Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Uppers without forward assist?

Any of you have a slick sided upper? Is the purpose to save weight? Purely Aesthetics? Would you own a rifle without forward assist?

I'm down to half a dozen AR's right now, I only own one that has a forward assist. The only reason that it has one is because it is a factory gun.
If I am building a rifle from parts I make sure that the upper does not have this worthless feature.

My side charger doesn’t.

Yes, somewhat, meh, yes.

MM

Most of us use our AR’s such that we can keep them cleaned and adequately lubed, so it’s an unnecessary complication. I mean, how many other semi-auto rifles do you see with a forward assist?

All mine have forward assists, I almost think I’ve smacked one once or twice, not sure.

I like it in case I’m hunting and need to be “quiet” when chambering a round. I can pull back and then slowly let the charging handle return, and then make sure the bolt is fully closed/round fully chambered with the forward assist.

Not usually necessary, but if the chamber is dirty, and you don’t wanna just yank back on the charging handle and let ‘er go, then it COULD be of some use.

Y do you want to pound something in where it doesn’t want to go. Even in a life/death situation if your ammo won’t chamber on its own there pry a reason. I have uppers both ways and all my hunting uppers are now side chargers so I can manipulate the bolt. I like the slick sided ones as it less stuff to catch on or have a failure. YMMV

David

When's the last time I needed one?

I have two early 80s SP1 carbines , slick side, light handy little carbines, Everything else has a forward assist.

Right now, you better buy any upper that you can find, either with or w/o the FA.

MM

The AR I built for prairie dogs doesn't have a forward assist or dust cover. I don't miss it or see a reason for it on that rifle.

The original M16 design didn't have a forward assist, the Army insisted on adding it. The designer of the M16, Eugene Stoner, didn't include one as he saw no need for it. If there's something keeping the bolt from closing under it's own power then forcing it closed is probably going to turn something easily cleared into a jammed mess.

If you need to ease the bolt home quietly, you’ll need a FA fairly often, which is why side chargers can be better for hunting builds. Normal free bolt use, there’s no real need. As far as hanging up on stuff, other stuff on ARs are a bigger concern, to me. Just my take.

I have one left but I had to go check to see which gun it was on. That's how much I use the FA.

I only bought this one for a light weight build but now all of my guns are light weight and having a FA doesn't add enough weight to notice.

Yep I that is why I like forward assist quiet loading and making sure bolt is in battery

This is why I prefer a forward assist. I won't own an ar without one.

Bb

I always have to wonder why it would be important to chamber quietly.

While folks can have their own reasons, probably one of the more common is hunting elevated stands, and not climbing or hauling up a loaded gun, and then wanting no more noise than possible when loading it once there.

I've never hunted with an AR

Most every other common semi auto hunting rifle besides an AR has a forward assist.....a fixed charging handle.

Saves weight and in my opinion looks better. Although they typically cost a little more than traditional uppers.