Neat idea, makes for two methods of charging. CB
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Neat idea, makes for two methods of charging. CB
Has anyone been running this system for a longer period of time? Any long term issues?
I'm not really sure why this isn't the dominant system.
Merits of a side-charger aside...
Yes, it is a novelty, albeit a possibly useful one. If your gun goes down (and it doesn't have to be in an "end of days" setting...just if you're at the range), and the handle or BCG is involved, you're down until those proprietary parts are replaced. You can't swap parts with any other AR (unless it's the same model and manufacturer), and it's extremely unlikely that a local dealer is going to carry those specialized parts (until such time when that configuration becomes incredibly popular/mainstream in the AR world).
If those guns don't have the ability to accept "standard" parts in lieu of their special parts, they are a one-off curiosity in the AR world (like a left-eject AR, piston ARs, etc). It doesn't make them bad (in and of itself), but it does make them incompatible with the literally millions of ARs out there that share (and can swap) their core parts and still function.