Can you hold the forward assist when shooting an AR-15?

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A couple of years ago, I tried using my forward assist like a thumb rest for some precision shooting. At some point, I must have flexed my thumb enough to depress the FA, as I was startled by a sudden, violent, painful slap to my thumb - in the instant, I would have believed you if you had told me the tip of my thumb had been blown away.

So no, I wouldn’t personally attempt to hold my FA with any of my appendages to prevent the action from cycling.

Beyond the human issue, the pawl and two roll pins, and the teeth in the side of the carrier aren’t made for the burden of stopping the carrier, and won’t survive long. I’ve repaired multiple broken FA pins over the years - it’s tiny.

If the dude wants an electively manual AR, get an AGB.
 
I have a manually operated 300 blackout upper. I used a bear creek side charging upper and put the gas block on backwards like I stated before. The biggest advantage of going to a manually operated action is you don’t have to worry about having enough gas to cycle the action, so instead of using like 11 grains of medium burn speed powder like CFE BLK, you can use like 4-5 grains of a fast burning pistol powder like red dot or 700x. The noise is cut dramatically and no first round pop because everything is burned in the barrel
 
Na. Not really. I’ve been shooting suppressed for a long time and for the intended purpose the OP stated, there isn’t enough difference to justify changing anything on the rifle or trying to hold the forward assist forward. A neighbor who hears the action, is going to hear the shot.
I’ve been shooting suppressed for a few years. Port pop is a real thing. Manually operated suppressed firearms don’t have port pop and are known to be quieter.

(No, I’m not suggesting anyone thumb the forward assist to hold the action closed.)
 
Yeah, if the neighbor doesn't like guns or hunting, think how thrilled they'll be if an obviously shot animal dies on their property.

As far as holding an appendage on it, not me thanks, I like all 10 as they are. I read people put their thumbs over the back of just a .22 pistol slide, preventing it from coming back to stop the noise of it cycling, but I'm not brave enough to even do that.
IME, it's no problem at all to hold a 22 LR semi-auto slide or bolt closed while firing a round. There's just very little recoil to a 22 LR.
 
When I was playing with CCI quiets in my 10-in buck mark, I took that one for the team.... Didn't do it twice but it didn't break anything.....
I've held the action on a mkii closed. tried first with the palm of my hand. 2nd time with the thumb of my shooting hand. it didn't hurt.
 
If he has a free float upper & wants to shoot it without it cycling. The the hand guard off loosen the screws on the gas block & slide the gas block a little forward so the holes don't line up, tighten the crews back down. Put the hand guard back on & you have a gun that doesn't cycle. I found that out when my screws came loose & the gun quit cycling.
 
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IME, it's no problem at all to hold a 22 LR semi-auto slide or bolt closed while firing a round. There's just very little recoil to a 22 LR.
I train all our guys to press the off-hand palm against the back of Glock slides to hold them in battery for shots when pressed hard against a suspect’s body. 9, .40, .45, there is zero pain, nothing more than a pink spot on the palm from the slide.

The drill is completed by firing that “press shot”, side stepping while cycling the pistol slide, then immediately fire two rapid body shots and one to the head.

As for the neighbors, are they being a pain about guns or about hunting in general? If I couldn’t shoot a pest-pig without spilling their granola, as was suggested above is a bow or crossbow out of the question?

Stay safe.
 
The only way to make a supressed firearm as quiet as possible is to only shoot subsonic rounds around 1170 fps or slower. Than it may not cycle the action if the buffer spring is to heavy.
 
I've held the action on a mkii closed. tried first with the palm of my hand. 2nd time with the thumb of my shooting hand. it didn't hurt.
The buckmark stung enough I didnt do it again, but it wasnt damaging. I just stuck my right thumb around the back of the slide tho, didnt actually put my palm behind it.....22 ya know!....
 
My friend just built a 6ARC AR15 and during our recent range trip he shut off his adjustable gas block and was using it as a straight pull bolt action so he didn't have to chase his brass, I think he purchased it at Delta Team and it was around $20, I didn't notice a difference in sound but we were wearing muffs.
 
Maybe an AR platform is not always the answer and he should look at a bolt gun or break barrel single shot as being a better answer.

Assuming this is a legal place to hunt, does not the hunter have the right of pursuit and recovery from adjacent land?

3C
 
Assuming this is a legal place to hunt, does not the hunter have the right of pursuit and recovery from adjacent land?

3C
Hopefully it is a legal place to hunt but no most places that have good hunting the neighboring property won't let you recover your take from their land. It's best to ask permission before hand for surrounding property but if it isn't possible you can do what I did. I called the local conservation officer. He went to the property owner to ask permission for me & the property owner told him no. So he told the property owner that being that they now know that a deer was dead on their property, if they didn't remove the dead animal he would have to write them a citation for wanton waste. Since they didn't want to deal with the dead animal they agreed to allow him accompanying me to recover the deer.
 
buy a 2nd gas block and put it on backwards so the hole doesn't line up with the port in the barrel. Then when you want it to semi auto again put the original block and gas tube back on.

That's what I did. Maybe when my can arrives I'll look into an adjustable block.
 
Not in any that I’ve ever hunted

Kansas is a right of refusal state. While I was growing up, it WAS a prohibited state, and only relatively recently the law changed to allow retrieval after attempted contact, but remaining, the land owner can refuse access. We take property rights seriously here, and don’t abide trespass or poaching at all - so much to the point, that a great many of our hunting laws are quite archaic even to the point of being nonsensical.
 
Maybe an AR platform is not always the answer and he should look at a bolt gun or break barrel single shot as being a better answer.

Assuming this is a legal place to hunt, does not the hunter have the right of pursuit and recovery from adjacent land?

3C
I advised him to look into a bolt gun, but he understandably wants this one to pull double duty as a HD gun and hunting rifle. He's not a big firearm accumulator like many of us here.

In my state, and any other that I can think of, if the animal flees off of your property you have to get permission to recover it from the land owner.
 
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Hopefully it is a legal place to hunt but no most places that have good hunting the neighboring property won't let you recover your take from their land. It's best to ask permission before hand for surrounding property but if it isn't possible you can do what I did. I called the local conservation officer. He went to the property owner to ask permission for me & the property owner told him no. So he told the property owner that being that they now know that a deer was dead on their property, if they didn't remove the dead animal he would have to write them a citation for wanton waste. Since they didn't want to deal with the dead animal they agreed to allow him accompanying me to recover the deer.
Kinda messed up that the cop strong armed the property owner like that, even if the owner was a dick for barring access.
 
This is the Kansas law synopsis.

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I think some improvement could be made. Game animals are property of the public trust or some such. I would wish that unless there is good reason, a legal hunter could pursue wounded game both for prevention of waste of resource and to end suffering even if on posted property. But it is an imperfect world.

3C
 
Maybe an AR platform is not always the answer and he should look at a bolt gun or break barrel single shot as being a better answer.

Assuming this is a legal place to hunt, does not the hunter have the right of pursuit and recovery from adjacent land?

3C

Its definitely pretty clumsy, even with a side charging upper. In my case I already had the barrel sitting on the shelf so it cost me like $100 to put together. It works but I wouldn't recommend it if starting from scratch. A bolt action would be better.
 
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