Redi-Catch

The Redi-Catch is a different kind of magazine-release upgrade. It replaces the standard AR-15 magazine catch with a version that has an S-shaped spring-steel wire linking the mag-catch button to the bolt-catch paddle. Pressing the magazine release with the trigger finger while retracting the bolt locks the bolt open, so the shooter can lock the bolt back one-handed without reaching for the bolt catch.

Because the wire is flexible spring steel, the magazine catch can be depressed at any point in the bolt's travel and the bolt still locks back when it reaches the catch. That makes bolt-catch timing irrelevant and, in Boonie Packer's framing, maximizes lock-back reliability. Installation replaces the existing magazine catch and routes the wire to the bolt catch paddle; no removal of the bolt catch is necessary.

This is a specialty pick, not a general reload upgrade. It does not add an extended button or an ambidextrous release. Buy it specifically when one-handed bolt lock-back matters and an ambidextrous bolt release is not already on the rifle. It is licensed by AXTS under US Patents 8,327,749 and 8,984,786.