An M-4 mag catch assembly was not designed to hold the weight of a firing M-4. It's an already flimsy catch that barely holds in the magazine. With a 20 rd mag holding the weight of the M-4 might not be bad a 30rd mag will rock back and forth and as was pointed out might start to bend/crack parts that were never intended to hold weight. I'd sure like to examine the mag catches on those that have been firing with mag touching the ground and view the wear. Especially compared to those that have not used the mag as a firing platform.
Also, as a sniper, I cringe at the idea of using the mag as a firing platform and then attempting to double tap, or acquire the sight with speed as my weapon jumps off the hard ground from the first round.
I fairly certain we already had this discussion concerning harmonics ie the weapon touching something hard like a rock, or a mag resting on a rock and then fired as opposed to firing with a hand in between the stock (or mag) and the rock.
There's a reason we have "free floating" barrels and heavy barrels. And while I know the M-4 is not a free floating barrel the whole idea is not to touch anything hard that might affect barrel harmonics.
Now if you want to sling lead downrange then have at it. Hell I saw a video of a police shooting the other day where the police officer was employing the "gangster hold" on his pistol.
And while I appreciate your unit conducting testing, I'd rather see an weapons engineer from say "Colt" conduct those same "tests" and see what they have to say.
