In light of ridiculous new California regulations on AR-15 and other AR style rifles, the Hellfighter Kit comes to save the day! This is a button that breaks open the upper and lower receiver of an AR, allowing the mag release to work properly.
This type of action might be necessary to comply with certain California’s “fixed magazine” AR regulations, but this article will focus specifically on the kit itself and not California laws. Keep in mind, regulations may change in the future, so this article should not be cited as legal advice.
The Hellfighter Kit
Price: $69.99
Juggernaut Tactical is one of our favorite AR-15 Manufactures local to California, and of course, when their Hellfighter California Kit was released, we knew we had to get our hands on it!
The kit features 4 main pieces:
- Magazine Button Stopper / Bolt Catch Replacement
- Rear Take down Pin Replacement
- Spring
- Rear Pin “Cap”
How does it Compare to Other Kits?
Disclaimer: We are not sponsored by Juggernaut Tactical, so this is our honest opinions.
333 Tactical CalCatch – $90 (Lock and Opening System)
The concept for this kit is mostly the same, however instead of a button press, this kit has a lever that when turned, opens and closes the upper receiver. Personally, I prefer the convenience of a button press system over a lever system. I think of it as, instead of having to press one button to eject the mag, I just need to press two buttons.
The reason I did not end up choosing the 333Tactical kit is merely for the fact that lever turning is not as intuitive, AND the lever is located near the rear takedown pin, so doing that one handed seems like a pain!
Bad MBR – $75 (Does not include Opening System)
Right away, it looks like this kit requires some drilling or a custom AR lower receiver. Is all we’re getting for $75 a spring, detent, and a set screw? This one looks pretty BAD.
Also this kit offers no solution for opening the receiver.
AR Maglock – $74.95 (Lock and Opening Pin)
This kit seems to be very similar to the Juggernaut Kit, in fact the installation of the kit seems easier than the Juggernaut Tactical kit which requires fine tuning on the Bolt Catch replacement screw to get right.
The only problem I have with this kit, is that it comes with a pull out pin. The rear take down pin needs to be pulled out to break open the upper and lower receivers!
For a kit that claims to be better than all competing kits, having a pull out pin is really not as efficient as a button. If you watch the operation video, you can see just how slow a reload actually is even if this guy is moving as fast as he can.
One of the benefits of this kit however is the ability to remove it with a hex screw. This is important, as if there is any sort of jam or malfunction, you would want to remove your magazine. When the BCG is locked in the buffer tube due to a malfunction, with other kits its nearly impossible to clear a jam easily! So this is one benefit of the kit for sure!
Which Kit is Superior?
In my opinion, the Juggernaut Hellfighter kit, for the price and function, is the superior kit; however it still has its own flaws, it’s not a perfect kit!
What is the Flaw with Juggernaut’s Kit?
The Cap and Spring on the Juggernaut Kit needs to SCREW into the rear take down pin. HERE we find the biggest flaw in the entire kit!
- The screw is too short!
- There’s no method to lock the screw in place
- You can’t use loctite on it because you need to unscrew the cap to disassemble the gun for cleaning
So these are the three complaints about the system, combined it left us with a huge problem out in the desert! After shooting a few mags through the gun, I kept noticing that the screw would become loose and I would constantly have to tighten it after ever mag change.
That’s when it happened…
The Kit Broke and the Spring Flew Away!
We were doing some shooting for a video and I wasn’t paying attention to the screw. When I went to put my finger on the button to change mags, the entire cap and spring was gone! The hours I spend searching for that spring among the rocks and sand in the California desert… I never did find it!
The kit can be used without the spring, but it seemed like every two shots the receiver would open as there was no tension keeping the take down pin from moving.
Future Suggestions for Juggernaut Tactical
Please create some sort of method for locking down the Cap better, either with a longer screw OR with some sort of locking mechanism. I learned the hard way that the screw inside of the cap is a separate from the “button” part itself. So even when I found the button piece of my kit in the desert sand, I was unable to attach it since the screw itself flew off! Let’s fix this!
Conclusion
For the price, you can’t go wrong! Just make sure that you keep an eye on the kit, maybe we’ll use some electrical tape on it or something to lock it down better next time!
I still strongly think that the Juggernaut Hellfighter Kit is the best kit on the market for magazine locking as far as speed of use and convenience. It’s a lot more intuitive than pulling out the pin or flipping a lever! In spite of the complaints, I would choose this kit over any other kit for magazine locking purposes!
If you know of a better kit out there, please let us know in the comments!
