THE BAD: What AR accessory do you really dislike or is just flat out useless?

[mballz23]

Once again...in most home defense situations most people probably reach for a handgun or a shotgun.

I understand people shoot at night at ranges and at matches. I do too. Hopefully not in pitch darkness.

When you refer to training and "serious work" I assume you are LEO (including .gov) or military. In which case that is fine as above stated.

I'm just stating that for 99.9% of civilians, the scenario where you pick up your AR in low light or pitch darkness needing a flashlight for positive ID is slim to none.

Guess I'll ditch my Surefire's. I don't need to see to shoot pigs after all... Also guess I'll pick up a 590 and ditch my HD AR. Because I only need one round of 00 buck because that penetrates less..........

It's not all just about PID. While that's the biggest case, overwhelming white light on a threat's vision provides you control for, if not just a quick second (time is life), possibly the whole situation. Anything I might grab to defend my life will have a white light, ARs included.

Won't go too much into the numbers but it shows that more often than not, it will be a handgun used in self-defense scenarios, not an AR.

I don't know where you live, but its not 12 hours of pitch darkness here, nor many places in the US, not that it matters indoors really

It really matters indoors. Indoors can be dark even at 1200. I'm going to grab the closest thing to me which happens to be an AR when I'm laying in bed. I've grabbed it before. I've also PID'd a friend walking into my house that had a key that was too drunk to drive home, walked to my house and didn't tell me he was doing so.

Shotgun usually penetrates in flesh and intermediate barriers more than AR. ie. not all energy transfers to target.

AR (carbine) advantages;
-29 follow up rounds
-quick reload (30 to 40 more shots) sometimes, there are more than 2-3 home invaders.
-almost no recoil
-quick follow up shots (3-5 in less than a second. more if you are trained)
-easily mountable white light, (many mounting options) SG are limited
-flash mitigation
-sound suppression (silencers)
-subsonic option (330blk)
-less over-penetration
-quick target acquisition (red dot)
-quick follow up target acquisition.
-easy to maneuver. (if you are holding your carbine correctly, it only extends a couple inches farther than a pistol extended.

Do you mean spread? its about 1(expanding) inch per yard with 00 out of a defensive shotgun.

Please, do a search here. Many of the industry professionals, shooters here have beat this dead horse. Most tactical/gun schools are going to tell you good AR is going to be better than a SG.

This all makes too much sense.


In reference to this thread:
1) Pretty much anything made in China or Allibaba.
2) Cheap optics on a defensive rifle. That's like putting used tires on your Aston Martin.
3) Color fill
4) Cheap lights
5) The crowd of people who jumped on Streamlight's "junk (metaphorically speaking, I don't think they make junk)" because it has more lumens than SF, but don't pay attention to build quality (Streamlight WMLs have their place, it's really the crowd not the light or company)
6) Anderson anything
7) Skeletonized anything
8) F1 firearms
9) The crowd of people who say SS barrels are better because they don't rust... SMH uninformed individuals. Less barrel life, and actually more prone to rust than a nitrided barrel.
10) Single point only slings. Walk, walk, bam right in the jewels.
11) 3 point slings. Why, just why?
10) Decent optics in a cheap mount. Defeats the purpose.
11) Bipods on a carbine length hand guard like a 7 or a 9inch rail
12) Rail Scale's Anchor, good god it's hideous and does nothing better than any other stubby vertical grip
13) Rail Scale's rail covers, I don't necessarily hate them but I don't like the feel
14) QD points in an aluminum rail without a steel insert. Good way to strip the aluminum. Steel's harder
15) Punisher skulls, self explanatory
16) Aero's Texas lower (I'm born and still live in Texas, I'm a very proud Texan). Theres a damn hole in the mag well in the star.
17) "You're **cked dust covers and the like. AZ OIS explains this.
18) Anything gimmicky, like the stock that holds a magazine. Useless.
19) Muzzle brakes on a SBR, really on your gun because it's obnoxious to be around
20) Magwell grips
21) Lasers only (not ATPIALs or DBAL's), use your optic...
22) BAD levers. Malfunctions.

[RVTMaverick]

Nothing against You DocGlockster but<

Threads like this..... Just because of the over all repeatability of BS and Negativity.... That's what I don't like on my AR

I mean really, because some here says, they don't like this or that or a POS or Stupid, are any of you who do like this or that.... Are you going to stop using it?:
Much rather be positive and I know we can't be all the time, human nature and all.


Peace Jeff

[Doc Safari]

THE BAD: What AR accessory do you really dislike or is just flat out useless?

Nothing against the OP but<

Threads like this..... Just because of the over all repeatability of BS and Negativity.... That's what I don't like on my AR

I mean really, because some here says, they don't like this or that, are any of you who do like this or that.... Are you going to stop using it?

