Why forward assist on ar 15

Pumping the forward assist on an AR will not give you more velocity, more lethality or — as far as I know — even more movie star prowess. As a hunter, a home defender and U. Creative manufacturers continue to improve the design of the forward assist.

Pictured above is one such example from Forward Control Designs. What about you — Slick Side or Forward Assist?

Your email address will not be published. Notify me via e-mail if anyone answers my comment. As useful as I find the forward assist, there are some that I avoid: 1.

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Share on LinkedIn Share. Share on Digg Share. If you haven't had much experience using yours, that's OK. Here's everything you need to know about the AR forward assist mechanism to decide which you prefer.

The forward assist comes as a stock feature on most new ARs. These features consist of a button-like device called a "pawl," a plunger, a spring and a pin. Depressing the pawl pushes the plunger forward, where it engages with the teeth etched into the side of the bolt carrier group BCG and moves the unit forward. This process ensures the bolt is seated firmly into place after feeding and chambering a round. When the BCG reaches its desired position and closes, the spring activates to push the pawl back into a neutral position.

These devices date back to the original M16A1 — a rifle famous for jamming. Hell, the action on the M1 Garand was supposed to close once a new clip was inserted, but in combat conditions, it often stuck and the charging handle needed a little slap forward to send it home. In the late 50s, army brass really wanted the M14 to work.

They even held a test, which was later proven to be biased, just to prove the M14 was better than the AR after the latter was recommended by the Advances Research Projects Agency after the testing with indigenous troops in Vietnam. Not being able to manually manipulate the bolt may have simply been too much. The only thing holding the FA together is a small roll pin. With many service members taught that the FA has to be slapped upon every reload, it has a tendency to break eventually, letting the FA interfere with the BCG, and cause serious jams.

I have never used a forward assist on any AR and have never had a reason to. I have put thousands of rounds through my IWI X95, a 5. One reason people hang on to a need for the forward assist is habit. For decades, soldiers and Marines were taught the FA was an integral part of the loading process of the M As you can see below, it was literally part of the M16A1 army manual.

This was engrained in a lot of people, as training will do, and they brought it to the civilian shooting world. On the civilian side, one of the most reasonable justifications presented by keyboard warriors in favor of the forward assist is that, when hunting, it allows them to get set up and chamber a round quietly as described above without the clang of the bolt snapping shut, letting them know for sure the gun is ready to fire.

You may have noticed an indent in the exposed side of every AR bolt carrier group. How can you tell for sure that a round chambered successfully? If it flips to the safe position after loading, all is as it should be.

Learn how your comment data is processed. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery. Gun Digest. What is the forward assist, and what is its purpose? The forward assist, or bolt-closure device, is a way to manually close an AR's bolt. Eugene Stoner did not originally design the M16 with an external forward assist. The U. Army demanded an external forward assist on the rifle. You are better off unloading and reloading to solve the problem. A press check is used to ensure a round is in the chamber.

The forward assist, or bolt-closure device, is located on the right rear of the upper receiver. It uses a ratchet action to force the bolt forward into battery. The upper receiver pictured top is an early model without an external forward assist.

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