Forward assist

[doc_ralston]

Are they entirely necessary? Don't think I ever touched mine over two deployments. There are a lot of good-looking "slick side" uppers out there, so I just wanted to get a couple opinions. Thanks.

[mig1nc]

Are they entirely necessary? Don't think I ever touched mine over two deployments. There are a lot of good-looking "slick side" uppers out there, so I just wanted to get a couple opinions. Thanks.

This was just posted by gun Jesus

https://youtu.be/JHSSO-vJTSs


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[doc_ralston]

Great, thanks!

[JediGuy]

Gun jesus is almost certainly responding to this video, I think posted by a member of the forum.

https://youtu.be/MhjU8InWxr0

[markm]

Entirely necessary? No. But I prefer to have and not need.

[MSW]

Not a fan. Maybe it’s my SP1? Maybe my retro 604 or GUU-5P, but I don’t find them necessary.

[Red*Lion]

I have a forward assist on all of my AR's. Used it a couple times during a fire fight in Iraq. With that said....

[ColtSeavers]

I have always made sure to have a forward assist. I was taught SPORTS and use it for such.

Then I built my wife's AR with an Aero slickside upper (saved weight and I just taught her SPORS instead of SPORTS) and neither she nor I have had an issue with her AR without it.

Now I'm rebuilding a pistol again(God help me) and I'm purposely using an Aero slick side upper for it, because why not, one less thing to add weight and break, right?

So, at this point I think I'm ambivalent. It's odd not having it there, something's wrong with not being able to force a round into battery if you need to, and yet, why would you want to?

[Duffy]

Ian brought up a good point of people wanting to use a button or device simply because it's there. How often have you seen a car's head rest raised to its max height to the point the driver's head can't rest on it anymore, or keyboards with its front legs deployed, even though it makes typing harder and will fatigue the user faster?

I also agree with him that it generally works as designed. I use the FA, but also know when it's the wrong application to solve a problem. Any device can be abused and misused, the possibility, or the ability of the user to misuse and abuse it isn't reason enough to get rid of it, proper training and education would go a long way. Taking away a control or tool because the user MIGHT use it the wrong way is over correction.

[mig1nc]

Ian brought up a good point of people wanting to use a button or device simply because it's there. How often have you seen a car's head rest raised to its max height to the point the driver's head can't rest on it anymore, or keyboards with its front legs deployed, even though it makes typing harder and will fatigue the user faster?

I also agree with him that it generally works as designed. I use the FA, but also know when it's the wrong application to solve a problem. Any device can be abused and misused, the possibility, or the ability of the user to misuse and abuse it isn't reason enough to get rid of it, proper training and education would go a long way. Taking away a control or tool because the user MIGHT use it the wrong way is over correction.

Proof point, as a civilian, the only time I ever used the FA to remediate a malfunction I actually made the problem far worse.


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