Imagine our surprise when SOCOM Snipers showed up to one of our Warfighter courses with rifles that could not function properly. On day one of the course, we ensured that each rifle was set up properly for the respective shooter. The snipers had adjustable “tactical” stocks on their SR-25s (AR-10s) and we started to adjust their adjustable cheek rest when we saw a problem.

With the adjustable stocks they had on their rifles, it was impossible to raise the adjustable cheek rest without interfering with the ability to charge the weapon. Although the weapon would still fire when using the adjustable cheek rest, the weapon could not be loaded, unloaded, nor could a malfunction be cleared with the charging handle.

Here’s a free lesson, whenever you add the newest “cool” feature to your weapon, make sure it allows you to still operate your weapon!

Here are some pictures: Note the distance the charging handle needs to travel in the first picture and the bolt not being far enough back to feed a round from the magazine in the second picture.