Mil-spec v Commercial Stock

[Burk Cornelius]

WTF?

 

[taymoor]

commercial is thicker and slightly more common. I'd say go commercial. It has to do with the diameter of the buffer tube.

 

[Burk Cornelius]

Are the tube and springs also different?

 

[Chambers]

Tubes, yes...springs, no.

 

[Burk Cornelius]

Good stuff, Mike. Thanks. You get extra credit for pictures.

One last question and I will be through.

Since the tubes are different O.D., does the lower also have to be commercial?

 

[Chambers]

Nope, interchangeable.

 

[Burk Cornelius]

Thanks.

 

[Wormydog1724]

I went mil-spec. The threads are better and less likely to **** up. And there are more stock options with mil-spec than commercial.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_118/451227_.html&page=1

There's a better thread with less jackasses on M4C but the site is down.

 

[Wormydog1724]

Also a comm stock will fit a milspec tube but not the other way around. The comm tube is 'thicker walled' but that doesn't mean stronger. The threads on the milspec tube are better Becsuse they fully engage the receiver better, ie less likely to strip out. It has to do with the way they are manufactured. Forged vs extruded or machined vs extruded. I forget which. Comm is fine for most if not all people. You have slightly more stock options with milspec as well as the option of adding the enhanced butt pad on the CTR/moe line of stocks. Either one are really ok in the big picture.

 

[Burk Cornelius]

More good info. Thanks Jeremy

 

[CATM]

Also a comm stock will fit a milspec tube but not the other way around. The comm tube is 'thicker walled' but that doesn't mean stronger. The threads on the milspec tube are better Becsuse they fully engage the receiver better, ie less likely to strip out. It has to do with the way they are manufactured. Forged vs extruded or machined vs extruded. I forget which. Comm is fine for most if not all people. You have slightly more stock options with milspec as well as the option of adding the enhanced butt pad on the CTR/moe line of stocks. Either one are really ok in the big picture.

+1 Great Info!

 

[Matt1911]

I've always heard that the mil-specs were stronger than commercial so I've always gotten the mil-spec myself.

 

[imacgyver]

what did i get on my ar - it was an A2 style fixed stock??

 

[Spiff]

what did i get on my ar - it was an A2 style fixed stock??

Fixed stock buffer tubes are all the same, no commercial or milspec difference.

 

[imacgyver]

well that is just not fair!

 

[Cole2534]

I've always heard that the mil-specs were stronger than commercial so I've always gotten the mil-spec myself.

True.

A military spec stock has a slightly smaller diameter because the threads are rolled into the tube; the benefit is a work hardened area, since the threads are essentially forged into the tube by squeezing the tube between a pair of dies. The reason for the smaller diameter is that during the creation of the thread profile material bidirectionally displaced from the outer surface of the tube; the threads achieve both their major and minor diameter from the forming process.

A commercial stock has cut threads, and since the material is removed unilaterally the the tube must start at the larger dimension.