia that two O rings will keep the slide stop arm from being able to engage the slide. M1911