Hey gang, I was hoping to pull from the collective experience here to deal with a training scar I have picked up and had very little success dealing with.

Being left handed it seemed like an obvious choice to install ambi mag releases for all of my carbines. To speed things up I release the magazine while retrieving another magazine. This goes well in my basement or out in the yard but once I took a legit carbine class I found a fair amount of the time the magazine doesn't drop free due to dirt/debris/whatever which means I have a magazine in my support hand trying to use my thumb and middle finger (along with the very amateurish rifle wiggle) to stip the magazine. I have tried stripping the magazine before grabbing a fresh magazine (plus heat was a great movie ). The end result is sometimes the magazine does drops free before i get my hand fully on it and it trips me up something fierce. Classic case of out running my training.

I would ultimately like to retain the ambi release for things like tactical reloads, but if i get into training that doesn't specifically focus on stripping and reloading, i find myself constantly going back to using my index finger to release the mag inevitably leading to problems.

Do you guys have any pointers to maximize my training to minimize that scar?

Primary left handed shooter here; I shoot both left and right handed.  

I have never run an ambi mag release on an AR.  I do run ambi safety thought (more below on this).

How I do it:
Acquire mag from pouch so that when I bring it up the bullets are facing forward.  

Right thumb pushes mag release, if it does not fall to the ground, extend all fingers but index, grab stubborn mag with replacement to the right (so holding both), rip mag out ground, put other one in place.

Tactical Reload:
The reload that happens, if you have a time in your in a gun fight.  So 2 seconds to pull one mag out, toss it in a pocket, put your other mag in.

Or are you referring to a speed reload, dump the mag in the gun to the ground no matter what, get more ammo in the gun NOW!!!

Unless you have some kind of physical issue, I do not think you need the ambi mag release.

*more below here: Had an instructor once explain that he used a Glock and an Aug because the manual of arms were the same.  So any time he training with one he was reinforcing his training with the other.  I was a 1911 shooter then, so the ambi safety made the AR much more like the 1911.  

You folks make some great points.

The only reason I dont go back to regular non-ambi mag releases is expressly for the purpose of tactical reloading. In this case I mean tactical reload as in you have a break in the drill/fight to pocket a partial mag and insert a fresh mag. I use a beer can grip on the magazine, present it at 90* to the loaded mag in the gun, use my left index finger to release the mag, rotate 90* and push-pull the fresh mag into the well. I have given it a bunch of thought and I dont see a feasible option thats anywhere remotely as fast using an ambi release.

I suppose the best option at this point is just going back to the drawing board and doing reloads until I'm blue in the face. Maybe ill invest in another airsoft m4 to get more mileage out of my free time.

I will experiment also with double fisting mags as you have suggested and see if i can't find myself proficient stripping magazines with 2 fingers. Its honestly something I hadn't considered.

Thank you.

Tactical reload (TR) with saving the mag:

If you are absolutely certain you have a mag to put in your gun; Remove the partial mag from the gun, put it in the pocket; acquire new mag, put it in the weapon.

One mag at a time.

This will be slightly faster than what you describe as you save one trip with your support side hand.

The system you describe (I have done it right handed, it is another tool in the box): support side hand down, support side back with mag, mag exchange, support side hand down store mag, support side hand back up.

Here is the kicker on the absolutely certain: How do you know?  Did you feel it with your elbow, you know you have extra mag because you have not used it yet.  More than likely you are going to have to touch the extra mag to know it is there before you TR.  You have an extra support side hand movement now.  

With a TR you should always have one round in the chamber; but Murphy is always present.

These are suggestions, do what works best for you, always.  

Late reply I know but I always, 100% of the time strip the mag with my right hand. If I'm doing an emergency reload I want the mag out 100% of the time, if I'm doing a proactive reload then the extra second caused by having to deal with both mags is irrelevant.