Tavor gurus - lighter charging?

[kb007]

Posting this for a friend who has a recent Tavor Tar-21. She's having problems with the charging handle / charging, in that she doesn't have huge arm strength and finds it hard to use the charging handle. Is it possible to somehow lighten up the spring / mechanism for the charging handle? She already has an extension handle, but still finds the pull on the handle to be really heavy. She bought the Tavor as she's a lefty and it was probably the easiest to convert to left handed.

And, before the negative comments come pouring out, this friend is a 60+ yr old grandma who has her black badge and wants to shoot rifle CQB style.

 

[onetwentyish]

Nope. The resistance you are feeling is the recoil springs on the bcg. This will be the same with any semi-auto.

 

[rommelrommel]

I think no, realistically. The charging handle runs the bolt carrier back and the bolt carrier is under spring tension. I guess you could experiment with cutting coils off of the main spring but I imagine you might end up with a ruined spring and a gun that doesn't cycle.

 

[onetwentyish]

The best advice I can offer is for her to go to a gun shop and try the new x95 Tavor as the CH location hs been moved closer which results in the user having better leverage in my opinion.

For lefty use, I would say try an ACR as well which is completely ambi (except ejection - which doesn't matter), but it will feel heavier to the shooter since it lacks the optimal weight distribution of the bullpup design.

 

[Auggie Doggie]

If the rifle has been dry fired, you are also pulling against the hammer spring. Mine is stock, so I can't say if an aftermarket hammer group will make it a bit easier or not.

Auggie D.

 

[luckey]

when I saw the first part of the sentence, I thought you were going to suggest her to go to a gym.

joking aside, I will really suggest her to go to a gym though because I compared a brand new TAR-21 side-by-side by with my brand new x95, it takes pretty much the same force to pull the charging handle. I guess that's the tavor way.

The best advice I can offer is for her to go to a gun shop and try the new x95 Tavor as the CH location hs been moved closer which results in the user having better leverage in my opinion.

For lefty use, I would say try an ACR as well which is completely ambi (except ejection - which doesn't matter), but it will feel heavier to the shooter since it lacks the optimal weight distribution of the bullpup design.

 

[onetwentyish]

when I saw the first part of the sentence, I thought you were going to suggest her to go to a gym.

joking aside, I will really suggest her to go to a gym though because I compared a brand new TAR-21 side-by-side by with my brand new x95, it takes pretty much the same force to pull the charging handle. I guess that's the tavor way.

Same force for sure, they are the same BCG and should be completely interchangeable. What I was saying is the the position of the x95 CH being closer to the chest allows for more leverage, especially for smaller framed people.

 

[Jarvy]

My Tavor was very rough to charge when I first got it. You might be able to smooth out the pull. Take off the top half of the fore-end and examine the charging bar for wear.

If it has a visible scrape mark on it, a lot of the resistance you're feeling comes from the charging bar scraping against one of the gas tube "struts."

To fix this requires removing the barrel assembly, finding the section that is coming into contact with the charging bar, and lightly file it down, then smooth it out with 1000gr sandpaper.

 

[kb007]

Thanks guys - passed on suggestions to owner.

 

[G37]

Interesting thing to keep in mind for future, cutting springs/coils will actually make the spring stiffer.
To weaken a spring you'd heat up sections of coil so that it looses it's temper but maintains a similar OAL.

But yeah, as mentioned already, don't want to mess with the spring at all.

 

[flange]

Clearing a jam drill on the CF SMG's used the sling for leverage (or so I've been told). Not convenient but a possible work around ? Basically the sling came off wrapped around the charging handle and you so you could use both arms to force the bolt open. I'm not explaining it well but hopefully you get my meaning. Not sure if this would be a practical solution or not.