I ordered a Geissele Maririme Bolt Catch yesterday; I don’t plan to board any ships; however, personally, it looks appealing for the following reasons:
A. I think it would aid/promote (no substitute for training) a consistent and positive bolt release with and without gloves.
B. It should benefit southpaws like myself.
Anyone using this Geissele part? Feedback?
good info in this thread:
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?197285-Geissele-Maritime-Bolt-Catch
I’ve been wanting to try one but haven’t jumped in.
Those of you that have one: Does the lower paddle contact the receiver when the bolt is locked back?
Not that I’ve noticed.
I am a lefty, they are all I put on rifles I plan to keep for personal use. You need to be aware that if you install one, the hammer pin has to be removed from left to right and installed right to left. You will have to angle the punch a little to get the pin started and you can’t use a slave pin on the reinstall of the hammer pin.
The biggest drawback, IMO, is that you can’t use the Forward Controls EMR-A with the Maritime Catch.
I have them on several rifles and really like them. I use KNS style pins, makes removal much easier.
I’m right-handed and do not wear winter gloves while shooting. I have a Maritime catch on one rifle, and it is OK. Realistically, I don’t think it is needed; or, at least you can get the Sig bolt catch with the slightly-larger lower section for less than half the cost of the Geissele.
Thanks for info.
I have a maritime on a couple rifles and a forward controls design on my newest build.
After having the FCD piece. I doubt I will bother with the maritime any more. The maritime just seems excessive now. Also I’m not shooting a wet gun with thick gloves on either.
As the guy that runs FCD and designed our EMR-A, I have written and posted my thoughts on our site http://www.forwardcontrolsdesign.com/3d-party-components-compatibility_ep_53-1.html , it goes into detail as to why on our bolt catch, we kept the size of our ABC/R moderate and measured.
Bear in mind that ABC/R was a concept in 2011 that became production units in 2015 after I left Battle Arms, and predates the MBC by several years.
Kind of bringing this back from near death -
Has anyone broken a Maritime Catch?
The reason I ask is that I broke one today and don’t know how it happened. I was practicing shooting transitions around a barricade using a poor man’s sling ding (my fist wrapped around the sling) and when I went to reload, the upper pad was MIA. I don’t think I bumped it against anything, kind of a mystery. I found the upper pad while I was policing brass, here’s where it broke:
I’m not too worried, going to file it under shit happens, unless others chime in that they’ve broken them.
I don’t shoot enough to break anything.
But, I recall a P&S modcast that referenced building materials, with an offhand comment about Geissele’s construction of the maritime. Not negative, just not positives.
I’ve seen a standard piece break (once), but never one from Geissele. Then again, there aren’t many of the G pieces out there in comparison. Call them up and get a new one sent as a replacement.
On a side note, how do the edges look? Any voids, cracks, pockmarks or anything else?
Please email me and we’ll send you one of ours. We had a batch with improper heat treat in 2017, most of them were recalled and destroyed, with some made into key chains as swag. An inglorious end for a billet machined bolt catch, but we’d rather make them inoperable than having them floating in circulation. Properly heat treated ABC/R v1 and v2 units have never been broken in their 4 years in service.
There’s a Forward Control Designs Group on Facebook. IIRC, there has been a fair amount of discussion about the design and construction on the MBC, most of it not good like you said. Obviously FCD has a competing product and Roger has earned a loyal fan base (myself included) but it didn’t seem like there were unfounded claims or anything. I’m replacing my one and only MBC with another ABC/R whenever the new one comes out.
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Thanks, Duffy.
I have several standard catches in the parts bins, so, I took one and clamped it into my vise by the catch portion (if you know what I mean) and rapped against the upper paddle with a plastic mallet several times, no joy. I took a standard ball pein and rapped it twice pretty firmly before it snapped.
I have 4 or 5 new MBT’s hanging on my parts pegboard, I momentarily thought about doing the same destructive test on one of them, but IIRC, I paid 20 bucks each for them and I decided not to.
As per the condition, I pieced the MBT together, there didn’t seem to be any chips missing, it apparently snapped clean. Likewise there weren’t any voids in the edges:
Doesn’t it look like this is a MIM or cast part versus machined from billet as the Forward Controls ABC/R?
I just realized that I hadn’t thanked Duffy for taking care of me on this deal.
My service rifle is now wearing a ABC and an EMR-A.
There is some debate as to whether the ERM-a is legal, but I’m going to wait until someone at a regional match calls me on it. My thought is BAD levers are legal and the EMR-A doesn’t change the receiver.
Thanks to Duffy for taking care of me with this issue, despite it being a Geissele product, and also for his factual advice to all on many subjects.
Bro. You guys do good work.
Thank you guys 
26 Inf, what are your thoughts on the ABC/R v2?
There are many with vastly more knowledge and experience on m4c, I share my observations and findings from product development, not everyone will find them relevant or useful, but there are more that do on m4c than elsewhere.
Without passing judgement on the superiority of either product’s design, construction method and product maturity, we’ve simply arrived at different conclusions as to how a bolt catch should, and could be used.
ABC/R v3 will have couple of upper paddle options to better suit users with different reload manipulation techniques. ABC/R v1 and v2 upper paddles are centered, v3 will have centered, and biased options.
My Maritime Latch is GTG, but I would like to have a cool key ring like that!