Ambi Lowers - Good, bad, ugly(?)

[Dutch110]

This question came up in another thread. Ambi lowers. Which ones do you like. Which ones do you not like. And are they even necessary?

I bought an LWRCi about a year ago and it has been my first and only true ambi lower. I personally love it but in day to day shooting and training find that I don't use the bolt release on the right side nearly as much as I thought I would. I guess if doing left hand reloads it would come in handy. And maybe this points to a gap in my training regimen more than anything.

All my other rifles are home grown. I tend to use FCD parts on the lowers and have found that setting them up with an ambi safety and mag release works for 90% of the shooting/training I do.

Curious to hear everyone else's thoughts and opinions as I know there are a TON of different approaches to this in the market.

[trauma]

Grossly overrated IMO, waste of money.

What KAC charges for these is insane by the way.

[czgunner]

The mantra has been "only standard/righty so you don't get training scars and make mistakes when using a non ambi weapon."
Modern fighting technique has us shooting from both shoulders, so I think ambi is helpful. Just my opinion.

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[xFREDx]

ambi is great for lefts and people who train (not just shooting strong side but off hand). If you don't train off hand i believe ambi is just a plus to have but not needed. it can really help righties though even if not training the left side. the LWRCI ad the MARS are pretty much the same. The Radian is the best ambi in my opinion followed by the ADM for billet. MARS and LWRCI for forged. the rest of them i believe are not true ambis as they just have a bolt release and most need an ambi mag release to put in there. you can easlily make a milspec forged lower mostly ambi. i think the redicatch will help with it but it isn't an ambi mag release. You can get a CMT ambo billet lower and install a redi catch mag release aide and it will be fully ambi and function almost idientical to the Radian. i believe the CMT ambi billet lowers are like $210. only comes with the bolt release stuff.

[markm]

Grossly overrated IMO, waste of money.

What KAC charges for these is insane by the way.

Totally agree. With non-ambi I can work the levers in my sleep. When I jump onto an ambi, I can't even remember WTF the mag catch is. It's not the end of the world, but why pay WAY more for more ass ache?

[ssc]

Totally agree. With non-ambi I can work the levers in my sleep. When I jump onto an ambi, I can't even remember WTF the mag catch is. It's not the end of the world, but why pay WAY more for more ass ache?

Absolutely agree.

Cheers, Steve

[crosseyedshooter]

I can’t think of any “ambi” control that can’t be added to a standard lower. Selector lever? FCD, Radian, BAD, etc. Mag release? FCD, Troy, etc. Bolt catch/release? Magpul, Phase5, Troy, etc.

Ironically, the latest “full ambi” function for lowers is the right-side bolt catch/release which is mostly useful to right-handed shooters.

[Hank6046]

I really like my ADM ambi lowers, I know that there are "training scars" but I don't think it is near as bad as people make it out to be and I can still run both just fine. I have a GPS system in my truck, and while I can still read a map it just makes it easier and more comfortable to use, the same with Ambi lowers. Now, if it doesn't work for you then so be it, but if it does more power to you. The only issue I have had with my ADM ambi lowers is dealing with Tango Down ARC mags, but mainly because the 30rds feeds from the other side, and everyonce in a while they don't lock back on an empty chamber due to the way that the ambi bolt release is engineered, only have 2 or 3 of those magazines out of a hundred Magpul, Lancers, Okay and C products so not to big of a deal for me, but I have shot them enough to see this happen.

[titsonritz]

I am left-handed and use standard lowers with Radian CH, FCD selectors and mag releases.

[Defaultmp3]

ambi is great for lefts and people who train (not just shooting strong side but off hand). If you don't train off hand i believe ambi is just a plus to have but not needed. it can really help righties though even if not training the left side. the LWRCI ad the MARS are pretty much the same. The Radian is the best ambi in my opinion followed by the ADM for billet. MARS and LWRCI for forged. the rest of them i believe are not true ambis as they just have a bolt release and most need an ambi mag release to put in there. you can easlily make a milspec forged lower mostly ambi. i think the redicatch will help with it but it isn't an ambi mag release. You can get a CMT ambo billet lower and install a redi catch mag release aide and it will be fully ambi and function almost idientical to the Radian. i believe the CMT ambi billet lowers are like $210. only comes with the bolt release stuff.

MVB as a full ambi forged lower, it has a pretty interesting trick in that the right side lever acts as both a bolt lock and bolt release, depending on the position of the bolt.

My friend and I have found the A-DAC functionality of the AX556 to be hugely helpful in malfunction clearances, something we regularly see when we roleplay as OPFOR (shitty Sim bolts with blown out extractors and ejectors is always a recipe for a lot of double feed clearances). Having a right side bolt catch is also nice, just from an administrative unloading and showing clear perspective, as a right handed shooter.