Rainier Arms Ambi Raptor Charging handle

[FortTom]

I recently posted about buying one for my new build, and was leaning heavily towards getting one. One person sort of talked me out of it with a warning about catching your finger between it and the forward assist. Even though I almost always wear gloves, I thought long and hard, and ended up getting a BCM MOD 3 w/large latch. I'm having second thoughts now, nothing wrong with BCM CH's IMO, but I might put it on my LMT and order another from RA.

FT

[FortTom]

Update:
I just ordered one of these today for a rifle I'm building to be as light weight as possible. I've watched countless video's reviewing the Raptor and not once was it mentioned that the finger is in danger of getting caught between the CH and the FA.

One thing, even when I first joined the military in '75, that I always thought was awkward, was doing all CH operations with my left hand, especially clearing a weapon. Using my right, most of the time, just seems more natural for me.

I was also concerned about extra weight as it looks big, but one video put a Raptor on top of several other CH's from bone stock mil, to other left hand latch and ambi-handles.
Although it appears to be much larger, in most cases it's the same size, or ever so slightly larger than a basic mil-spec CH. The gen 2 got rid of the steel handles and replaced them with (skeletonized) aluminum. Shipping weight was 4.0 oz., so I'm assuming it weighs about 3 oz.'s or so. So that objection seems moot now.

Is it worth 90 bucks (price paid shipped and insured)? I don't know, that's 2 or 3X a BCM or similar CH and about the same as a BCM ambi-ch. I'll have to figure that one out after some good hard use.

My only real concern now, is the ease of disassembly/reassembly of the Raptor for cerakote. I'm planning on having this rifle cerakoted in foliage green, then camo dipped in ATAC pattern.

Hope I didn't screw this one up. I'll find out soon, since I'm going to assemble the upper, put it on an existing lower, shoot the hell out of it, then disassemble, and send all upper parts, and new lower and parts for cerakote and camo.

FT