AR Sponsor
Posted: 1/13/2007 8:58:21 PM EDT
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I am new to AR's, but after looking at the retro pics posted here, one question comes to mind = Is a Forward Assist Needed/Desirable/etc???? Thanks, Bill. |
Yes it is. If your gun does not go into battery you will not be able to fire it, at least in my experience it won't 45 Bravo might know otherwise. I end up hitting mine almost once per outing but my guns are not clean or well broken in either! I am sure that a well broken in gun that is clean, using good factory ammo will have a much lower occurance of needing to hammer that bolt home  It's not a required thing for range shooting but it can make things easier sometimes. If your using this as a duty weapon it could save your ass.
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I can honestly say I've never had to use mine on any of my AR's... but it's probably safe to say it has saved a life or two in combat. My opinion is that if you have a clean chamber, and good ammo, a forward assist may cause more problems than it remedies....(get your ruptured case extractor ready !!) |
| I have never really had to use my forward assist but I like to know that I have that option. On the firing line though, we see students that will ride the bolt forward rather than let it fly. The result (if it doesn't double feed on them) is that the bolt carrier group doesn't move fully forward and when they try to fire the round, nothing happens when the hammer falls. Now we do teach them to use the forward assist but a lot of our training rifles in the armoury are rebuilt M-16s and a good number of them are chrome or slick side bolts so the forward assist doesn't work anyways. No big deal for us really since these weapons are non-deployable anyways so we're not spending the money to update the bolt carriers. A way I teach my students to deal with this problem if they get one of these rifles is to push the bolt carrier forward with their thumb in that little dished out area where the latch for the ejection port cover sits in. |
This might be good in theory, but I hope they don't try it when the bolt carrier is hot...  I'd be willing to bet that many members here would be happy to help your dept "upgrade" to notched bolt carriers.  ETA: I'm first! |
| Nah, the most these folks would fire at one time would be 20 rounds. One 10 round magazine from say prone supported then reload with another 10 rounds and fire another 10 rounds from prone unsupported so the bolt carriers aren't ever really going to get very hot in an AFQC course of fire. |
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That question is sure to touch off a debate! The only time I have ever used a Forward Assist is on an A2 using blanks. If I drop the hammer, and it does'nt go off I grab the charging handle and get rid of that round. In a situation where your using the rifle to defend yourself, you don't have time to diagnose a failure, don't waste time trying to figure out if it's the round, or the bolt not fully closed. Eject that round, and let it load another. Then again I don't feel real comfortable forcing the bolt closed on a live round either, if it's out of spec, or damaged it could cause you some serious problems when lit. So "for me" I don't care for the forward assist, I have rifles with it on there, but don't use it. My patrol rifle does'nt have one, it's an LBC upper. If you feel that it's helpful, and you want it, then get one. |
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Well, it sure makes "S.P.O.R.T.S." difficult without it! I can think of a couple of situations where it might be handy to be able to manually force the bolt carrier group home: Although no longer an issue for the most part, one thing the forward assist is nice for is a rifle sufering from "bolt bounce" which is when the bolt carrier group goes forward it literally rebounds off the face of the receiver/barrel extension. Not so much an issue with the improved buffers after the Edgewater, but I have experienced an AR that had this issue. Basically the BCG goes forward and rebounds slightly, but just enough to oftentimes prevent a good firing pin strike. Also, remeber that this is not always an issue of a dirty rifle or bad ammo, but rather the forward assist gives you a way to move the carrier group fully forward, which is necessary to disassemble the rifle. What happens if you have a weapon malfunction that doesn't allow that carrier to go forward, thus preventing you from disassembling the weapon to clear the jam? I have perosnally experienced a weapon that had the buffer spring bind up badly in the buffer tube that the typical "bang the muzzle on the ground" would not send the carrier forward. However, the forward assist slolwy but surely move it fully forward and allowed me to finally hinge open the weapon to pull out and replace the spring. |
| when some of my newer mags are fully loaded, the spring pressure on the first round is so great that it prevents it from being completely stripped from the magazine when i hit the bolt release. pressing on the FA several times strips it the rest of the way and allows it to chamber. |
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