Did you ever actually use your forward assist? - How'd that go?

"They" added it because the DOD would not adopt a rifle as A1 standard issue without a means of manually forcing the action closed. There was no other reason. The 1903, M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, Grease Gun, M14 etc all could have the action manually forced home if required.
"They" was actually Eugene Stoner himself....after he told them the rifle does not need it because if the rifle does not go into battery, there is something wrong and slamming the bolt into battery as hard as you can to get it locked just enough to pull the trigger and have the pin hit the primer was idiotic and dangerous and a very stupid weapon drill with any firearm.
It was either the US Army or the Marines that insisted and they eventually won out and Stoner Frankensteined a forcing device into the design so the DOD would adopt the rifle across all branches and he could see his rifle off to success.
An additional interesting fact was that the initial prototype for the forward assist was mounted on the charging handle at the back of it. It was a clunky vertical plate you would strike forward with the palm of your hand. It required the bolt and receiver to be modified and was not practical. So they chopped a piece out of a slickside upper and welded what we know today as standard into it and notched the original bolt design so you ratchet force it closed if you had to lol

There's a cool picture of both of these prototypes in the book The Black Rifle as well as all the above information.

I never use it. Even on press checks. I just pull it back enough and let it slam home again. It's an awkward clumsy drill and I still agree with Stoner.
 
I have used a FA lots in various scenarios. I would never buy an AR-15 firearm without one except my old Colt SP1 variants.

If I needed to use it once and never had it then I would want a FA. Especially if my life relied upon its function.

The loudest noise is a click when you were expecting a bang.
 
I’ve used it a few times in cold weather conditions.
For the added ounce it weighs, id rather have it, it’s not going to break me.
 
I consider it along the same lines as having a gun. better to have and not need, than to need, and not have.

I have used it a couple of times, probably no need to, but it made me warm and cozy inside :p
 
Never used it. Since my use of an Ar-15 is not in a life or death scenario, in the case of the bolt not closing I would instead take the time to remove the round and investigate the cause.
 
trimeal1 said:
Nobody here has fired hundreds of rounds in the cold or hundreds in a row non stop. I have had a bolt stop almost half way forward from all the carbon in the rifle.
Former CF. Forward assist = good thing.
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Go watch military arms channel, he currently has a rifle with over 5000 rounds without cleaning. He shoots 1000 rounds at a time in 300 round sets with a cool down in between. Zero stoppages.

For more interesting reading look up Pat Rogers filthy 14. With 67,000 rounds without a cleaning. The forward assist is an answer to question no one asked. It is also counterintuitive to your immediate action and remedial action drills. Forcing a round into the chamber is a bad idea.
 
Glockamoli said:
Go watch military arms channel, he currently has a rifle with over 5000 rounds without cleaning. He shoots 1000 rounds at a time in 300 round sets with a cool down in between. Zero stoppages.

For more interesting reading look up Pat Rogers filthy 14. With 67,000 rounds without a cleaning. The forward assist is an answer to question no one asked. It is also counterintuitive to your immediate action and remedial action drills. Forcing a round into the chamber is a bad idea.
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Ah and there are also vehicles on the roads that go for a million miles but there are still tow truck companies working everywhere.
 
derrob7 said:
Ah and there are also vehicles on the roads that go for a million miles but there are still tow truck companies working everywhere.
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A tow truck doesn't force a stuck engine to turn... it pucks the car up and gets it elsewhere. Your analogy is flawed and irrelevant. The fa is a useless appendage. Some use it for their mental peace. Power to them. But the gun would perform just fine without.
 
Forward assist is the most useless thing ever. In fact, I've gone out of my way to source uppers without the useless "feature".

However, I will note that a pure slickside isn't much fun to stand beside because cases come backward at about 45 degrees. If going without the forward assist, get an upper that does have the shell deflector.
 
r34skyline said:
A tow truck doesn't force a stuck engine to turn... it pucks the car up and gets it elsewhere. Your analogy is flawed and irrelevant. The fa is a useless appendage. Some use it for their mental peace. Power to them. But the gun would perform just fine without.
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I actually don't know how to respond to this.
My analogy refers to some peoples fortune to have something that never gives them any issues while other peoples experience's being totally different. The tow truck is there in times of trouble.
Just because you think it is irrelevant doesn't mean it is, or have never had to use it, or maybe you always have the time to patiently look and fiddle with your firearm. Not all people have time or circumstance to do it that way. I imagine in the hundreds of thousands of firearms that have a forward assist they might of needed a forward assist just once. Hell the Canadian military used a large FA to be used with gloves in cold weather. There's an awful lot of engineering and money spent on something so futile and obsolete.
Next time you press check a dirty firearm and it doesn't go into battery or you ride the charging handle by accident because of the shooting position your in or you have dirty ammo, a dirty chamber, or it's cold and hitting the FA quickly fixes that problem and you can get back to doing what you were doing why not have it? I know you can just tap, rack but why discharge good ammo if you don't need to.
Or maybe you can just put your hand up and ask for a time out so you can go to your corner, dis-assemble you firearm, clean it, replace the ammo and really figure things out while everyone around you keeps having fun.
The original Stoner design was an AR10 that was scaled down to an Ar15 and was designed by an engineer. As everyone knows you can design anything but how it works in real life is sometimes different.
 
I use the forward assist all the time in 3 gun. I dont get why people bash it so much. Its a must have feature for any gun that doesnt have a reciprocating charging handle IMO.

The bolt not closing into full battery after someone doing a quick round check is something i see all the time.

Theres only really 3 options at that point...

1) slowy and carefully pull action back far enough for it to have enough potential energy to spring back fully into battery.

2) Just rack the action vigorously again ejecting out a loaded round.

3) The most common sense solution being to press the forward assist button thus giving the bolt the extra nudge needed to go into full battery!
 
Civilian side there's probably not much need for it.
Military side I've had my bolt carrier so carboned up that I needed to hit the forward assist to seat the bcg properly. It happens.
 
GuiltySpark said:
Civilian side there's probably not much need for it.
Military side I've had my bolt carrier so carboned up that I needed to hit the forward assist to seat the bcg properly. It happens.
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2x However, this was only with blanks. I've never had to blow through 5,000 rounds of ball in an half day though... probably for the best on that one.
 
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