Forward assist what is

On the "against" side, the forward assist was added for not exactly the best reasons and arguably does something that shouldn't be done to begin with. Specifically, you're forcing the gun into battery when it's not going into battery on its own, which arguably means either the gun needs to be fixed or the cartridge that isn't feeding needs to be ejected. If a gun isn't going into battery because of an ammunition issue, clearing the malfunctioning cartridge is a better idea, followed by using better ammunition.

Also, the forward assist only works in case of a malfunction that's minor enough for the bolt to be pounded into battery by definition, so clearly it isn't the failsafe that many believe it is. Okay, so when the AR was being considered for adoption as the M16, the US Army literally the US Army not "the army" meaning the armed forces as a whole was just getting out its primary relationship with the M1 Garand and M14 family.

Now, thing about the M1 Garand and the M14 is that it has an open-top rotating bolt. If it goes out of battery, you can just smack the thing and presto - you're in battery. You can't do that with an AR Unless, of course, you add a mechanical assist. The Army wanted the redundancy of being able to force the gun into battery - which isn't a good idea!

Maybe you put too many rounds in the magazine , and the resulting spring pressure is too tight to allow the bolt to strip a round out of the mag smoothly. And the most dangerous condition is when you have a throat or barrel obstruction — for example a bullet that stripped from the case during unloading. Unload, and load. After loading, we teach students to perform a press or chamber check to confirm that they did indeed end up with a round in the chamber. Confirming you are truly loaded is cheap insurance.

To perform a press check, pull the charging handle back slightly, exposing the round — which is hooked onto the extractor. You visually or physically confirm there is a round chambered. Once confirmed, you release the charging handle, letting it snap forward with full spring pressure on the bolt.

I disagree. The military still trains to use the FA and it can be useful. Before you say keep your rifle clean, go get in an extended firefight and stop to pop the rear pin, pull your BCG out to clean your rifle all while bullets are zipping past your head, and see where that gets you!

In a situation like that the FA is a great feature. It can also be tapped as a reassurance that the bolt is closed all the way. You really need to come up a little to include opinions of those that required its use in firefights.

They need it to go bang, fast, and a LOT. I will say that my assist has come in handy, mainly on new guns that are not properly broken in yet, especially after the above-mentioned loaded chamber check. So yes, in most shooters lives the FA is a superfluous piece, but to say it is useless and serves no purpose the general AR user is overstating it.

Ultimately, the only absolute is there are no absolutes. It can also be used to close a bolt that was gently let down, rather than released under full spring compression, to keep the noise of closing the bolt to a minimum.

The forward assist is generally not necessary as a standard procedure on any weapon with the exception of the British version of the L85 A1. Having realized the frequency with which the weapon jammed when taken outside of the clean environment of the test range, the forward assist was implemented to save the operator the potential danger of aiming the rifle and pulling the trigger and the rifle not going off because the bolt is not fully forward a safety arrangement called a "safety sear" stopping the hammer from being released and the weapon firing, because of the dangers of firing with the bolt not fully closed.

The design of the L85 makes the forward assist quite awkward as the left supporting arm must come off the hand grip and reach over the top to strike the bolt forward with the left edge of the left hand, much like a "karate chop". A redesign of the L85 , known as the A2, alleviated this problem by reducing the number of locking lugs on the bolt and strengthening the recoil spring.

However, the "forward-assist" is still often taught simply as a matter of course. The forward assist had been implemented in on the MSAR STG , an American-made clone of the Austrian Steyr AUG assault rifle, but the usefulness of such device is questionable, since the design is not normally prone to the malfunction that led to the need of the forward assist in other firearms; in fact Microtech Small Arms Research Inc.

One issue I see with a lot of military training is that soldiers are not taught to understand a weapon and what they are doing with it, but to simply follow a series of steps. Pull the charging handle. Observe the open chamber area. Release the charging handle. Tap the forward assist. If I have a jam 1 click instead of bang , I slap the mag, charge, and fire.

My weapon stays on target and my firing hand does not leave the grip. If I have a jam 2 bolt is not fully closed for some reason , I remove the magazine, run the charging handle a couple times, insert the magazine, charge, and fire. I would only use the forward assist if I discovered a trend of not fully chambering — something I have never seen in a functional, maintained, and lubricated weapon with functional mags.

I had an old Benjamin Franklin brass air rifle when I was five. The more you pumped it, the faster the pellet went. Pumping the forward assist on an AR will not give you more velocity, more lethality or — as far as I know — even more movie star prowess. As a hunter, a home defender and U. Creative manufacturers continue to improve the design of the forward assist.