I took a tactical carbine class late last year and found it to be quite enjoyable. There were two things about the training that I found to be counter intuitive.
The proper use of the charging handle was one of them.
In this course, the instructors told us that, as right handed shooters, we should only use our left hand to pull the charging handle back.
I understand the concept. The thinking is that you don’t want to take your right hand away from the trigger…but it seems to go against the natural flow of things. The shooter’s body position seems to be perfectly positioned to use the right hand…and not the left.
What about going prone? Although I’ve never tried it, it seems that it would be really tough to smoothly use your left hand while shooting from that position.
I think it’d be more uncomfortable and harder to pull the handle with your left hand…with your right hand, you can keep a good grip on the forearm and maybe even pull that forward to charge the weapon quicker…
Fact remains, though, is you should only have to charge the weapon once, and that is before you actually get into a firefight…
The other time to use the dominant hand on the charging handle is if you have a Condition 3 stoppage (Failure to extract AKA Double feed), you’ll need to LOCK the bolt to release pressure to the round coming up from the magazine – a two-handed operation. LOCK STRIP RACK RACK RACK READY/SHOOT.
Traditional loading a magazine into a close bolt is PUSH PULL TILT RACK READY (or SHOOT). Support hand does the work for economy of motion = speed. We don’t always use the sights in combat (heresy!).
These days there are soooo many “Tacticle” schools, classes, teachers, books, DVD’s ect…ect… that the ONLY way these people have left to diferentiate themselves from the heard and make it seem as if they know something no one else does is to go against the grain.
Different strokes for different folks and some may have picked up on and become more comfortable using their left hand to manipulate the CH. Lets look at this left hand CH manipulation from the perspective of someone used to working it with the right hand.
What is there to gain?
The only time you “should” need to use the CH is upon initial loading in which the method does not matter.
Lefty or Righty the rifle is being moved away from your face so you loose your sight picture either way. THis means there is no speed or sight picture retention advantage.
Lets say by some small chance you need to use the forward assist, going lefty you now have to switch hands out or turn the rifle 180 deg to get to the FA.
Is is easier to balance the rifle holding it by the grip in your right hand or holding it in your left at the forarms?
Due to the way most humans develop your thumb and forefinger are the storngest two. Keeping with safe weapon handeling skills while holding the rifle in the right hand, trigger finger out of the triggerwell, you are giving up some of your grip strength. So what are the chances, under stress, of accidently sliding that trigger finger back into the well and pulling the trigger in an effort to better grip the gun as you are pulling back on it with the other hand?
This is kind of aiken to the old “Don’t carry a pistol SOB as if you fall you will become cripple”
To gain: Keeping your operating hand on the operating controls is a good thing, in general. This is consistent with virtually every firearm platform: Pistol, shotgun and rifle.
The dominant hand does the shooting, while the support hand does the support services; such as loading, reloading, malfunction clearing and hand signals.
This is for tactical operations, not target shooting.
I am unaware of any tactical instructors who advocate differently.
Not true. This would be true only if all was required was for you to fire just one magazine and everything went perfectly. Every time.
That’s not how tactical training works.
Those who must respond tactically need to prepare for the worst, which includes learning to clear failures. We use the charging handle for failures to fire, and addressing and clearing malfunctions/stoppages/failures during that practice. The support hand should be used for such procedures, since all of this will likely be performed under stress in a real gunfight.
What happens if your bolt fails to lock open on the last round and you need to reload? If you use the dominant hand to charge the rifle and the replace your hand on the control, you have wasted both motion and time. Economy of motion equals speed. Shorten the distances and the time shortens, too.
On a cold, square, target range, I don’t care what you do.
In a tactical course, which is intended to prepare you for the incident of encounter (when the bullets are flying), we want you to keep your strong grip on the gun and use your support hand for the charging handle. We want you to practice at about 140%, so when the real SHTF, you can perform at about 80% proficiency.
The consistency of using the support hand promotes clearing failures to fire and other stoppages under stress. The consistency of repetition is part of the immersion training.
If you’re a target shooter, you would be right – it doesn’t matter what hand you use. Those of us who actually run towards the bullets, while the sheep flee – NEED to learn to use the CH in a fashion that minimizes motion and other time-consuming baloney.
If anything, the forward is assist is rarely used, ever – so that comment about rotating the rifle to reach it is a specious argument at best.
Also, there is NO problem at all with rotating the rifle in a combat situation when a sight picture is not required. Shortstocking and rolling the rifle over are quite effective, and that method has been taught to tactical CQB teams for years.
Further, the actual strength of the grip is comprised of the thumb and middle finger, not the thumb and trigger finger. Yes, infants develop the use of those fingers first, but that doesn’t really apply to tactical rifle use, does it?
And that comment is just a plain old non-sequitir. It’s not “akin” to diddly.
Lastly, to the OP: Your tactical rifle class should have included some prone shooting, which should have included loading, reloading and clearing malfunctions from that position, too. Just because someone uses a “tactical” rifle in a training course, does NOT mean you received any tactical training.
Tactical training is driven by MINDSET, which is the very top of the Combat Triad. Gunhandling and Marksmanship support MINDSET to complete the triad. Understand the MINDSET and the techniques will be readily understood.
It’s not that hard once you get used it. Keep practicing, you will be glad you learned it that way. Take more classes, too. You will see a philosophical consistency, and perhaps obtain a wider perspective for why this driving priniciple is a good one.
Perfect practice makes perfect. Garbage in, garbage out.
i can’t imagine a situation where it was more comfortable to use my right hand to operate the CH (as a right handed shooter). except in a double feed clearing, and even then, the last RACK is with my left hand.
Veracity, can you describe the motions that you use to execute various tasks with your rifle? such as:
Loading a mag and chambering a round?
tap, rack, bang/reacquire?
Double feed malfunction clearing?
and as PRGGodfather mentioned, what about from the prone or lying positions?
i’m having a difficult time imagining using my right hand. maybe a detailed description of your movements will help shed a light on your maneuvers.
Maybe the real technique is that chopping motion that I did see one of the instructors use. He would put his left hand into one of those fake “judo chop” positions and then slam it back so that it came into contact with the left side of the handle…racking it back. I don’t do that.
If I’m shooting…nose close to the charging handle… I can’t use my left hand without moving the rifle away from me. Otherwise my left hand would smack me in the face. However, if I use my right hand, I hardly have to move anything at all.
Is that a bit more clear? I honestly want to know what you guys think. I hope I’m painting a proper picture.
Well, your depiction of the “judo chop” is a little Austin Powers.
I suppose some people could do it that way. If it is consistent, effective and uses gross motor skills, it works for me.
I like the PRI Military Latch or the Badger GenII latch to help. Grabbing both sides is more positive than grabbing just the left side, and promotes more even wear on the CH.
Still, with proper practice, the GI latch works fine. Just use your support hand, as we can be flexible on the rest – like if you’re missing a digit or something…
I’ve been hunting for videos on Youtube just to get a feel for what other shooters might be doing with the CH…and they’re mostly using their left hands.
My experience with rifles is pretty limited, but if I had one criticism of the AR platform it would be the location of the charging handle. It feels awkward to me, and like it definitely could’ve/should’ve been moved to a more central location (ala the ACR, as Thekatar pointed out). Everything else feels fine to this civilian.
Granted, I think those two images on pg161 of that report are very misleading as far as distance of controls is concerned…