To those who've needed their forward assist for anything other than a press check, could you describe how it was used and whether it solved the problem?
-B
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To those who've needed their forward assist for anything other than a press check, could you describe how it was used and whether it solved the problem?
-B
Last edited by BAC; 12-09-11 at 02:06.
RIP, Jeff Dorr: 1964 - July 17, 2009
"When young men seek to be like you, when lazy men resent you, when powerful men look over their shoulder at you, when cowardly men plot behind your back, when corrupt men wish you were gone and evil men want you dead . . . Only then will you have done your share." - Phil Messina
How much more does this weigh than those 9mm FA-less uppers that you can get adco to drill?
A dirty weapon in a dry desert climate. Sand, dust, and carbon build up clogging the shit out of the weapon. Lube (shiity .mil CLP/LSA) just turned the mixture into cement mud. Ammunition wouldn't properly seat on every round. Every few rounds the weapon would malfunction, after a few times racking the round out that wouldn't seat, I started smashing on the FA to get the gun up. One hard slap on the FA would get the round to seat enough for the weapon to fire. No FTEs or FTFs, just out of battery malfunctions. Once I got the chance, I cleaned the ever loving shit out of my weapon and went back to not having to use the FA at all.
In my opinion, from my experience, the FA is there mostly for when it's either faster to slap an out of battery round into the chamber than rack it out and try to rechamber a new round, or when your gun is just so gummed up that regardless of anything else you do, you're going to get out of battery malfunctions. Most civilian shooters aren't ever going to let their weapons get that bad, but it's there as a tool. If you know the history behind the FA and why the weapon was changed to include it, you know that it was included as a military asset, obviously. That's where most of it's practical use lies for what it was designed for.
My rifle is a tool, including my own personal rifle, not just my issued M4 or M16, I inspect my ammunition before I load it into magazines for dents, dings, and anything else unusual, so I have no qualms about slapping the piss out of the FA to get a round to seat if I need to. I'm not inherently worried about getting a casing stuck in the chamber. If it happens it happens, but, as many have probably seen me say, inspect your weapon, and all of it's components, including your ammunition, and you should be able to keep those types of issues to a minimum.
Most uppers I've weighed are approximately 8.4 oz with FWD assist and the ejection port cover/hardware. One Mega forged upper I had differed from the others at 8.1 oz.
A 9mm upper is 7.7 oz with the ejection port cover or 6.9 oz stripped. Les Bear's upper without the FWD assist is the same, so I assume Rainier's is going to be similar. Thus, about 0.7 oz savings from a standard, forged upper. Not a lot and certainly not a reason to do so by itself unless you're looking to save every gram possible for, say, an ultra lightweight hunting AR.
FWIW, the VLTOR MUR-1S is 8.4 oz, and the MUR-1A is ~ 10 oz.
A gym membership is a lot cheaper than a lightweight upper.
Taking off the FA for weight savings is a terrible idea. I've had to use the FA while deployed on a few occasions due to bad weather, and while it didn't exactly save my life, it did more for me than having an upper receiver that was .04 ounces lighter would have done.
Last edited by roymorrison; 12-09-11 at 18:34.
I certainly agree if we're referring to fighting/defense rifles. However, in the pursuit of building ultra lightweight hunting ARs, I've allowed for some compromises such as deleting the forward assist on a few assemblies. For example a 6 lb 1.4 oz Varmint gun with a 20" BBL. The worst thing that can happen in this case is that I miss the Prairie Dog.
BTW 0.7 oz, not 0.04.![]()
If guys want to buy it, then great, but I want a forward assist.
Anyone build on one of these yet?
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