If you follow the blog you are well aware of what Strike Industries brings to the table, a track record of providing innovative and well built AR-15 accessories at a very reasonable price. They have started shipping the Strike forward assist tailor made for shooters looking for a more aggressive forward assist than the factory A2 style button.

The Strike Forward assist is offered in 4 colors; Redline, blue, grey and black. Strike was kind enough to send us all but the blue forward assist. The body is made of aluminum to keep weight down if you are the type of builder to count ounces and is nicely anodized. In the package you will find the button with a tool steel pawl installed, the necessary spring and the requisite roll pin.

Install on the rifle was as easy as you might expect, just punch out the roll pin holding the stock forward assist out, remove the old button, slide the Strike forward assist into the hole and reinstall a roll pin to keep the forward assist captive. The only question that remains is does the forward assist work? A range trip is in order with my most fouled AR-15 upper, the 10.5″ test bed I use for most of my AR-15 reviews. It must have close if not over 1000 round through it without much of a cleaning making it a prime candidate for giving me a failure. 

I wasn’t able to get the upper to malfunction on it’s own, so I eased the bolt closed several times to replicate a failure to go into battery. Each time I went for the forward assist it assisted the bolt just like you would expect. The only down side that I found was the three sharp prongs that protrude from the button are very sharp, so sharp that if you were to really bang on the forward assist you might want to be wearing gloves to avoid being cut. 

The Strike forward assist from Strike Industries did exactly what it was supposed to without issue. If you are looking for a very aggressive forward assist to replace your factory button or even building an upper from scratch you might want to take a look at the Strike assist.

You can learn more by clicking here to visit Strike Industries’ website. The Strike forward assist has a MSRP of $18.95 for the black, all other colors are priced at $19.95.