I’m right-handed, left-eye dominant, and spent years shooting my AR15 SP1 right-handed – the rifle doesn’t have a brass deflector and I was tired of getting hit in the face with every shot.
I shoot my new SP6920 left-handed, and boy, what a difference clear vision (and being able to keep both eyes open) makes!
I’ve had only slight troubles adapting to running the controls left-handed. Most of those went away with practice. To work the bolt release, I jamb the web of my right hand (between index finger and thumb) into the top front of the magwell, under the delta ring; this gives me enough reach with my index finger to get to the bolt release.
All the .mil firearms instructors I’ve had basically teach this, “the M4 is a very ergonomic weapon if you’re right handed. If you’re left handed, shoot right handed.”
This sounds like an instructor who is simply too lazy to take the time to help someone deal with adjusting to shooting left-handed, and is just kicking the can down the road.
I wonder how many lives have been lost because some trainees weren’t taught to maximize their skills and effectiveness, because of the attitude of instructors like these?
Knowing how to shoot offhand is good. Ambi controls helps, and there is no reason I can think of that ambi controls is a bad thing.
That idea is absurd, and for purists. IMHO. (Except for Todd K.'s reasoning. That one makes sense, even though you could solve the problem by putting ambi mag catches, and safeties on all issue M4/M16 guns…)
I’m a RH shooter, but shoot lefty from time to time. This helps.
BTW. KAC needs ambi bolt catch. Hopefully we’ll see it in the next few years by them.
But downgrading for the sake of consistancy, or simplicity is the perfect way to avoid progress.
yeah Todd, that’s me too. I still shoot pistol left-handed as it’s not a big correction but I get a lot of questions and strange looks when I step up to the line with both on different sides :blink:
The right side bolt release was one of the few NIFTY things about my POF. Billet lowers don’t do much for me, but I’d love that bolt release button on any rifle. Less cumbersome than a BAD lever, too.
Sure. To recap some of what I posted earlier, I subscribed to the whole “standardized kit” idea for many years, and just kept my ARs stock, since that was what was always going to be in the unit arms room. Over time, I did migrate toward the Norgon mag release and ambi selector mods for my own rifles, but that was about it – and to be honest, I only used the selector with any real consistency. These were good improvements, but nothing truly revolutionary.
My first exposure to a truly ambidextrous lower came with the MPLA (Magpul), and although it wasn’t exactly a day-and-night thing for me, the duplication of controls did enable me to do some things faster and with fewer work-arounds. The ability to manipulate the gun without devoting a lot of creative thought to making it an efficient process was refreshing, and I slowly came to terms with the fact that, even in combat, I was most often just carrying a handgun (M9), anyway.
I eventually added an SR-15E3 to the mix, and it was that weapon that really made me a believer. I still have decent enough muscle memory to do things the old way, but I no longer feel like it is important to “do without” just because a battlefield pickup weapon might not be configured the same way as my SR. In the same vein, I recently invested in an AXTS AX556, and have much the same opinion of this lower. These, to my mind anyway, do represent that “leap forward” that southpaws have been waiting for; especially now that we’re seeing complimentary innovations like the RA Raptor charging handle and BAD ambi selector switch.
Taken as a whole, these components have truly changed the game for left-handed riflemen, and unless you’re a particularly old or stubborn warhorse, most contemporary rifle designs already are incorporating ambi features, anyway. It only makes sense to invest in the equipment which which you are the most comfortable, able to grow the most competent, and which leave you most able to focus on the job at hand, rather than upon any nagging limitations that might otherwise be associated with the tool that you are using.
This was the first lower I had with a ambi bolt release. I am a southpaw and I found that as a southpaw my trigger finger jammed up against the Magpul BAD lever when I was not up on target with my finger on the trigger ( I have pretty big paws.) I liked the Spikes so much I built my next with the AR15/Magpul lower, both also have BAD selectors and Norgan’s. I also just picked up a Phase 5 Tactical ambi charging handle to replace my BCM Gunfighter. Like it a lot so far.
unless you’re a hardcore magpul fan and want one to collect, you’re better off buying another lower like the AX-556 or SR-15E3, which has many more features.