Much rather be positive and I know we can't be all the time, human nature and all.


Peace Jeff

The point of threads like this is for people to state what they don't like and more importantly WHY they don't like it. It does no good to say "I don't like such and such" and leave it at that. What people should do is say, "I don't like such and such because it's (fill in the blank)."

Of course, I have no control over what people post but in a perfect world people would give detailed information of why a certain accessory doesn't work for them.

THEN a thread like this becomes very informative and valuable.

[pinzgauer]

The point of threads like this is for people to state what they don't like and more importantly WHY they don't like it. It does no good to say "I don't like such and such" and leave it at that. What people should do is say, "I don't like such and such because it's (fill in the blank)."

Of course, I have no control over what people post but in a perfect world people would give detailed information of why a certain accessory doesn't work for them.

THEN a thread like this becomes very informative and valuable.

Way too late now, but it would have been more useful to have a "things I thought I'd like but turned out not to and why thread"

With the expectation that the person have some experience with the item.

Then maybe another thread for "things I think are stupid that people do to ARs"

That's where the rail mounted coffee machines, stupid dust covers, colored letter inserts, Etc go.

There's a big difference between finding out something did not work or had drawbacks versus matters of taste and subjective judgment.

There's a lot of stuff I dislike and might even think is a bit silly, but if either people want to do that more power to them.

What if something doesn't work as well as it might appear, That's valuable.

[Doc Safari]

Way too late now, but it would have been more useful to have a "things I thought I'd like but turned out not to and why thread"

With the expectation that the person have some experience with the item.

Then maybe another thread for "things I think are stupid that people do to ARs"

That's where the rail mounted coffee machines, stupid dust covers, colored letter inserts, Etc go.

There's a big difference between finding out something did not work or had drawbacks versus matters of taste and subjective judgment.

There's a lot of stuff I dislike and might even think is a bit silly, but if either people want to do that more power to them.

What if something doesn't work as well as it might appear, That's valuable.

Start your own thread then. I don't think it would have mattered what the title was. It's easy to criticize, not so easy to get results yourself. I'd be willing to bet the same responses would have been posted no matter what. Trust me. I know from experience. I could have posted this thread with a set of instructions on what kind of responses I was looking for and it wouldn't have mattered. Been there. Done that. People post what they are going to post.

[mballz23]

Way too late now, but it would have been more useful to have a "things I thought I'd like but turned out not to and why thread"

With the expectation that the person have some experience with the item.

Then start that thread.

Then maybe another thread for "things I think are stupid that people do to ARs"

That's where the rail mounted coffee machines, stupid dust covers, colored letter inserts, Etc go.

That's what falls under the useless portion of this thread. What stupid things others do to their rifles is what is deemed useless to us...

There's a big difference between finding out something did not work or had drawbacks versus matters of taste and subjective judgment.

There's a lot of stuff I dislike and might even think is a bit silly, but if either people want to do that more power to them.

What if something doesn't work as well as it might appear, That's valuable.

Yes there is and between the stupid stuff most people have explained why they don't like that particular item.

[Diamondback]

On the other hand, then you get the oddballs like me, where stuff that doesn't work for others does work for us, or vice versa. Example: Magpul BAD Lever, good concept but with my particular hands and dexterity/biomechanics/etc. quirks and how I run an AR to compensate for them, it just doesn't fit me. Similarly, I personally like mag-carrier braces and stocks, but that's because with my particular build and how I've adapted techniques around it, they're more rear-end ballast than "shoulder/cheek interface" and I'd rather that weight be useful too rather than just dead-weight only there to adjust balance.

Goes back to the individual operator and their own subjective personal needs and perceptions, right?

[pinzgauer]

The point of threads like this is for people to state what they don't like and more importantly WHY they don't like it. It does no good to say "I don't like such and such" and leave it at that. What people should do is say, "I don't like such and such because it's (fill in the blank)."

Of course, I have no control over what people post but in a perfect world people would give detailed information of why a certain accessory doesn't work for them.

THEN a thread like this becomes very informative and valuable.

Not dissing the thread, just more commenting on why there is a mix of what some would consider useful and some not. And it probably varies for everyone of us.

I just skip by the "I despise anyone who uses XYZ" comments. As there's no accounting for taste. Even if I agree with some of them.

[Doc Safari]

Not dissing the thread, just more commenting on why there is a mix of what some would consider useful and some not. And it probably varies for everyone of us.

I just skip by the "I despise anyone who uses XYZ" comments. As there's no accounting for taste. Even if I agree with some of them.

People get emotionally attached to this stuff.

[wichaka]

Been seeing quite a few posts about BAD levers creating malfunctions, but haven't seen anyone post what malfunctions they create.

What malfunctions has anyone seen and/or experienced using them?