H&K SL8/ G36 ESB2-1 Bolt Release Review.

Kevin M.

Kevin M.

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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Location
Edmonton, Alberta
First things first, a huge thanks to CNADNSL8-5 for exceeding my expectations in terms of quality of service and speed of delievery. I talked to him about the modification on Wednesday, sent the part to him on Thursday afternoon, and recieved the modified Bolt release back on Monday morning. Now that is fast service.


So this was his experimental design that he was playing with to improve on the original ESB2 bolt release. I never owned one of those, so please correct or add to what I write, but to my knowlege, the key difference is the bottom lever being smaller and less likely to be hit accidentally.

The unit is well built and is exactly what this gun should have had on it coming out of the factories.

The original part was only a bolt catch, meaning it would only allow you to hold the bolt open manually, not to release it without manually cocking the charging handle.


The ESB2 and the ESB2-1 both allow you to either lock the bolt open or release the bolt by manipulating the bolt release up or down with a light flick of the trigger finger.


I would say this easily cuts the speed of your reloads down by 40%, because you do not have to remove your support hand from the rifle to manually rack the bolt.

A well built product for and amazingly reasonable price, with a super quick turn around time.

If you have one of these rifles, you really can't go wrong sending it to CNADNSL8-5 for work. It is great all around. Just PM him for info.

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And a quick video I made of the part.

[youtube]sOvFG_fqzho[/youtube]
 
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A similar conclusion was reached in the review of the early ESB² here:

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=445099

I don't recall any of the extended bolt catch-releases extending outside the trigger guard. Only difference between the ones in the OP's review and the ones in the review linked to in this post is that the tongue to release the bolt was straight with a wide bottom instead of bent back to the centre line as in this newer design. An improvement or not, I don't know as I don't have one of the newer ones to compare against, but the prototypes are still running strong to this day.

Do you find yourself using the thumb of the left hand to release the bolt after replacing the mag? 'Cos that's what I have noticed myself doing:

  1. mag empty: Bolt locked back,
  2. left-hand moves from handguard to grasp the mag with "beer-can-grip",
  3. left-hand thumb to release the mag,
  4. replace with fresh mag,
  5. left-hand thumb to release the bolt,
  6. left-hand moves back forward to the handguard, resume fire.

Not been using my trigger finger at all.
 
Wow nice! CNADNSL8-5 is a great guy. So where can a guy pick one of these babies up? That would a be handy little piece of harware!
 
oenone said:
Do you find yourself using the thumb of the left hand to release the bolt after replacing the mag? 'Cos that's what I have noticed myself doing. Not been using my trigger finger at all.
Click to expand...

I find that I will just use my trigger finger.

I do everything the same as you until after the fresh mag is seated. From there, I move my support hand back to the handguard, and simultaniously using my trigger finger to hit the bolt catch. I find it saves about a half second or more in practice. Conservation of movement, right? Get your left hand back to a shooting position with one less step to perform, let your trigger finger take over that step.

Just my .02 :)
 
Thanks for all the positive feedback. I made the change in design because I felt that the ESB2 had a very slight possibility of being bumped from the bottom. It hung out slightly over the horizontal section of the trigger guard on the left side. The ESB2-1 is not a huge change, but I figured it would be just a bit better.
 
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