I don’t care for it in the pic, but I too would like to see it on a complete rifle.
To each their own.
I’ve never needed to use the FA, but I see no reason to eliminate it. The weight savings is negligible.
I said it in the other thread but I’ll say it again here.
Drop your magazine in snow or accidentally drop the rifle when the bolt is locked to the rear during a reload (easy to do in ice) and see if a forward assist is necessary.
It is.
Ask me how I know.
Like most things - you don’t need it until you need it.
Your life was saved multiple times by you having a forward assist when you used it in combat?
Removing the FA is a fashion trend and/or a weight weenie thing. Might as well remove the seat belts from your car. After all, how often do you crash?
That’s a weapon maintenance issue and someone not properly inspecting their weapon. Granted, I don’t look at every pin, roll pin, spring and screw every time I do weapons maintenance, but doing a thorough check every once in a while should be in anyone’s maintenance schedule and would eliminate most of the possibility of this happening. I won’t say all, because anything can happen, and when talking about a machine, the only absolute is that nothing is absolute.
I like this analogy.
Why do you think I have so much time to spend on the internet. Space rocks are scary!
You almost have to have a FA with a non-reciprocating charging handle. I don’t like them and I would say to never use it, if your gun can’t get it in by the bolt group that is a check on its own. I understand the slow bolt stall and just needing a little umph to chamber and lock and in that situation it seems like the best thing ever,and in the end that is the most likely best case scenario given the wide range of skills people have. I still like the reciprocator charging handles in theory because it also gives you a visual in your periphery of the gun status, if it jams you can tell before checking a port door. On the other hand, working in tight situations with that beat stick coming out the gun, back and forth very quickly, could be a learning experience.
So I guess I like the FA, I have always had a rule to never shoot reloads, and to never use the FA. I had to violate both at a machine gun shoot at Knob Creek at the same time. I was having to wack the FA so hard that my palm was starting to not be able to take it. I was just so pissed that I kept going but on the last one that took me about 2 or 3 major wacks I just gave up. The upper I was using apparently was brand new with a tight chamber as well. So this was a bad situation that I should have just stopped.
The FA isn’t missed on the FAL with it’s non-reciprocating charging handle.
I’ve used a variety of self loading rifles with reciprocating charging handles for years (never in combat though) without getting beaten by them
To those who’ve needed their forward assist for anything other than a press check, could you describe how it was used and whether it solved the problem?
-B
How much more does this weigh than those 9mm FA-less uppers that you can get adco to drill?
A dirty weapon in a dry desert climate. Sand, dust, and carbon build up clogging the shit out of the weapon. Lube (shiity .mil CLP/LSA) just turned the mixture into cement mud. Ammunition wouldn’t properly seat on every round. Every few rounds the weapon would malfunction, after a few times racking the round out that wouldn’t seat, I started smashing on the FA to get the gun up. One hard slap on the FA would get the round to seat enough for the weapon to fire. No FTEs or FTFs, just out of battery malfunctions. Once I got the chance, I cleaned the ever loving shit out of my weapon and went back to not having to use the FA at all.
In my opinion, from my experience, the FA is there mostly for when it’s either faster to slap an out of battery round into the chamber than rack it out and try to rechamber a new round, or when your gun is just so gummed up that regardless of anything else you do, you’re going to get out of battery malfunctions. Most civilian shooters aren’t ever going to let their weapons get that bad, but it’s there as a tool. If you know the history behind the FA and why the weapon was changed to include it, you know that it was included as a military asset, obviously. That’s where most of it’s practical use lies for what it was designed for.
My rifle is a tool, including my own personal rifle, not just my issued M4 or M16, I inspect my ammunition before I load it into magazines for dents, dings, and anything else unusual, so I have no qualms about slapping the piss out of the FA to get a round to seat if I need to. I’m not inherently worried about getting a casing stuck in the chamber. If it happens it happens, but, as many have probably seen me say, inspect your weapon, and all of it’s components, including your ammunition, and you should be able to keep those types of issues to a minimum.
Most uppers I’ve weighed are approximately 8.4 oz with FWD assist and the ejection port cover/hardware. One Mega forged upper I had differed from the others at 8.1 oz.
A 9mm upper is 7.7 oz with the ejection port cover or 6.9 oz stripped. Les Bear’s upper without the FWD assist is the same, so I assume Rainier’s is going to be similar. Thus, about 0.7 oz savings from a standard, forged upper. Not a lot and certainly not a reason to do so by itself unless you’re looking to save every gram possible for, say, an ultra lightweight hunting AR.
FWIW, the VLTOR MUR-1S is 8.4 oz, and the MUR-1A is ~ 10 oz.
A gym membership is a lot cheaper than a lightweight upper.
Taking off the FA for weight savings is a terrible idea. I’ve had to use the FA while deployed on a few occasions due to bad weather, and while it didn’t exactly save my life, it did more for me than having an upper receiver that was .04 ounces lighter would have done.
I certainly agree if we’re referring to fighting/defense rifles. However, in the pursuit of building ultra lightweight hunting ARs, I’ve allowed for some compromises such as deleting the forward assist on a few assemblies. For example a6 lb 1.4 oz Varmint gun with a 20" BBL. The worst thing that can happen in this case is that I miss the Prairie Dog.
BTW 0.7 oz, not 0.04. 
Not this crap again.
Arguing that making your gun less functional for the sake of a bit of weight savings is taboo around here? Sorry JChops, I’ll keep the common sense to a minimum in future posts.
If guys want to buy it, then great, but I want a forward assist.
Anyone build on one of these yet?