Hey Hans, unrelated question, just curious, are you a fan of vertical forward grips on AR rifles, angled ones, or some just a good C clamp type hold?
My recommendation......
Try out a few.
If you're a geardo, you're going to do it anyway, so just get what you want and don't pay too much to the price - but if watching the bottom-line is something that you do have to keep an eye on, provided that you're using M-Lok, Magpul has just about everything you'd want to try, all at very reasonable prices.
It's not just about having one or the other and how your hand interacts with the item. Where you place this accessory and how much you may extend your support arm can also factor into things (don't forget to try some shoulder-to-shoulder transitions and also also just "bumping" the gun to the other shoulder while still using your dominant hand on fire-control). Similarly, how your support hand interfaces with ancillary gear (lights/lasers) can also cause you to choose one or another device.
While modern dogma would suggest that "swallowing the gun" -getting your support hand out as far as you can while fully extending the buttstock- should offer the best recoil control and help direct target transitions, would it surprise you to know that some whose business is CQB actually prefer a "slick" handguard (with the exception of the necessary lights/lasers, of-course), specifically so that they can slide their support hand back-and-forth along the length of the handguard as-necessary, so as to mitigate the effects of physical fatigue?
Until you try it for yourself, everything else is really quite academic. I can tell you what I like and why, but it may or may not mesh with your needs and preferences.
Towards the latter -
I prefer a VFG. A short one.
As with others here, the way I hold the front of the gun essentially turns it into a "VFG" presentation, but I find that I have more ability to control just how much "lock/force" I put into that hold with a true 90-degree VFG, versus any angle(s) that a specific marketed product is built to.
For example, I've really come to like the Railscale Anchor/LDAG, and I use its "flat" face as the hold face.
I usually shoot with it like this -
^ Where I cam the pinky and ring fingers in a manner that's similar to my handgun support-hand's "thumbs forward" hold, but you can see how in the picture below, where I've bumped to my support side shoulder to take the shot (under a vehicle) I'm really pulling back on it with my entire hand, in order to obtain more stability.
Now can see in the picture below that I'm using it as a barricade-stop.....
I came to this particular device through a rather long road that spanned several years, starting with the use of a Magpul AFG and then RVG (which I still have on my HD gun -
https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/lets-see-your-ar-setups.258/page-4#post-4251). Then to a Gear Sector stubby vert and handstop combo, then just using his vert (you can see this on my backup gun for training classes, which I detailed here:
https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/lets-see-your-ar-setups.258/page-5#post-4862) - then moving to an Arisaka Vertical/handstop combo (
https://www.xdtalk.com/threads/ar15-lowers-suggestions.279799/page-2#post-4997679), progressing to the just that handstop.... (
https://www.xdtalk.com/threads/ar15-lowers-suggestions.279799/page-3#post-6409113)
....and then to a Railscale Karv (which my daughter really likes, after she's tried each of the above -
https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/lets-see-your-ar-setups.258/page-4#post-4362) , and finally to the Anchor/LDAG.
But my hand is also "wedged" there given that I have a short rail section placed up towards the muzzle, which is used ostensibly as interface for my bipod. You can actually see this best in how my daughter's gun is set up, above. In-use, this allows me to wedge my support hand between it and the vert grip more proximal.
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Back on-topic
In terms of the charging handle, my current preference is the Geissele SCH, but virtually all of my ARs aside from my training beater still utilize Raptors. As many members have noted above, there's a lot of individual-level considerations that can affect this choice such as hand/finger size and articulation needs, whether or not one use gloves, the scope bell, suppressor/gassing, etc.
For me, the Geissele simply hits a sweet spot for me in terms of weapons manipulations, but really, I've also been very happy with the BCM and the Raptor, neither of which have ever failed me in high-round-count/hard-use guns that have seen various rigorous methods of stoppage reduction, ranging from hand-chops to mortaring to the all-time-favorite of "kick-starting."
