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Yeah, most have a shell deflector. All 3 of mine do. I still see lots of shells that will go behind and to the right depending on ammo, and how they hit it. Best case scenario, you're blasting hot brass all over your right forearm instead of your face

Additionally if you run suppressed, you're gonna get a lot of facefuls of hot gas.

But I will agree that an average lefty with a stock AR15 probably doesn't need a left handed upper.

Its probably worse if you have a short stock on it and are resting your face closer to the ejection port.

Also, that gif looks painful

Well, I have tiny T-rex arms so my face is always super close. I suppose normal people don't have that problem.

The old m-16a1 did not have the brass deflectors , watched some left handed shooters eat brass all day shooting those...they added that brass deflectors to the A2 model. Lot of left handed hunters back in the day used Ithaca shotguns because they extract from the bottom of the gun... but now manufacturers do make left handed models

 Ouze wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
Are you supposed to hold it one way or the other for any reason?

Most firearms are developed to be shot by right handers because that is the majority of the population. It has less to do with your hands and your eyes, per se, so much as firearms have an ejection port for spent brass to be ejected out of, and that's generally going to be on the right hand side. Otherwise you get:



Not all firearms have this issue, though. Some have models designed for left handed users. Some innately can be switched to the other side pretty simply, like the Beretta ARX. Some can have a part swapped - there are left handed AR15 uppers, which you can swap with some basic tools. And some it doesn't matter at all - some rifles & shotguns eject the shells downward, and at least one rifle I am aware of has a mechanism to slide shells out of the front.

This is much less of an issue with pistols.

many semis can now switch the port. For bolts this is not an issue. Note that's also a bullpup being deminstrated.

Quick question to you all that like forward pistol grips on your rifles, how far forward do you like them?

My friend and I are polar opposites. He likes his forward grips tucked way back by the magwell and is comfortable holding his rifle (right handed) with his left elbow bent at an extreme angle. He says it's comfortable to him, but it just looks weird to me.

I on the other hand tend to put my grip as far forward as I can, so my left arm is almost completely extended strait. Even with my heavier carbines like my Mini-30 this is my preferred position.

I tend to use AFG's instread of VFGs, and I also keep them as far back towards the magwell as I can. Without a grip, I grab the magwell, but that also feels weird.

Sadly I can't have pistol grips in CA, on my real guns. But on my airsoft guns I prefer it further back. I feel it gives more leverage and fine control than further out.

 cuda1179 wrote:
Quick question to you all that like forward pistol grips on your rifles, how far forward do you like them?

My friend and I are polar opposites. He likes his forward grips tucked way back by the magwell and is comfortable holding his rifle (right handed) with his left elbow bent at an extreme angle. He says it's comfortable to him, but it just looks weird to me.

I on the other hand tend to put my grip as far forward as I can, so my left arm is almost completely extended strait. Even with my heavier carbines like my Mini-30 this is my preferred position.

I prefer them to be arms length out. My Steyrs are the only ones with forward grips on them at the moment though and I don't get a choice of where their grips go since they are built in.

Also, they make a fairly cheap and effective brass deflector for the Steyr above, so you don't eat a bunch of brass incase you have to shoot wrong handed. The early Steyrs were able to be converted to eject left or right depending on the shooter, but those ones are extremely rare in the US and mostly full auto. They also required a different bolt, one for left hand eject, one for right. The Steyr is an awesome rifle, buts its taxed by being 41 years old and barely any advancements.

Looking at getting a Taurus G2 PT 111.

Definitely not a large gun, but is still a 9mm. Felt very comfortable in my hand when I went to the range. Didn't fire it yet....still on the fence about buying my first gun (ever).

When I did shoot, used a Glock 19. That felt nice too, but was thinking something smaller for concealed carry, and honestly the price point of the Taurus is very attractive for a first pistol.

 TheMeanDM wrote:
Looking at getting a Taurus G2 PT 111.

