If so, what causes them to break? At what point in the rifle’s life? etc, etc, etc?
Yes, I have heard of them breaking.
No, I haven’t broken mine, but I have broken the latch pin. I recently replaced my broken latch pin with a stainless steel pin, in an effort to make it last a bit longer.
A CH from a known-good manufacturer should last the life of the rifle, barring exceptional use. I would not consider a worn latch or spring a problem, as long as it was later in the life of the part.
A CH from a lesser manufacturer may be more easily bent, have a pin that walks, or latch that fails in some way. Adding an extended/tactical CH latch may exacerbate problems due to the additional stresses such things can put on the CH.
If you’re CH is latching, disengaging, your pin isn’t walking, and it’s moving freely in the upper, it’s GTG. When it does otherwise, replace it. If you have a suspect/bottomfeeder part, it’s cheap insurance to replace it preemptively.
the only charging handles i’ve seen break were being used as things other than charging handles…
i’ve operated weapons with seriously beat up charging handles- like, completely worn smooth and shiny at the top, side lugs worn down to little nubs, etc- and still had the weapon function fine.
the only thing the charging handle does is manually charge the weapon- it will actually fire and cycle rounds without it… so it’s not a high-wear part, though it seems like it would be.
I haven’t seen any broken charging handles, but have seen some bent ones. Most of these were either cheap and/or had large latches installed.
seen several bent ones, never one that actually broke (like, in half)
Had an unknown brand/quality charging handle crack right below the handle on one side, the metal kind of looked like when you tear cardboard, kind of crumbly. Not too much wear/use on the CH for that to happen. I weighed both the broken CH and two known CH’s (RRA Forged and CMT CH) and the broken CH weighed less than both quality CH’s. Also, the broken CH was smaller in key areas (handle area and near gas tube area), as if to save on materials.
Also use a 90’s production Bushmaster with a CH whose finish is well worn and it feels like it flexes when I have to clear for malfunctions, etc., but it still works.
I’ll gladly pay extra for forged CH’s.
I had the roll pin on my PRI Gas Buster CH (the newer version with the largest latch available) work its way out at a carbine class this past weekend while I was emptying a mag. I saw something black fly to my left out of the corner of my eye, but kept on firing. I then noticed that the charging handle was then reciprocating back and forth just half way of the length of the charging handle, and was popping me in the right cheek every time I fired.
This was a factory new PRI GB CH, with ZERO modifications done to it. I think it was just a fluke, s I have 3 other Gas buster’s and they work just fine… although the other 3 all have the standard big latch on them, not the newer even larger “military big latch.” (I think that’s what it’s called?)
I stopped firing when I noticed it moving and popping me in the cheek b/c I had never seen a CH reciprocate on an AR like that. Then I immediately noticed that the latch had separated itself from the CH. I decided to go ahead and finish the course of fire just to see how it would hold up and what would happen, since I’ve never seen it happen before.
My SR-15 functioned just fine without the latch, and the CH barely “tapped” my cheek each time I fired, it wasn’t painful at all, although it had more blowback almost like I was firing suppressed or something. It ran just fine for the last 35-50 rounds I fired until the course of fire was complete and we all needed to reload our mags.
Afterwards I simply took my other Gas Buster charging handle out of my backup carbine and everything was good to go and like new again.
Bent is probably worse than broken, at least if it breaks it can be removed easily, where a bent one might be a pain.
At a Caputo class, he showed us a PRI charging handle that had been bent.
Any charging handle out there can be bent.
not a fluke- that’s a known problem, but i think they’ve fixed it with a revised edition or something.
i’ve actually operated a weapon without a latch as well- it didn’t effect my shooting at all, as i shoot with my nose literally mashed up against the charging handle anyway.
I had a roll pin break in my LMT CH. Rainier was good to me and send me a new one next day!
We had alot of them breaking on another project (Bushmasters) and it was the area where the roll pin connects the latch. We felt it was due to the stupid clearing policies which had the TCN guards cycling the handle dozens of times per day x 7 days a week.
My Stag handle broke. The latch pulled right through the latch pin. I chucked the entire handle and replaced it with a BCM.
I had “heard” from the errornet that some clearance drills where you use the weak hand’s outside palm is used to push the charging handle rearward while the strong side hand remains on grip and rifle remains shouldered and all you have to do is lift head while pushing the CH rearward with weak hand can cause CH to fail/bend/break…anyone have first hand knowledge of these clearing techniques and if they over stress the CH?
I would believe that.
When I pull the CH back, I use my index and thumb and have a natural tendency to pull at an angle, “bending” the CH to the right side of the rifle.
I really don’t think the ar15 CH was meant to be used as a left side CH.
Which brings me to this question, why aren’t there AR15 receivers with left-side FAL/XCR style CH’s?
We break a roll pin at least a couple times per month. (test firing)
Lots a good examples above.
Stop teasing! Show us a pic already! 
Yes and this is why I use PRI Gas Busters on almost everything. I’ve broken 2 standard charging handles, 1 in training and 1 in competition.
Still working hard on it. No pics yet, but soon. 
Eagerly awaiting same.
I’ve bent one handle, and I’ve seen one latch detach next to me on the line. It actually hit me.