What is the purpose of gripping the magazine?

[Boba Fett]

AK forearm on fire.

That's about all I have to say about that.

I'd forgotten about that video.

If the sight of a guy shooting a firearm that's on fire it isn't enough to make you think that guy is nuts, just throw in the fact he's doing it without wearing any safety glasses while shooting into a large pile of wood.


"Too hot!"

"Yeah, that's bad."


Hmmm...would have thought the fire would have been the first clue...

 

[AK103K]

If the sight of a guy shooting a firearm that's on fire it isn't enough to make you think that guy is nuts, just throw in the fact he's doing it without wearing any safety glasses while shooting into a large pile of wood.

What you cant see in the clip, is the boy just off screen holding his beer.

 

[Sunray]

"...how many magazines..." The wooden forestock on a C1A1 would smoulder after two 20 round mags of rapid fire. Funny as hell when it was an FNG shooting. Cloud of light smoke scared 'em. Not as funny as the time the safety slipped out a tick when one of my senior guys was shooting. Rifle doubled and jammed. Asked him why he did it as seriously as I could.
Grasping the front of the mag has nothing to do with AR's, AK's or CQ. It's a recognised technique for those of us with normal length arms when shooting prone.

 

[tkopp]

I hold the mag when shooting my stockless Draco, because this allows for both some resistance against backwards movement (I use a Tapco 20-round waffle-sided mag for a better grip) and vertical climb (has a great flared boot on the bottom). Gripping the smooth wooden handguard does not allow for the same degree of recoil absorbtion.

I use a vertical foregrip on my SGL21. Because I use a Russian side-mounted 1x sight (the PK-AS) I cannot put an offset light up on the left side -- it would interfered with my sight. It would either need to go low and left (throwing a shadow high and right -- bad idea) or somewhere on the right side, necessitating a cord to the left side for activation if I wasn't using a fore grip. So I grab the pharoah by the beard. Any suggestions on how to improve are welcome, though.

 

[Wes Janson]

As a leftie, holding the magwell/magazine on an AR-styled weapon affords me instant access to the mag release button with my right thumb (and positive control over the empty magazine as soon as that button has been pressed).

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

And if highly proficient shooters with experience in real gunfights have found that some things that work well on the range in controlled conditions in fact compromise versatility and flexibility in the highly fluid, highly unpredictable, and less than ideal conditions of real world gunfights... Well, as I said, I would not be so quick to sneer.

Except that many highly proficient shooters with experience in real gunfights choose to run vertical grips or some other grip. Apparently, they aren't finding the same problem or finding it to the same degree?

If the AFG or vertical grips in general are actually a limitation, it shouldn't be too hard for the author to give a concrete example of where they are a limiting factor; but I notice he didn't do that. Maybe he just meant that vertical grips are awkward when too close to barriers and ports? If so, I could definitely agree with that; but I don't know that I agree with his general conclusionabout their lack of utility or his attempt to paint it as the sage advice any battle-hardened warrior would know when there are apparently a lot of other battle-hardened warrior who have reached different conclusions.

I can't speak to the original post, since I don't own an AK and I don't grip the magazine. On an AR, I run the AFG and grip the magwell when I have to hold the rifle at ready for long periods. Coincidentally, I started a detailed thread over at TFL on the subject of vertical grips and my experiences with them.

And actually, a 90 degree angle on the VFG ends up giving you a pretty natural wrist angle when shooting that way.

Hmm, well count me as disagreeing with that. I don't find that grip angle comfortable at all for me; but individual physiology and fitness is obviously going to play a role in that.

 

[Shawn Dodson]

This is a method of holding the rifle that seems to have originated with the AR for CQB type scenarios

IIRC, it originated with the HK MP5.

Gripping the M4's short 9" handguard creates a great deal of tension and stress on the support hand wrist when the weapon is carried in a low ready position. Gripping the magazine well area of the lower receiver relieves the discomfort.

I've gotten used to gripping the short handguards in my ready and shooting positions. It's simply more natural for me to handle the weapon in this manner.