10/15/09 - Bravo Company U.S.A. teamed up with Vltor Weapon Systems to produce their new BCMGUNFIGHTER™ charging handle for the AR-15/M-16 family of weapons. The BCMGUNFIGHTER was designed to address the issues that the AR-15 platform is seeing with the ever evolving manual of arms, as fighting and weapons manipulation techniques have changed since the M-16 was first put in service.

Background - When the AR-15 was first introduced almost 50 years ago, and up through the last century; the manual of arms for charging the AR-15 rifle has been to use the firing hand to grab each side of the charging handle 'T' with two fingers (usually the thumb and index finger), pull it all the way to the rear, and release it to strip a round from the magazine and charge the weapon. Over time, both tactics and weaponary have evolved which changed the way the charging handle is manipulated under certain circumstances. Rather than release the firing hand from the weapon pistol to operate the charging handle, the support hand is instead used to rack the charging handle to the rear in one swift movement, mimizing the time it takes to get the weapon back into the fight.

The release latch on the standard charging handle is small, and doesn't provide much purchase for the crook of the first finger or knife edge of the hand to pull back on. Enter the extended tactical latch. Extended latches allow the shooter to operate the charging handle by using the crook of the index finger or knife edge of the palm to grab the latch and pull back on the charging handle. The problem with this is that a side load is now introduced into the shaft of the charging handle, and much of the rearward force is taken up by the roll pin when the latch hits its stop in the handle. Actually, there are all kinds of forces that the whole charging handle assembly is subjected to, and this repeated and forceful racking of the charging handle can eventually result in (cheaper) charging handle bodies bending and roll pins shearing/breaking, which is obviously undesirable. So, when Bravo Company Manufacturing (BCM) decided to make a better charging handle that would address this issue, they enlisted the help of Eric Kincel at Vltor. Eric came up with a design, and with input from BCM, the BCMGUNFIGHTER was born. It's essentially a Vltor design and manufactured by BCM.

Description - The BCMGUNFIGHTER is not just a standard charging handle with new latch design; it's a brand new charging handle and extended latch system. Both the handle and latch are machined from 7075 T6 billet aluminum and hard coat anodized per Mil-A-8625F, Type III, Class 2. It's available in two variants for now - the Mod3 (large latch) and Mod4 (medium latch).

Both the body and latch of the BCMGUNFIGHTER have been redesigned to reduce the shear load seen by the roll pin, by transferring the force into the body of the charging handle during support-hand only manipulations. This is done by designing a backstop into the rear of the charging handle which the extended latch contacts when the latch is opened. The backstop acts to limit the travel of the latch, and by geometry, reduces the moment arm and force seen by the roll pin, which acts as the pivot. The rear of the latch is scalloped to allow debris to be cleared (like sand cuts). The rear of the charging handle is closed, instead of having the open slot on the standard charging handle. Sometimes, this lower portion can get bent - eliminating the slot and weak point prevents this from happening on the BCMGUNFIGTHER.

The Mod3 and Mod4 latches are taller than the standard latch; almost the same thickness as the charging handle body to give the shooter more to grab onto. The front is serrated for a positive, non-slip grip. The photos below illustrate the BCMGUNFIGHTER and compare it to the standard and PRI Gasbuster for reference.

Observation and notes - My initial impression of the BCMGUNFIGHTER is that it's a solidly-made and designed handle/latch. There's no wobble in the latch, and the return spring feels stronger than standard.

The BCMGUNFIGHTER Charging Handle offers two advantages:
- It is a stronger system and the roll pin is no longer subjected to the amount of shear that it was before, so the extended latch will be much less likely to fail under repeated support-side manipulation.
- The force transfer to the inside of the handle body reduces the side load seen by the shaft, as the handle is pulled more directly to the rear. This results in smoother operation.

As with any new charging handle, the BCMGUNFIGHTER needed a bit of wearing in. Straight from BCM, the non-glare matte anodized finish isn't as smooth as worn-in shafts, so I lubed it during installation. With any charging handle that has an extended latch, there's going to be some side load to it - more or less depending on the design. I've always found it beneficial to reduce friction by lubing the handle shaft with oil or grease.

I'm a lefty, and make use of extended latches and ambi charging handles. While the BCMGUNFIGHTER isn't ambidextrous, the longer Mod3 is well suited to operation by reaching over with the right hand (for lefties). If there was anything I though I'd like to change; it'd be to make the edges of the latch a bit rounded so they aren't as sharp when you're not wearing gloves. The BCMGUNFIGHTER feels solid and looks like it'll provide years of service to hard users. If you don't have need for an ambi charging handle, and want to upgrade your standard one, this is it.

