A braided AR recoil spring based on a “Machine Gun” spring? Is it quieter? Better? Real innovation? Marketing nonsense? Let’s do some testing!
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I’ve had a few people ask me to test the Geissele Super 42 spring. The H1 spring kit shown costs $72 on the Geissele site.
People who bought these spring/buffer combos seem to like them (one person said they bought 3). What’s the big appeal, other than the brand name?
[TL;DR: Click here to skip to the conclusion if you don’t have time to read all the details of the testing.]
“Advertising is the art of making whole lies out of half truths.”
– Edgar A. Shoaff
First, let’s take a look at the “Super 42 Braided Wire Buffer Spring and Buffer Combo, H1” product page and see what kinds of marketing claims they’re making.
Creative marketing aside (mentioning machine guns was a nice touch…), what we have here is a simple, 3-strand, carbine recoil spring and custom H1 buffer. The primary claims/characteristics we should be interested in are:
“…has a 15% stronger average return force than the standard buffer spring.”
[Q: Is this even necessary?]
“…removes the annoying spring reverberations (twang) heard and felt by the shooter through the buttstock.”
[Q: Does it? How much?]
“…decreases the chance of spring failure…“; “…decreased tendency to lose length and force…”
[Q: Do normal recoil springs even have real durability problems?]
“…the spring will not fit over a standard buffer. If installed with a standard buffer damage to the rifle or receiver extension will occur.”
[It forces you to use Geissele’s proprietary buffers.]
I purchased one from a retail vendor to do some testing.
Buffer specs/details:
Length: 3.427″ (same as normal buffer)
Body diameter: 0.687″ (same as normal buffer)
“Collar” diameter: 0.762″ (normal buffer = 0.781″)
H1 weight: 3.78oz.
Based on this data, it appears the buffers are proprietary because the “collar” under the head is about 0.02″ smaller in diameter to accomodate the very thick braided wire. Pushing the end loop of the spring over the wider collar of a different buffer could cause the thick braided wire to bind inside the tube.
The proprietary buffers don’t appear to be sold separately, so I guess you have to buy another spring/buffer combo for $72 – $106 if the one you got doesn’t work out, or buy the weights ($20 each from Geissele), disassemble the buffer, and adjust the weight yourself. The buffers only come in the H1, H2, and H3 variety, which are generally considered too light for modern 9mm blowback bolts.
The narrow inner diameter of the spring also means that it will not fit well around most Kynshot hydraulic buffers and some thicker buffers.
Spring specs/details:
Weight: 1.64oz.
Length uncompressed: 11.125″
Active coils: 23.5
Outer diameter: 0.910″
Combined wire strands measured diameter: 0.105″
Inner diameter (calculated): 0.700″
Testing spring strength:
I tested the strength of this spring with my spring testing rig.
A normal mil-spec carbine spring is supposed to be about 11-13 lbs. at bolt fully rearward position and around 6lbs. at bolt closed position. I’m not sure how Geissele defines “return force”, but let’s assume it’s the force the spring applies at the fully bolt rearward compressed state (compressed to 3″).
Super 42 results: (all measurments rounded to the nearest 0.5 lbs.)
Spring force at bolt fully rearward compression (“return force”): 15 lbs.
Spring force at bolt closed position: 7.5 lbs.
This makes the bolt “return force” at bolt-fully-rear position about 25% greater than a standard 12 lb. carbine spring.
Compared to other springs I have measured, this spring seems to sit right between the Sprinco Blue (14.5/7.0) and Sprinco Red (15 lbs./8.5 lbs.). The Sprinco springs cost about $20 retail each.
However, the important question to ask here is “why?”. If a standard spring does not have problems stripping cartridges from a full mag and locking the bolt in battery, a stronger spring is just superfluous and may cause malfunctions.
They claim that “This will assist in stripping rounds out of the magazine when operating with a dirty weapon or when using steel-case ammo.” When I researched problems with steel cased ammo, the problem I found people frequently discussed online was short-stroking, not feeding.
