AR-15 bolt and barrel questions

embermage · Jan 18, 2015

OKay, in the process of building an HBAR AR. Have a 20" barrel on the way. And have been thinking about using a side charging upper. As I am left eye dominant, I shoot from the left shoulder. I would like to use a left handed upper and bolt. Therein lies the question, I noticed just a brief blurb about the locking lugs on a barrel needing to be ambi for a left handed bolt to operate. Have any of you ran into this, and is it possible to do a modification to an existing barrel's lugs?

Boom Boom · Jan 18, 2015

Buy right-handed, use an ambi safety and charging handle, and go with the flow. 10x easier to deal with in several respects. It will work fine. Worst thing you risk is hot brass hitting your forearm when bench shooting. I'm left-handed and all of my ARs are right-handed except for one.

mopar92 · Jan 18, 2015

What Boom Boom said. But, if you feel like wasting money Stag makes left hand uppers.
Or CMMG made (or still makes not sure) a convertible upper for left and right aide use.

outrider58 · Jan 18, 2015

I believe Rock River makes one too but, I don't know of ant who make a lefthand side charger. Have you found a lefthanded reciprocating BCG?

clandestine · Jan 18, 2015

The bolt is reversed on a LH BCG so no need to worry about that. They are setup to work on a LH Upper Receiver. Using on a side charger I'm not sure as I have never seen a LH side charger.

The Barrel Extension on a LH AR is different but not much. The difference is the bevel on the leading edge where the lugs from the bolt rotate in are beveled on the opposite side as a RH barrel extension.

The barrel extension can be removed and modified which not many people can or would want to do because retiming it again will be difficult. With a the right small files one can add the bevel on the edge by hand but it has to be done with extreme caution and not too excessive. You just want to break the edge.

The LH upper and bolt will work without mods but the gun may wear the bolt head rapidly and be difficult to operate (the bolt does not lockup and unlock smoothly). I have seen people shoot them till they wear in and then replace the bolt head and the stickiness vanishes. I don't suggest doing this.

Noveske and Stag offer barrels with the LH bevel done.

I would scrap the idea and just buy a Raptor charging handle, noveske or badass ambi safety and call it a day. The brass won't hit you in the face. A click adjustable gas block will also allow you tontine the bass better as well. The LH proprietary stuff negates the aspect of readily available parts for the AR.

Boom Boom · Jan 18, 2015

clandestine said:
I would scrap the idea and just buy a Raptor charging handle, noveske or badass ambi safety and call it a day. The brass won't hit you in the face. A click adjustable gas block will also allow you tontine the bass better as well. The LH proprietary stuff negates the aspect of readily available parts for the AR.

Yep. All of mine have the Raptor and BADASS safety, including my LH Stag. In real life, handling and shooting LH and RH setups, I find the LH setup pointless considering how much of a PITA it can be to get LH parts, ignoring their extra cost. I doubt I would ever buy another LH upper. Another issue with LH uppers (Stag anyway) is how getting the dust cover on/off is such a royal pain, besides the dust cover installing upside down.

embermage · Jan 18, 2015

I appreciate all the advice. Was more of an eye drying out issue looking at the left sider. As for what I was looking at: http://shop.gibbzarms.com/main.sc

Boom Boom · Jan 18, 2015

Side-charging uppers have been around for years and remain a semi-obscure novelty. Reeks of a solution looking for a problem, besides all the proprietary parts. Side charging can help (in theory) if you have a low-mounted scope and refuse to use an extended charging handle latch.

outrider58 · Jan 18, 2015

Have known a lot of south paw shooters. Some were bothered some not. A semi-solution is a piston upper (less gas face but, maybe not a big deal). Depending on the wind, we all get that shite, every once and a while. Just a matter of doing business. Side chargers, as one said, are more of a novelty and I would agree. But, ain't we all trying to be different? :shrug:

embermage · Jan 18, 2015

Yeah once upon a time before I had PRK done, I would not have worried about it. As I get older my eyes are drying out easier lol. Was considering a piston setup. I would assume that it would be hard to run a rifle length piston on a bull barrel and still have a handguard over it?

outrider58 · Jan 19, 2015

embermage said:
Yeah once upon a time before I had PRK done, I would not have worried about it. As I get older my eyes are drying out easier lol. Was considering a piston setup. I would assume that it would be hard to run a rifle length piston on a bull barrel and still have a handguard over it?

Not so

Overboost44 · Jan 19, 2015

Another lefty with RH AR and most of my other guns are RH. No problem with gas or shells.

BradMacc82 · Jan 19, 2015

outrider58 said:
Have known a lot of south paw shooters. Some were bothered some not. A semi-solution is a piston upper (less gas face but, maybe not a big deal). Depending on the wind, we all get that shite, every once and a while. Just a matter of doing business. Side chargers, as one said, are more of a novelty and I would agree. But, ain't we all trying to be different?

As a lefty on rifles that has owned a piston upper - it's not a solution to anything. Unless you need to fire underwater at a target - at the very end of the muzzle.

Save your money, save the headaches - standard right hand upper will work just fine.

As long as you're not trying to use the C-clamp method/grip, you don't have to worry about hot brass introducing itself to your skin.

embermage · Jan 19, 2015

BradMacc82 said:
As a lefty on rifles that has owned a piston upper - it's not a solution to anything. Unless you need to fire underwater at a target - at the very end of the muzzle.

Save your money, save the headaches - standard right hand upper will work just fine.

As long as you're not trying to use the C-clamp method/grip, you don't have to worry about hot brass introducing itself to your skin.

Good thing I am not a fan of that particular grip style or the hold the magwell style either for that matter. I do try to work a sling (not a three point) onto my rifles so I can use the sling for shooting. (Hey, I know the Marines still do this, Army doesn't teach it anymore, but it is still in the older manuals.)

Boom Boom · Jan 19, 2015

BradMacc82 said:
As long as you're not trying to use the C-clamp method/grip, you don't have to worry about hot brass introducing itself to your skin.

Except if you're bench shooting with a short-sleeved shirt.

Even then, it's only occasional and just a trivial annoyance.

embermage · Jan 19, 2015

Boom Boom said:
Except if you're bench shooting with a short-sleeved shirt. Even then, it's only occasional and just a trivial annoyance.

I can live with 5.56 brass, it is the .50 BMG brass that leaves a mark, or 25MM

cobra · Jan 19, 2015

I shoot left handed but have only R H Ar's and never had problems with brass.

OrbitalEllipses · Jan 21, 2015

And here's some side-charging news: http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2015/01/20/side-charging-upper-x-products/

SigMatt · Jan 21, 2015

I'm a lefty. My ARs are right-handed. No issues. Never been even grazed by brass.

I do have a side-charger under construction but it is not a semi-auto. It's a bolt-action for F-Class TR. The barrel will have no gas system. Pure single shot or mag-fed manual action. My side charger is a White Oak. Nicely done.

Matt

bkuether · Jan 25, 2015

I went with a left handed Stag Arms Model 8.

At first, I was like, cool, a gun made for me. Then after the Newtown gun grab scare, I got into a right handed AR.

I have had one or two "wings" by my head with brass with a RH AR. But I can say I shoot my RH AR just as confidently as my LH AR. The LH AR is nice, as the brass never comes close. As I would image a RH shooter experiences with a RH AR.

The other thing, and it was probably mentioned but didn't read the entire thread, you cannot exchange internal parts save for the CH.

As others have said, if I could go back, would have all RH ARs.

AR-15 bolt and barrel questions

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