B.A.D. Lever!!!

It finally happened, I got my B.A.D Lever by Magpul.

As mentioned before, in the Redi-Mag post, I felt that one of the great shortcomings of the Redi-Mag system is the silly little bolt catch thingy (that’s a technical term). From the moment I saw Magpul’s B.A.D. Lever I figured this was the solution to my problem, so when I saw Brownell’s had them in stock I ordered two (one for Hotshot to have on her soon to be built AR). I waited in eager anticipation for the arrival of my order, and when it finally arrived I had everything BUT the hoped for levers. Damn, backordered. So wait some more I did.

As luck would have it, the B.A.D. Levers arrived just in time for Valentine’s Day. Yes, that’s right, I gave Hotshot a B.A.D. Lever for V-day and she LOVED it (I’m such a lucky guy). The next day the AR was on the bench in two pieces with that stupid plastic blob from Redi-Mag sticking out like a sore thumb, and that’s when I saw my problem. The Redi-Mag is a touch hard to put on, and the bolt catch extension that came with it screws on from the muzzle side. This means the Redi-Mag is in the way of taking the screw out of the bolt catch extension. I did NOT want to be taking that unit off and putting it on again just to put on one little tiny lever. Out came my lovely and faithful Foredom with a thin plastic cutting wheel and the bolt catch extension is lost to the round file. Problem solved!

The B.A.D. Lever went on super easy with everything provided in the packet. Nothing had to be taken off of the lower receiver, and all went as planned. As usual the kind folks at Magpul Dynamics have developed a simple ingenious gizmo (that I wish I had thought of) and will forever change the way I shoot ARs.

To use the B.A.D. Lever, once installed, one simply uses the right index finger (assuming a right handed shooter) to manipulate the lever up and down to engage and disengage the bolt catch. This frees up your left hand to operate the charging handle, clear out a jam, and grab a magazine. It’s the solution to the single biggest problem I’ve ever noticed with the AR platform. Instead of switching hands around and getting your fingers tied in knots, the operation becomes intuitive and down right easy. The only short fall would be for southpaw shooters. Don’t worry though, I’ll be glad to modify your lever to make it work for you if you’d like.

Parting Thought: The Magpul Dynamics B.A.D. Lever should be standard equipment on everyone’s AR, whether you’ve a Redi-Mag or not.

P-Mag

I recently had opportunity to try out a few P-Mags from Magpul Industries. These AR magazines are a polymer design, actually hold 30 rounds, and have a convenient viewing window on either side so that the user can see if the magazine is full or not.

The mags are equipped with no-tilt followers for reliable feeding, and unloading if you choose to do so by any means other than pulling the trigger rapidly (the preferred

method). This handy little feature of the magazine is one of those small comforts in life that many people don’t seem to think or care about. If you have the ‘standard’ metal mags with the tilting follower, ditch them and put in Magpul’s no-tilt followers, or better yet just buy some P-Mags.

Over the top of the follower and feed lips is a plastic clip on cover that comes attached right out of the package. I found this device to be of little use to me and promptly ditched them. This is something the factory might cringe at, and that’s just to bad. If used I can see where it might protect the feed lips of a falling mag under the pressure of 30 rounds crashing to the hard ground. In practice if I need my mags I probably need them RIGHT NOW. The covers are staying in my parts bin!

The absolute coolest thing on these mags is the window on the side. I have long wondered why makers didn’t come up with a hole drilled in the side, a slot, or ANYTHING to see if a magazine was truly full or not. 1911 magazine manufacturers have been doing it since

John Moses Browning filed out his first venerable pistol. It’s about time someone figured this out. I loaded mine up to capacity and jammed it into my little poodle shooter just to see if it worked. Praise Eugene Stoner it fit, with 30 rounds in and a closed bolt. Again, it’s about time. I then promptly took out the mags, grabbed my trusty Sharpie marker (no review required) and marked the point where the follower is in the window at capacity. Strangely enough, you can’t really fit more rounds in there without forcing it. I also used my Sharpie to put my initials on both sides of the P-Mags. Go to a class and do mag changes and you’ll find out why.

