I have been playing with my new ACR these last few weeks and am starting to dislike the selector. I don’t really like the mushy feel and I think the lever on the right-hand side sticks out a little too far. I get a pretty aggressive grip on the rifle and find that the outside lever rubs against my trigger finger. Also, unless I index my finger underneath the bolt stop, the lever hits my finger when coming off of safe.
Anyway, I have exchanged a few PM’s with Duffy from BAD and have asked him about having a BAD ASS lever made for the ACR. I’d like to have the levers offset slightly as I think this would help keep the right side lever out of my way. I’d also think the slight change in operating angle would make the lever easier to engage.
Here’s what I’ve got in mind. Anybody else like to see something like this?
The ACR selector seems rather complicated for what it does. Couple of things I noticed right away:
It has rather short levers. Short levers require more force to rotate, but the levers don’t seem difficult to rotate because #2…
The arm that takes the place of an AR detent and detent spring doesn’t exert a lot of spring tension.
The short levers feel pretty fast, something we know because our own short levers behave the same way, and also it’s just high school physics :happy:
The most complaints we have heard about the ACR selector is that it’s completely plastic. Once we’re done with the projects we’ve been working on in the last 12 months, we’ll start playing with different ideas
The problem I have with the stock selector is two fold.
First, there’s the issue with the outboard lever. I get a high aggressive grip on the rifle and try to get my hand as high up into the tang on the lower as possible. This causes my trigger finger to interfere with the selector’s rotation if I index my trigger finger straight and off the trigger. The only way I can get my finger to clear and still maintain my high grip is to either take my finger completely off the rifle or index it down underneath the bolt catch.
The second issue I have is with the inboard lever. This lever falls naturally under my thumb when in the safe position and I have no problem resting my thumb on top of the selector when carrying the rifle in outdoor ready. The lever’s short and, as Duffy notes above, is very quick to flick down to the fire position. But I also find this short length puts the tip of the selector right against the knuckle of my right thumb. On an AR, with its longer lever, I use the inside fleshy part of my thumb to roll the selector back to safe. I can’t really do this with the ACR’s short lever and find I’m using my knuckle to re-engage the safety. I’ll no doubt build a callous there but, for now at least, the lever digs into my thumb just to the right of my thumbnail.
I actually find that I’m a little more comfortable running the selector with my trigger fnger as a lefty has to do with a stock AR. No big deal, I guess, but I’d like to keep the operation of the rifle’s safety as close to what I’m used to as possible. Hence the desire for an improved lever from BAD.
