KynSHOT Hydraulic Guide Rod: Recoil Perfected?

Years ago, a KynSHOT AR-15 buffer was dropped into one of my rifles, and ever since my go-to rifle has never not had a KynSHOT buffer. For AR-15, AR-10, and AR-9, my KynSHOT buffers have worked flawlessly and make a major difference.

When KynSHOT told me they had a Glock hydraulic buffer guide rod coming soon, I had to have it. For the last several months, this has lived in several of my Glock-clone guns and has seen a lot of use across a wide range of environments. Spoiler, it’s going to live in my main competition gun from now on.

RANGE REPORT

From the first mag, it was clear that this guide rod is very different. It’s harder to see on camera, but it’s easy to feel. The recoil impulse is smoother and better, and the sight disruption is noticeable less. 

Recoil feels like switching from 115gr to 147gr, just smoother and more of a long push than a quick snap. But splits and sight disruption feel more like having a compensator. Not a great compensator, but not a bad one either. For just changing the guide rod, it’s a huge change.

Tunable guide rods have never impressed me much. They work, but it’s not a huge difference, and (in my experience) more useful for solving reliability issues than improving how the gun shoots. The KynSHOT hydraulic guide rod isn’t like that at all. It just makes the gun better.

Uncompensated helps the KynSHOT guide rod to shine since it’s more pronounced and noticeable. But even with a good compensator, like the Shadow Systems XR920P, it still makes a difference. Splits improved slightly, but cadence improved a lot. A smoother recoil makes it easier to get into a fast cadence and feels more natural. 

Best of all, this is one accessory that doesn’t have a downside. If you want to improve a pistol, it normally has trade-offs. Compensator makes it louder, puts you into open class for most shooting sports, has increased flash, length, etc, etc. Ports reduce FPS and have many of the downsides of a compensator. 

Larger grip makes concealability harder, heavier gun makes it more tiring to carry and shoot. None of these is a free lunch.

KynSHOT guide rod? The lunch costs $115 MSRP, but it doesn’t come with an inherent downside. Your pistol might be more picky about ammo, but not to a massive degree (more on this in a moment). 

All positives, effectively no negatives, and it makes a real difference. Sign me up.

COMPATABILITY

Right now, only Glock 19 is supported. Thankfully, it’s all 5 generations of the Glock 19 since every guide rod ships with a conversion cap that fits Gen 4/5 slides.

Personally, I tested it with a Glock 19, Shadow System DR920, XR920, Palmetto State Armory Dagger Compact, Dagger Full Size, and a mystery slide that I’ve had so long the brand has gone out of business. 

All of them worked almost 100% at home and in (almost) all the matches. The only issue I had was with the Shadow Systems DR920, but it was only for one day. 

During a match, I had a solid 20+ malfunctions across 4 stages using S&B 124gr ammo. Failure to feed, failure to fire, light strikes, failure to eject, everything. Cleaned and lubed the pistol at the match, but it didn’t help. Back home, the problem hasn’t been recreated. Everything works. Lighter ammo, heavier ammo, less lube, more lube, all 100% at the home range.

The only time it didn’t run 100% at home was finishing out the last 7 rounds of the last box that went with me to the match, with 1 last failure to fire. So, as best as I can tell, I had a bad few boxes of S&B. But a random sample of a few rounds from a few boxes from the same case all run perfectly.

Every shot fired outside of that match has been perfect. 5 matches, a dozen range trips, and >1,000 rounds flawlessly, 1 match and ~100 rounds with constant malfs. 

S&B has always been my go-to ammo because it’s never failed me, but I have read reports of some people having issues the last few months. Since everything else ran so well and across so many other slides, matches, and range trips — it feels like an ammo issue.

LOOSE ROUNDS

It took 15 years and a new generation of shooters before optics on pistols were accepted as the superior sighting system. It is with great wailing and gnashing of teeth that people are accepting that compensators and ports aren’t just for Major Power Factor pistols. I suspect that a hydraulic guide rod will be met with a similar level of skepticism and fuddery. 

I’m also calling it now that this will be nearly standard for most serious Glock shooters sooner rather than later. The KynSHOT guide rod won’t magically turn your Glock into a high-end 2011, but it does provide a noticeable and significant improvement that can’t be ignored. Plus, it doesn’t run afoul of divisional rules for most of the major competition games.

No one can gear their way into a win, but better gear does help. 

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