5/30/10 - After more than a year of development, testing and refinement, the Battle Arms Development - Ambidextrous Safety Selector (or 'BAD-ASS') has finally been released, which is very exciting for me as a left-handed user of the AR-15. The BAD-ASS is user-configurable and addresses the issue of lever interference with the trigger hand when rotating the lever from 'safe' to 'fire'. The BAD-ASS is designed for both left and right handed shooters who believe that ambidextrous controls on a weapon are an advantage, and allow the user to operate the weapon as efficiently as possible no matter which side they're firing from.

Background - Being a left-handed shooter in a right-handed world, I'm always on the search for better ambidextrous components for my AR-15. One of my pet peeves was the 'standard' ambi safety commonly available, which basically uses two standard levers of the same length; one on each side of the receiver. The issue with the standard lever is that it's long, and due to the location of the safety rotation axis, it extends down past the top of the pistol grip, where it can sit uncomfortably under the trigger finger. Worse than discomfort, is that when rotating the lever from 'safe' to 'fire', the lever can be prevented from rotating completely by the hand/finger because of that interference. This becomes a more serious issue, as it can prevent the weapon from firing when expected. I learned to adjust my grip so that it'd allow unencumbered rotation of the lever, but I still yearned for a better design. Back in May of '09, I brought this up to my friends at BAD, and the discussion started on how to design a better ambi-safety.

I had my own ideas on how to approach the problem, and so did BAD. There are basically two ways to reduce the lever interference with the hand - make the lever shorter, or lower profile (thinner). The challenge was to design the lever so that it would minimize interference but still allow the user to manipulate it positively when switching sides. There's no point in having a lever that doesn't interfere, but is so hard to flip to 'fire' that you fumble with it.

For a short lever, it needs to be wide enough to provide a 'shelf' for the thumb to rest on. For the thin lever, it needs to be long enough for the thumb to have enough leverage to flip it off without slipping off. I gave BAD my ideas and input (as a lefty), and they also came up with their own proposed solutions. After down-selecting the ideas, prototypes were made and put to the test with selected beta-testers, both left and right handed. This was pretty eye opening, and some ideas did not work in practice as thought in theory. During testing, some testers preferred the short, wide lever, and some preferred the thin, long lever. BAD smartly decided to offer both solutions to users, to choose which one they liked better, in the BAD-ASS package. Additional levers would be made available if the user wanted to use a lever combination other than the standard package offering.

Description - The BAD-ASS package comes with the selector axis and three detachable levers (standard, thin and short), which are installed using torx mounting screws. A torx wrench is included in the package. The standard lever is about the same length and thickness as the standard USGI lever. It just has a different profile. To maximize 'shelf' area for the thumb to engage positively, the cross section is more rectangular than rounded/pyramidal. The thin lever is the same length as the standard lever, but half the thickness of the USGI lever. The short lever is the same thickness, but shorter than the USGI lever.

The levers have broad, angled serrations on their surface to provide a sure and positive purchase for the thumb, and also the 'crook' of the finger (when it is used to flip the lever from 'fire' to 'safe'). I find that with an ambi safety, I flip the lever from 'safe' to 'fire' with the thumb, but use the crook of my trigger finger plus the thumb to flip it back to 'safe'. There is a groove machined into the pocket of the lever, as well as the round part, which can be filled with paint for a more visible identification of lever position. I must mention that the initial inspiration for the lever shape came from a one-off custom ambi safety that my friend Shin Tanaka made for me, that I've been using for the past few years. BAD and I came up with and tested different shapes/profiles, but in the end, arrived with a profile similar to that of the Shin lever, through natural evolution and progression of the design based on testing and evaluation. A great amount of thought, time and effort went into the design of the levers from all involved.

BAD-ASS Specs:
•Precision Machined from 12L14 Solid Bar Stock & Round Stock Steel
•Heat Treated to Rockwell Hardness of 48-52
•Manganese Phosphate Finish in Matte Black & Oil Treated
•Aggressive Diagonal Grooves on Levers for Positive Grip
•Single Parallel Fluting on Face of Lever Provides Additional Grip & also Saves Weight
•(2) Indicator "V-Grooves" at Tip of Pivot & at Face of Lever - can be filled with high visibility paint for easy identification
•Torx lever screws to prevent cam-out and stripping of screw head.
•100% Made in USA
•Patent Pending

Installation - Installing the BAD-ASS is the same as replacing the stock safety. The pistol grip screw is backed out enough to lower the pistol grip and relieve tension on the detent spring, allowing the stock safety to be removed. The new selector axis is then installed, and the pistol grip screw tightened. The levers are then installed with non-permanent thread lock (I use blue loctite).