If it was beneficial to have an additional 15% return force for the AR to operate under adverse (dirty) conditions, I’d expect the milspec baseline would have been made 15% stronger than it is. Of course, then some company would make a spring 15% strong than THAT, and claim it was beneficial…
Testing noise dampening:
To test this, we can do the bolt-slam test. We install the spring (and their proprietary buffer), insert a mag with dummy rounds, lock the bolt back, put our cheek against the bare buffer tube, release the bolt (while wearing earplugs), and listen for the “sproinggggg” resonance through our cheekbone.
I compared it to a standard stainless steel carbine spring, a Sprinco Red, and the Wilson Combat carbine flatwire.
Is it quieter than a normal spring? Absolutely. In fact it’s slightly quieter than a flatwire spring, which is known to be one of the quietest options out there. There was practically no spring noise at all from the Super 42, while there was just a slight ring from the flatwire. The standard carbine spring had the typical “sproingggg” resonance, and the Sprinco Red had less than the standard, but more than the flatwire.
I believe this “silence” is the most appealing aspect of this spring to most users. The same goes for XP/.308 springs and flatwire springs. You will usually hear them say it’s “smoother” or give some other vague description because the effect of spring resonance is more subconscious than anything. They don’t actively recognize the resonance because they’re focused on what’s happening down range. They just notice it “feels” weird/annoying when shooting. It’s a background annoyance, and the overall shooting experience is much more pleasant when the resonance is missing.
Testing durability:
The claims of extra durability are essentially untestable without a big budget. I would need to build an expensive custom testing rig that could consistently compress/release both normal and Super 42 springs to failure, multiple times. Most “experts” state that braided/twisted wire springs do have a longer service life than comparable round wire springs. Those same experts say that flat wire springs also have a longer service life than comparable round wire springs, so there is that.
But do we even need this extra durability in a civilian AR, or even a military AR? The US Military doesn’t seem to think so. They use round wire recoil springs in their M4’s. If I were a marketing agent trying to sell round wire springs, I might even say that standard round wire recoil springs are “combat proven in M4 machine guns.”
I can’t remember hearing of a single instance where a regular AR recoil spring in civilian hands wore out to the point where the gun failed to operate. I’m sure it’s happened, but how often? If one did, they’re only about $4 to replace. From a cost/benefit perspective, you could replace a regular carbine spring about 18 times for the cost of one Super 42.
Conclusions:
Strength: The Super 42 is stronger than milspec, but so is a $20 XP spring. Regardless, this extra strength appears to be solving a non-existent problem. The standard 11-13lb. carbine spring has proven itself after decades of military use in a huge variety of environments, without the need for any extra strength.
Durability: According to the “experts”, twisted wire springs are more durable than a regular round wire spring, but so are other less expensive spring designs. Is that extra durability even really necessary, especially in civilian use? Not as far as I can tell. Again, this appears to be solving a non-existent problem.
Noise: The Super 42 practically eliminates spring resonance. I believe this is the primary characteristic that makes people think this spring is an improvement over a standard spring after they try it. However, there are other springs that also dampen spring resonance very effectively, but at a fraction of the cost, and don’t require proprietary buffers.
Creative Marketing: Is it cool-looking, and gear junkies can brag to their buddies at the range that they have a sexy Geissele recoil spring patterned after the MG42 machine gun recoil spring? Yes. If that’s you, by all means, go for it. There are worse things you could spend your money on.
My Opinion: In my opinion, the $72 Geissele Super 42 spring/buffer combo is overpriced for the actual, practical benefits it provides over a standard spring. I think most people would be better served by a $16-$26 flatwire spring. Flatwire springs are very quiet (the MOST important feature), more durable than round wires springs, most have more than adequate spring return force without overspringing the system, and do not require a proprietary buffer.
Bonus:
In case you’re wondering if you can use the Super 42 with a different buffer, stop wondering. The answer is likely “no”, unless you want to risk your buffer and spring getting badly stuck in the buffer tube.
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