As for the forward assist...

by passing by, Friday, May 24, 2019, 18:54 (1946 days ago) @ passing by

tbe ONLY thing it does is save a live round, maybe. Think about it. You NEED forward assist if you ride the charging handle and it does not lock. Without thenforward assist, you would simply rerack the charging handle.

If it does not close fully enough for extractor to grab rim, likely no amount of pounding it forward will do anything but hopeless jam a cartridge deeper into a chamber with serious problems. Stoner was against it for that reason, as the Army problems at the time were heavily rusted and filthy chambers, lacking maint and chrome for tropics.

Personally, I like it, my time in service was the A1, trained to hit the thing, to no purpose, as most malfunctions were double feeds in heavily worn weapons ofenormous round count and hammering the assist only made it worse. But, what it does for me, past habit, is to allow absent minded charging handle riding, while not risking a perfectly new round being ejected and bouncing onto concrete.