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For new builders and budget builders. Budget Ambi charging handle review.

greg vess

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I happed onto one of these and decided to do a short review to ward off any possible takers of these cheap knock off ambi charging handles. My inspection of these pieces led me to 3 problems. Some major and some not so.

Promblem # 1: I removed one of my real Raptor ambi chargers and swapped it out with the budget one to get a feel for the product. Needless to say it wasn't a Raptor. It was gritty feeling and not at all smooth like the real Mc'coy. It felt cheap and that was that. It worked but that is all I can say about the part in that test.

Problem # 2: I did a full on metals inspection of the part and found that the actuall locking mechanism is steel ( used a magnet to check both ) as opposed to aluminum as is the Raptor. This really startled me as steel will wear out the aluminum charging handle catch much faster than a metal of the same type. It's much harder and when the charging handle is released the hard steel is going to take it's toll over a much shorter period of time.

Problem # 3: Now this one really made me laugh. Now I know it's not the price of the Raptor but come on they could have done better than this. I took the charging handle in one hand and grabbed it close to the latch and took my thumb and bent the damn thing almost to a 90 degree angle. It was so easy that it's almost certainly going to bend at some point during handling that it would not fuction if it could even be re-installed in the first place.

The moral of the story for all you new guys going into building an AR15 and want the look of a part don't be fooled by these cheap knock off parts. Either save up for the real deal or buy a mil-spec part until you can afford the real part.This part has been sitting on my bench for months. I aquired it through a trade and hadn't really looked it over since I had all mine coverd. I just thought I might do this write up to ward off any nubees or any builder for that matter willing to take chance and save a dime in hopes of getting the look and function of the real quality part. This is a real what goes in is what comes out scenario. As I said before and I will say it again, If you can't afford the real deal either save up to get it or use a mil-spec part and swap it out down the road.
 
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