Definitely not a large gun, but is still a 9mm. Felt very comfortable in my hand when I went to the range. Didn't fire it yet....still on the fence about buying my first gun (ever).

When I did shoot, used a Glock 19. That felt nice too, but was thinking something smaller for concealed carry, and honestly the price point of the Taurus is very attractive for a first pistol.

I would hold off and buy the gun you want before just buying a gun to have one. My first pistol was a sig 20+ yrs ago and still have it. Buy right the first time or buy it twice

I know what you are saying....however...as I said, I certainly liked the feel of it. It fit very nicely.

I wouldn't be getting anything anytime soon if I got my "dream" pistol: Colt Anaconda

I look at it this way.....everybody has to start somewhere. I habe found over the years that my tendency has usually been to drop alot of $$ on stuff at first, or for a little while, and then my interest fades.

If I go with a more basic and introductory gun that, again, feels good to me (and of course shoots well, which I will find out some day).....then I can always upgrade or simply add another weapon to the collection.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Fyi...the gun I have always been fascinated with and "wanted" is a Colt Anaconda.

My opinion of Taurus as a company is a bit mixed. They are affordable, I will give them that, and for that reason I am open to buying their products.

When it comes to semi-auto pistols their quality is a bit hit or miss. They are either "pretty good, if not top shelf", or "this fell short of expectations". They don't make much utter crap, but nothing high end either.

I have heard good things about the PT 111 though. Honestly, my summer pistol is a Taurus 709. Cheap enough to no worry about putting wear on it, but has NEVER misfed on any ammo. It shoots strait and is easy to use.

Well, if you get that PT111, try and test shoot the exact one you're going to be buying first. Try and get at least 100 rounds through it, if you can. I think Cuda is totally right about Taurus: either you're gonna get a pretty good one, or you're going to get a really bad one. They're not a consistent manufacturer. I have a PT111 so I'm not bagging on them, so much as looking at them with fully open eyes.

Pros: Very cheap, a lot of features, decent sights, will feed any ammo I've thrown at it (from russian garbage tier to Speer +P gold dots), easy to break down, clean, and disassemble.

Cons: Not super accurate, hard to find a good holster, the magazines will rattle (I put a strip of tape on my mags to stop that), the safety is a bit awkwardly placed, trigger is very creepy and overtravels.

You won't win any marksmanship competitions with it, but I trust it well enough as a carry gun that I don't worry about getting beaten up.


So far as the Colt Anaconda, I've never shot it, but I have shot a 357 Mag that was fairly similar. I thought it would be cool but I wound up hating to shoot it, not because of the recoil but because the grips were very narrow - they were rubber overmolds over a steel frame, I think. I think a big, chunky grip is a must have on a big ol horse pistol like that. YMMV of course.

 cuda1179 wrote:
Quick question to you all that like forward pistol grips on your rifles, how far forward do you like them?

For clearing houses, all the way forward for me, it helps a lot to track things at such short ranges. Otherwise, depends on my firing stance, I'll put it rather far forward, and just grab the magwell when I feel more comfortable doing so.

Edit: and I absolutely can't stand AFG's, vertical all the way for me.

Well, I'm never using Steel cased ammo again. Somehow a spent casing expanded and got wedged in my AK's firing chamber good enough that the shell ejector simply cut through the lip of the shell instead of catching it and pulling it out. So I had to soak it in lube and then tap it out with a rod down the barrel. It was really wedged in there

Good news is I got a 1ft grouping on my AK at 50 yards with just iron sights.

Darn, I was slightly annoyed when I had a 3 inch group at 100m with one of my ARs (red dot). Figured I was getting old and my eyesight had gone to gak.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Well, I'm never using Steel cased ammo again. Somehow a spent casing expanded and got wedged in my AK's firing chamber good enough that the shell ejector simply cut through the lip of the shell instead of catching it and pulling it out. So I had to soak it in lube and then tap it out with a rod down the barrel. It was really wedged in there

Good news is I got a 1ft grouping on my AK at 50 yards with just iron sights.

