As many know on this board, I have several contacts in the firearms industry and Roger (Duffy) is one of them. I have been talking with him regarding making an adjustment to his Forward Controls Design ABC/R bolt release.
I have several of these bolt catches on my rifles and I enjoy them very much. I, however, have an issue with the placement of the pad on the bolt catch. For me, this isn't specifically with Duffy's bolt catch, it's all bolt catches.
I, like some, have very large palms and short fingers. This causes me to have to reach for the bolt catch when reloading thus causing me to add an extra step in the reloading process witch of course slows me down.
When I reload a magazine into my rifle, I preform a push of the magazine and then a pull to confirm that the mag is properly seated. When tugging on the mag, it places my thumb closer toward the muzzle than it would be if I would just seat the mag and hit the bolt release.
What I have proposed to Duffy is not to make the ABC/R pad larger, but to slide the pad toward the muzzle about 25% or a little less than 1/4 inch. This would help my issue and also help with left handed shooters hitting the bolt catch when they reach under the handguard to release the bolt.
I will post a couple of pictures to show you what I'm talking about....
In this picture, you can see that my natural hand positioning places my thumb forward of the bolt catch....
Untitled by Cory Fluck, on Flickr
In this photo, you can see what I mean by a left handed shooter reaching under for the bolt catch....
Untitled by Cory Fluck, on Flickr
Other companies make "enhanced" bolt catches but I don't think that they put much thought into their designs and they don't really enhance operation of the rifle.
Let me know what you think....
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