I would appreciate everyone to chime in here.  Those that have had ARs for a long period of time and especially those that transport them for patrol use or hunting, etc.  Do you leave your hammer back forever?  In other words lets say your an officer that carries it around twelve hours a day.  Would/should I leave the hammer back and keep the selector on safe?  Or leave the hammer down and selector on fire and  if I ever deploy it, it gets charged and then put on safe.  I am just looking for the most proper and fastest condition that I should be keeping my AR in.  Our operating proceedures are not very specific other than that we must keep the chamber empty while on patrol.  If your suppose to keep the hammer back; is there any long term wear and tear from it staying back indefinitely?  We keep our 870's hammers back and never drop them.  They are not suppose to get weak, are the ARs the same?  Thanks in advance.  

Yep.  All the time on all my ARs.  Always on SAFE, though.  Springs fail and wear due to cycling, not continuous compression.

For police patrol carry, keep a clear chamber, and weapon on safe.  If you release the trigger for storage, your weapon is on fire, and not many departments train that way with AR15s.....

I guess so since I store all my semis with the bolt open.

Thanks for the replies.

Hi AWACER,

just wanted to let you know that my agency has us store the weapons in the rack with the hammers forward and the safety set to "fire", empty chamber.    Not saying it's better or whatever, just letting you know how we do it.  I did notice that when I opened the seals on my 6920, I checked carefully because I'm curious too how they come from the factory.  It was hammer back with the selector on safe.

The first time I fired my M16 it would fail to fire several times per mag (light primer strikes). Turns out the original owner kept it stored with the bolt locked back for about 25 years. After replacing the hammer and recoil springs, no more problems. I think the hammer spring alone would have corrected the light strikes, but once I was suspicious of the hammer spring I noticed that the recoil (buffer) spring had less tension than my other rifles so I replaced it since I had one laying around.

Short term, I don't think there's a problem. But for very long term storage, I don't like leaving springs compressed.

Rack safe = bad.

The only thing that wears springs out is cycling (compression/decompression)

We keep the hammer down on an empty chamber. The selctor won't go to Safe, so all you have to do is pull the charging handle and you're ready to rock.

I always try to have the hammer down on an empty chamber but not always.

It's a habit for me now to open the bolt and do a chamber check after picking up any firearm.

I never put the safety on, my finger is my safety.

Quoted: I never put the safety on, my finger is my safety.

But you picked that up when you were a door gunner on the space shuttle in the 70s......and you can't talk about it anymore because it is all part of your washed record.

Quoted: Quoted: I never put the safety on, my finger is my safety. But you picked that up when you were a door gunner on the space shuttle in the 70s......and you can't talk about it anymore because it is all part of your washed record.

You meant the 60s right? That's before NASA started using them.

While I was in the academy during the firearms phase I noticed that the range people never dropped the hammers on the range 870s.  These things were at least ten years old or more and had seen many many academy classes and the local SO during quals.  I asked the deputy who ran the range if he ever dropped the hammers and he said they never drop them and they have been back for years (between classes and quals.).  Once I got to my dept. I found that the community 870s did not have their hammers dropped either because of our training which required the action bar release to be used prior to operation.  I am going to leave my hammer back on my AR now and leave it on safe.  Thanks again guys.

Quoted: Quoted: I never put the safety on, my finger is my safety. But you picked that up when you were a door gunner on the space shuttle in the 70s......and you can't talk about it anymore because it is all part of your washed record.

Close but no cigar.

The line you quoted me was from the movie Black Hawk Down.

One of the SF said to a Ranger officer that was giving him a hard time, because his safety on his gun was not on while in their base.

Nope.  I ensure that it is unloaded. Pull the trigger keep it on fire and store it in the safe.

Max

I keep mine when stored in its bag with no mag, empty chamber and safety on fire position (hammer forward), every other time it's still empty chamber with mag attached and safety is on safe.
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G18 - the best in full-auto...

Nope.  I leave the hammer dropped and the selector on SEMI or the safety on SAFE.  FOr long term storage, the bolts are removed.