Lefty Essential: Left Handed Upper

You are a left handed shooter and you are thinking of building that custom tailored AR-15. Gone are the days that you have to settle for a right handed upper in your left handed world. But why would you want a left handed upper receiver, you’ve already got an ambidextrous lower.

Advantages of the Left Handed Upper

First off, gas blow back is reduced to your face. The left facing ejection port will throw that unwanted gas left-ward, away from you, not in front of you. Not a big deal when shooting normally, but when shooting suppressed, there is a lot more gas coming back down the bore, and having it exit away from you is much better, and more comfortable.

Secondly, the brass won’t be ejecting across your face. While it’s unlikely that the brass will eject so quickly that it will hit you, it’s happened. You will also have less of your view obstructed (because we all shoot with both eyes open, right?).

Thankfully, there is a good variety of left handed upper receivers on the market. From your standard forged upper by Stag, to the billet offerings of CMT. There are plenty of choices for your rifles. Personally, I’ve had good experiences with CMT Tac and the original Stag that started it out for me.

Left Handed Upper Manufacturers

• Bear Creek Arsenal – Dual charging upper
• Black Rain Ordnance – Billet upper
• Cross Machine Tool – Billet upper
• F1 Firearms – Skeletal billet upper
• First Texas Tactical – Forged upper
• Gibbz Arms –Side charging upper
• Ground Zero Precision – Forged upper
• Next Level Armament – AR10 upper
• Red X Arms – Billet upper
• Stag Arms – Forged upper
• Tromix – Big bore upper

Many of these companies are on our left handed rifle page. And don’t forget to add a left handed BCG for your build.