Radian ADAC, Flawed malfunction clearing?

[RickyRodney]

Hello, so I was in my LGS and the owner was telling me how ADAC's can't clear certain malfunctions? Can you enlighten me? Besides being heavy the enlarged controls and clearing a double feed sounds like an improvement.

 

[hlee]

I don’t know your gun store, but in general, I wouldn’t trust anything I heard in a gun store further than I could throw the owner.

 

[FALex]

Well, since the ADAC is the lower, and malfunctions occur in the upper, I'd say that the gun store geek is wrong.

 

[RickyRodney]

he claimed you wouldn't be able to drop the mag under certain malfunctions, because the the bcg wouldn't let the bolt catch move up....?

 

[Clayman]

he claimed you wouldn't be able to drop the mag under certain malfunctions, because the the bcg wouldn't let the bolt catch move up....?

If the bcg can't move and the bolt catch can't move at all upwards then he's probably right.

 

[FALex]

he claimed you wouldn't be able to drop the mag under certain malfunctions, because the the bcg wouldn't let the bolt catch move up....?

He would have to be more specific with which malfunction. I assume he’s speaking to the ADAC’s “double action” feature for the mag release also being able to act as the bolt stop. I suppose you could prematurely engage said feature which would catch the BCG instead of the bolt itself, but that has nothing to do with regards to not being able to drop the mag.

I would have to mess with one personally to be able to know for certain, but Radian isn’t some fly-by-night outfit. I’m quite certain those fellas have the shit figured out.

I’m gonna go out on a limb (actually, not even that much), and call bullshit on this as a gun store employee myth.

 

[Leicafan1990]

Hello, so I was in my LGS and the owner was telling me how ADAC's can't clear certain malfunctions? Can you enlighten me? Besides being heavy the enlarged controls and clearing a double feed sounds like an improvement.

Radian owner here. So the LGS owner is technically wrong but he does bring up a relevant point. For starters, I am not aware if any malfunctions that can’t be cleared on a Radian lower. Double feeds are super easy.

That being said, a Radian lower can possibly make the extremely rare brass over bolt or bolt override malfunction a little more difficult to clear. The LGS owner was probably trying to say that there are certain positions of the BCG’s path that will prevent upward movement of the bolt catch which may lock up the mag release.

On my lower, if I induce a bolt override malfunction, the right side mag release gets completely locked up but for some strange reason, the left side release is able to move just enough to allow me to pull out the magazine with a gentle tug. This isn’t really an issue though because even with a bolt override, you can usually pull the charging handle back just enough to lock the bolt back and at that point, both mag releases will drop the magazine.

I wouldn’t worry about it honestly. The bolt override malfunction is extremely rare. I’ve never once seen it or experienced it and I remember Jerry Miculek saying he’s only seen it twice in all his years of AR shooting. Worst case scenario, if it does happen, you can probably still get the magazine out and clear the malfunction.

Hope this helps.

 

[RickyRodney]

Radian owner here. So the LGS owner is technically wrong but he does bring up a relevant point. For starters, I am not aware if any malfunctions that can’t be cleared on a Radian lower. Double feeds are super easy.

That being said, a Radian lower can possibly make the extremely rare brass over bolt or bolt override malfunction a little more difficult to clear. The LGS owner was probably trying to say that there are certain positions of the BCG’s path that will prevent upward movement of the bolt catch which may lock up the mag release.

On my lower, if I induce a bolt override malfunction, the right side mag release gets completely locked up but for some strange reason, the left side release is able to move just enough to allow me to pull out the magazine with a gentle tug. This isn’t really an issue though because even with a bolt override, you can usually pull the charging handle back just enough to lock the bolt back and at that point, both mag releases will drop the magazine.

I wouldn’t worry about it honestly. The bolt override malfunction is extremely rare. I’ve never once seen it or experienced it and I remember Jerry Miculek saying he’s only seen it twice in all his years of AR shooting. Worst case scenario, if it does happen, you can probably still get the magazine out and clear the malfunction.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the response. Yes I would say given ALL the other advantages of the Radian this is a small con. I have 1 radian and 1 AXTS now and they are solid units. I really like the controls.

 

[call_me_ski]

The left side magazine release should work under all conditions as the left side release pivots the locking arm rather than pull the magazine release cross bolt against the spring resulting in the bolt catch activating. As a result the left side button also can’t be used to lock the bolt back.

Depends on your use case. The radian isn’t my preferred set up but it should work for you if you know that little quirk(limitation?).