What brand of AK? They were designed to handle steel cases. If it was American made they may have tighter tolerances.

It might have fed badly because (i'm assuming here) you have new mags to go with your new AK, right? Mags need to be broken in usually.

One other thing I've had a lot of problem with are softpoints - I got a lot of misfeeds when I bought soft point ammo by mistake once.

My AK has never eaten anything but steel ammo and the cases haven't really been an issue.

A while back I bought a Ruger Mini 30, and immediately found a GREAT deal on a ton of Tula 7.62x39 ammo. I ended up getting 1500 rounds for about 12 cents per round. The problem is, I the darn steel case rounds don't always fire. The hammer isn't hitting hard enough.

So, I know I'm going to have to find a stiffer spring for the hammer, but I'm also looking for another rifle to shoot using the same ammo. The obvious choice is an AK, but is there anything else out there that is designed for steel casing? SKS is a "maybe" for me.

The SKS and AK are the obvious avenues, though attractive options have dwindled of late.

There are PTR32's, but most other 7.62x39 options arent very good or arent available. You could go upscale and look at a Galil Ace if you want a cadillac AK

 Vaktathi wrote:
The SKS and AK are the obvious avenues, though attractive options have dwindled of late.

There are PTR32's, but most other 7.62x39 options arent very good or arent available. You could go upscale and look at a Galil Ace if you want a cadillac AK

Oh heck, I'd love a Galil, just a little out of my budget. Ruger now makes a bolt-action 7.62x39 that takes mini-30 mags, so that's tempting. Probably go with the AK though. My only real problem with AK's is that it feels like buying a Honda Civic. Yeah, it's new and nice, but you can't really show it off to your friends like it's cool and interesting.

You can go CZ - they make bolt actions and the Bren 2, which is different.

Alas the Bren 2 has not been made available in the US...I'd totally pick one up if they did. A Bren 805 is on my list at some point...

They haven't brought over the ARX100 7.62x39 conversion either from Italy, I don't understand why not, it's super modular from the looks of it (swap the lower and barrel which can be done with no tools in a minute).

If you're gonna go the AK route, good ones have gotten more expensive of late unfortunately, and I'd still really recommend an Arsenal. Atlantic Firearms in-house production is also pretty solid.

 Ouze wrote:
It might have fed badly because (i'm assuming here) you have new mags to go with your new AK, right? Mags need to be broken in usually.

One other thing I've had a lot of problem with are softpoints - I got a lot of misfeeds when I bought soft point ammo by mistake once.

My AK has never eaten anything but steel ammo and the cases haven't really been an issue.

It is a US made Riley Defense AK, and yes new mags. I don’t think it was a misfeed though. The round fired like normal but then the ejector ate through the lip of the casing, which was wedged in the chamber. I think it was a combination of a bad shell and generally poor material of that brand, which I have now seen some mixed reviews of(Tula). The Brown Bear I switched to had zero issue after that.

Yeah, Tula can be very hit and miss. I've done OK with Tula FMJ in my AK, but those soft points that wouldn't feed for gak? Those were all Tula.

I don't use Tula for any other platforms. I got a box of Tula 9mm once when I couldn't find anything else locally and was impatient, and I had about 4 dud rounds in a box of 50. Good hard primer strikes but no boom. Could not recommend.


It looks like Bump-fire stocks are about to be banned. I won't go into the politics of it here, but once they are, I think I might sell my AK. I thought it was cool when I got it, but then after switching to ARs I started really seeing the drawbacks of the platform - poor accuracy, the difficulty of mounting optics, the super-bad iron sights. Being able to turn it into a lead fire hose added some nice novelty, certainly once I added a 75 round drum. Just kind of a fun time and pretty cheap.

But if that capability goes, then the only things it really has going for it is reliability and stopping power. Those are great to have if you're actually using it for a fighting rifle, but for a midwestern safe queen, what am I supposed to do with a minute-of-bad0guy gun? My AR10 is my go-to rifle now, I think... until my stamps get approved for my Blackout.

