by Kurt Gruber, staff writer

When I was recently contacted to test the Hard Charger from Devil Dog Concepts, I was intrigued.  I am a fan of the concept of side charging AR platform rifles, but have not seen many good implementations of the concept.  When I was told the Hard Charger would convert a standard AR upper to a side charging upper without any machining my interest was piqued.  I will say that I, for the most part, was not disappointed at all.

The Hard Charger is a retrofit option that bolts onto your standard AR platform upper receiver to replace the standard charging handle with a side-charging handle.  The unit is three pieces.  The first piece clamps onto the last picatinny rail section on the upper receiver and has the “channel” for the charging handle.  The second piece is the actual charging handle.  In addition, the third piece is a modified standard AR-15 charging handle with a tube coming off it that connects to the side-charging handle inside the “channel.”

The install of the hard charger is a breeze.  Simply attach piece one to the upper receiver, slide the side-charging handle into the channel, and install the standard AR-15 charging handle attached to the side charger by rolling it into the charging handle channel in the upper receiver.  Once this install is complete, all I did was add a little Italian Gun Grease on the top of the Hard Charger handle and in the side-charger “channel.”  I hand cycled a couple magazines of rounds using the Hard Charger and found it very comfortable to use.

After the install, I ran into the only real problem that I encountered.  Luckily, that problem was easily corrected on my test guns; but might not be so simple for everyone.  I use American Defense Manufacturing mounts for all of my optics.  I had to turn around the mount on my Aimpoint Micro T1 so that the quick detach lever is on the right side of the gun instead of the left where it usually is because the side charger “channel” blocked the ability of the quick detach lever from closing.  While I was able to correct this problem with my Aimpoint, I was not able to mount a scope on a gun with the Hard Charger.  This is because all of the scope mounts I have available for testing (ADM, Larue, and Warne) will not work with the Hard Charger installed.  They either have to be mounted all the way to the end of the upper, which is of course is not available with the Hard Charger mounted there, for proper eye relief, or have a cantilever for eye relief that do not have enough clearance on the rail for the Hard Charger.

I took the Hard Charger out to the range, and I have to say it shined.  I ran it on my 10” Adams Arms Gas Piston PDW.  I preferred the Adams Arms platform for this test because you can easily turn off the gas to make you need to charge the gun after every shot to load the next one (thanks to one of my local USMC vet buddies for help with the testing).  Through multiple tests, the Hard Charger held up well to all the abuse we could offer it in testing including simulated double feeds and bolt override malfunctions.  If you are a fan of side chargers, I would recommend this retrofit for a defense gun.  I will probably be buying one for my truck gun.

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Kurt Gruber

Kurt is a semi-pro 3 gun shooter and a member of the Adams Arms 3 Gun Team. Kurt has been involved in competitive shooting for about 13 years and has competed in a number of disciplines from USPSA pistol, to 3 Gun, and most recently Precision Rifle.

Latest posts by Kurt Gruber (see all)

• Staff Review: Devil Dog Concepts Hard Charger - January 28, 2015
• Adams Arms .308 First Look - October 7, 2014
• Staff Review: Taran Tactical Benelli 3gun competition parts review - April 25, 2013