Before I hit the range I felt compelled to rip one of the magazines apart to see what was inside. Hey, it’s what I do! Make sure you’re sitting down for this one kids; it looks like a magazine inside, only brighter (windows you know). The floor plate came off with ease, everything fell out the bottom just fine, and it was smooth as could be. It was almost like

someone was thinking when they made this thing.

So out to the range I went with about 600 rounds in my can, and four P-Mags ready to go. Twenty mag changes later, lots of dropping on the ground, and even more slamming into the well or the Redi-Mag and they still function flawlessly, and look pretty good. The ribbed outside structural elements even made it easier to do tactical reloads as there was a little more for my fingertips to grab onto.

The nutshell opinion: Throw your old metal mags into the spare parts bin and buy a sled load of P-Mags. They work great, look cool, and chicks dig ‘em. At less than $20 on average, they’re easy on the wallet too.

Short comings: That silly top cover thing is no good to me, and your mileage may vary. Mine didn’t come with Ranger floorplates. That’s not really Magpul’s fault, but I’ll take some if they want to hand them out.

Redi-Mag

I've decided to start my new blog with a review of a product I recently tested out for a friend of mine.

When I first saw the Redi-Mag a few years back I thought it was a bit of a gimmick. This looked like something to get broken, weigh the AR down, or just some stupid bolt-on for the techno gear head that read to many comic books (i.e. gun magazines). When my friend ordered one I was skeptical to say the least. So I went over to her house to check out the new gear and it was decided that I would try it out in the three day shooting class that I had just completed the first classroom day of. With two days on the range ahead of me I was bolting parts onto my carbine with no idea of what to expect.

Putting the Redi-Mag MkI onto the lower receiver of the AR is fairly easy in principal. In practice the front spacer block system is a royal pain in the ass. Getting the unit set up is a breeze. Just push the spring pin in on the front of the trigger guard and swing it out of place. The Redi-Mag is then slid up over the mag well with the rubber pads in place. This part is easy enough that any dork with an ink pen can get it done. Putting that block into the front and inserting the bolts and nuts, on the other hand, takes two men and a small boy to get everything in place, torqued around, lined up, threaded through, and screwed tight. Eventually, with the careful application of some brute force and a slightly fumble fingered friend the thing was on. Oh well, you only have to do it once right?

With it on I practiced a few times and felt like I was getting the hang of operating the single lever and my mag release button and all that jazz. The first day on the range everyone was looking at me a little weird (more than normal) for having this parkerized green 'thing' attached to the side of my gun, holding a second P-mag on there. Very quickly I noticed myself to be reloading cleaner and faster than everyone else. I'd like to say this would have been the case anyway, but the Redi-Mag definitely made a standout difference. As the class wore on more people started noticing and asking about it, including all of the instructors. The instructors were the best part as they didn't have a plan for this in their training program.

The extra mag I carried on my belt quickly became a topic of discussion. With the Redi-Mag, the belt mounted mag was never used to reload, only to top off the Redi-Mag. This created a glitch in the training method as the finger forward technique method that is standardized in pistol shooting wont work with topping off the Redi-Mag as the fingers get in the way. Instead the 'Beer Can' grip must be used, not just for topping off, but it's needed to reload too. This meant I carried my belt mag with the bullet tip pointed back. I didn't mind this one bit, and the instructors took a little warming up to it.

The release method was discussed as well. The head instructor felt that there should be an ability to release the mag in the Redi-Mag by simply depressing the standard mag release button instead of having to hit the lever on the unit. After some considerable thought I decided this wasn't all that desirable and that the current system is probably the way to go. Should I happen to accidentally hit the mag release button on the gun and dump the mag currently loaded, I'd also loose my reload, loosing not 30 but 60 rounds to the dirt. By having to use the Redi-Mag mounted lever to release the reload I take out the possibility of inadvertent discharge. I'll keep it how it is.

The only down side I've really found to this system is the bolt catch extension. This is a cheep piece of plastic that gets the job done but little else.
Soon I hope to ad the Magpul B.A.D. lever to take care of this problem child of the Redi-Mag. The sooner gone the better.

Over all, the test unit is NOT going back to the owner. I told her this and it became my birthday present. Happy birthday to me! :D