I think that if I had a choice for my "break glass in case of intruder", I'd probably go with my HK-93 with collapsible stock.

 Ouze wrote:
Yeah, Tula can be very hit and miss. I've done OK with Tula FMJ in my AK, but those soft points that wouldn't feed for gak? Those were all Tula.

I don't use Tula for any other platforms. I got a box of Tula 9mm once when I couldn't find anything else locally and was impatient, and I had about 4 dud rounds in a box of 50. Good hard primer strikes but no boom. Could not recommend.


It looks like Bump-fire stocks are about to be banned. I won't go into the politics of it here, but once they are, I think I might sell my AK. I thought it was cool when I got it, but then after switching to ARs I started really seeing the drawbacks of the platform - poor accuracy, the difficulty of mounting optics, the super-bad iron sights. Being able to turn it into a lead fire hose added some nice novelty, certainly once I added a 75 round drum. Just kind of a fun time and pretty cheap.

But if that capability goes, then the only things it really has going for it is reliability and stopping power. Those are great to have if you're actually using it for a fighting rifle, but for a midwestern safe queen, what am I supposed to do with a minute-of-bad0guy gun? My AR10 is my go-to rifle now, I think... until my stamps get approved for my Blackout.

At the last carbine match I SOd guy had an AK 74 5.54 with beautiful furniture and a nice rail for optics on top. Like...no recoil.

 Ouze wrote:
Yeah, Tula can be very hit and miss. I've done OK with Tula FMJ in my AK, but those soft points that wouldn't feed for gak? Those were all Tula.

I don't use Tula for any other platforms. I got a box of Tula 9mm once when I couldn't find anything else locally and was impatient, and I had about 4 dud rounds in a box of 50. Good hard primer strikes but no boom. Could not recommend.


It looks like Bump-fire stocks are about to be banned. I won't go into the politics of it here, but once they are, I think I might sell my AK. I thought it was cool when I got it, but then after switching to ARs I started really seeing the drawbacks of the platform - poor accuracy, the difficulty of mounting optics, the super-bad iron sights. Being able to turn it into a lead fire hose added some nice novelty, certainly once I added a 75 round drum. Just kind of a fun time and pretty cheap.

But if that capability goes, then the only things it really has going for it is reliability and stopping power. Those are great to have if you're actually using it for a fighting rifle, but for a midwestern safe queen, what am I supposed to do with a minute-of-bad0guy gun? My AR10 is my go-to rifle now, I think... until my stamps get approved for my Blackout.

My big issues are the triggers. They generally have absolute garbage triggers. My SAM7R trigger is basically like a jack-in-the-box for finding wherever the break is, it just happens whenever sometime nebulously halfway through. Great submachinegun trigger for a Bulgarian conscript in thick winter gloves shooting bursts, bad for accurate semiautomatic fire. My SLR104 has a much better trigger with a relatively clean break, but is real gritty and is a US made part for 922r compliance and probably made to a different spec (and more favorable to aimed semiautomatic fire).

As for accuracy, that will depend a lot on caliber, ammo type, and barrel manufacturer. My SLR104 with Golden Tiger in 5.45 is easily more accurate than I can shoot from the shoulder, My SAM7R in 7.62x39 firing Tula...leaves more to be desired (the trigger really is garbage).

The big draw to an AK these days is either for collection/cool factor or you're perceiving the possibility of extreme physical abuse being inflicted on the rifle. They're no longer the cheap plinkers they once were. Both the guns and the ammo have become much more expensive over the last few years between sanctions, bans, and foreign supply issues, while home-building through build parties has had the kibosh put on it.

The most extreme trigger upgrade I've ever experienced was upgrading my Mosin Nagant to a Timney trigger. The original Mosin trigger felt like a really stiff Nerf gun made of metal instead of plastic and sliding on gritty sandpaper. The Timney trigger is all kinds of awesome. Clean break, smooth as heck.

If I do end up with an AK I hope I can find something similar.