Observation and notes - I've been using the various prototypes of the BAD-ASS since conception of the project, and the final pre-production prototype for the past few months. I think that the BAD-ASS is a huge improvement over the standard profile ambi-safety, and almost completely addresses the issue of interference with the trigger finger. I say 'almost' because the distance from the axis to the pistol grip makes it difficult to be completely eliminated unless you just use a non-ambi, single lever on the right side (for a lefty, due to the location of the rotation axis). But then, it's not ambi.

As you can see from the photos below, the standard BAD-ASS lever shares the same length and thickness as the standard USGI lever, with ample shelf space for postive manipulation. The short lever ends right at the bottom of the receiver, where it meets the pistol grip. Any shorter, or if it had a rounded profile, and it would increase difficulty to manipulate. We chopped up standard USGI levers to test this out. Short and rounded was no good.

The thin lever needs the length to allow positive manipulation. Any shorter or thinner, and the result is decreased purchase. However, early customer comments indicated that some would like to see a short version of the thin lever. I didn't think that it was practical. So, I decided to try it for myself and chopped a thin lever to short lever length. For righties, it's not as bad as I thought - I was still able to flip it on and off. I encountered a little more difficulty with gloves, but it was workable. When mounted on the left side for lefties, it's definitely more difficult because of the stop on the receiver (see pic below). The stop now covers the end of the lever where you get the most leverage/purchase. I was still able to manipulate it, but it's a bit more 'iffy'. After trying it out myself, I'm now more open to the idea of a short version of the thin lever (mostly for righties), as long as the customer understands that decreased purchase is to be expected.

Chopped thin lever

Interference with lever stop

Short vs. thin lever was one of the points where there was no clear 'winner'. However I realized that some of the beta-testers were right-handers. It has more to do with ease of manipulation when operating the lever with the weak hand than interference with the strong-side hand. For a right handed shooter who mounts the thin lever on the right side, when he switches to his weak/left hand, the lever is relatively positive to disengage. However, for a lefty like me, with the thin lever on the left side, the lever 'stop' which protrudes from the left side of the receiver prevents me from getting a full thumb purchase on top of the thin lever. The thickness of the stubby lever is needed in that case, as it extends beyond the width of the stop. So, preference is also dictated by whether the user is left or right-handed, as the lower receiver isn't identical on both sides. I can see that for right handers using the BAD-ASS, the thin lever doesn't present the issues a lefty might encounter. It was a good decision on BAD's part to offer both as options.

For the reasons above, as a lefty, I found that I prefer the short lever on the left side with either another short lever or the standard lever on the right side. A right-handed shooter might prefer the thin lever on the right side, combined with the standard on the left side. While the standard lever interferes with the hand, just like the USGI one does, it's something the user can usually deal with on the occasion that he switches to the 'weak' side. For 'true' ambi configuration, I'd go with short levers on each side. The short levers also feel quicker to flip back and forth due to their reduced length and radius of travel. As mentioned above, BAD will eventually offer the levers separately for users who want different combinations.

The levers are designed to have a gap between them and the sides of the receiver. Due to different receiver widths between manufacturers and sometimes with the same manufacturer, a gap was necessary to accommodate the different widths and ensure clearance. It's not a large gap, as seen in the photo below. BAD took a sampling of more than a dozen lower receivers, and based the measurements on Colt (which tends to be on the wider side).

As a left-handed shooter, I'm grateful to have been involved in this project and am very pleased with the high quality that BAD manufactures these to. Much nicer than any standard USGI selector I've seen. Rotation is smooth and positive, due to the machined detents in the selector. It doesn't hurt that the look of the lever compliments/adds to the rifle, in my opinion.

BAD is also working on a model called the BAD-CASS (Combat Ambi Safety Selector) and the M16 BAD-CASS where the left-side lever and selector axis are machined as one piece (to alleviate any concerns that the primary lever might come loose as it's secured by a screw). As long a you use loctite, it shouldn't be prone to backing out any more than a properly installed scope ring screw, pistol grip screw, or backup sight screw.

I believe that the AR-15/M4 platform should be 'universalized' with ambi controls, which are becoming standard on many new weapon designs like the FN SCAR, ACR, or the first truly ambi AR-15 lower, the KAC SR-15 IWS. In my biased opinion, the BAD-ASS is a leap forward for lefties like me, much like the Norgon Ambi-catch and Armament Dynamic ACLM charging handle were. I also feel that right-handers can benefit from ambi features as well.