Best AR-15 Parts to Help You Shoot Faster

So you’re trying to get faster. Nice. We know the ammo shortage and price gouging has probably been a massive thorn in your side. It certainly has for us. One upside is that while you wait for stores to restock their shelves or prices to come back down, you can get yourself some performance parts to help you shoot your AR-15 faster.

Below, we’ve listed our three favorite aftermarket parts to either add or change out to get more shots on target in less time which would also be perfect for your 80% AR-15 build if you’re just starting out:

The B.A.D. Lever

The Magpul B.A.D. Lever stands for “battery assist device.” It attaches to your AR-15 rifle’s bolt release button effectively creating a larger profile on the left side of the gun — making it easier to slam the bolt carrier group back into battery (hence the name). But what’s really cool is that this attachment extended an L-shaped lever to the right side of the gun making it possible to do this with your trigger finger (assuming you’re right handed).

The reason this helps users manipulate their AR-15 rifles faster and more effectively is because it subtracts one action needed by the left hand when reloading. Typically, after you slap a fresh magazine into the receiver, you’ll need to thumb press or palm the bolt release to put the BCG back into battery. With the B.A.D. Lever, your left hand can go straight back to the handguard as your right index finger releases the BCG instead by pushing the lever downwards with minimal effort— all helping you line up your next shot faster. Think of it like simultaneously clutching and shifting in a manual car in one smooth movement.

Muzzle Device

We’ve previously covered this extensively in our blog post about whether “Flash hiders are worth it for your AR-15,” but we’re including this part here for good reason: Muzzle devices are important and we’re partial to the muzzle brakes as they reduce muzzle rise the most when shooting. We’ll also reiterate how much we love the Surefire Warcomp.

It’s one of the top Muzzle devices for AR-15 owners to have as it has hybrid capabilities of suppressing the blinding flash that comes from hot gas as a bullet exits the barrel and it reduces both received recoil felt and muzzle rise —the best of both worlds. With less muzzle rise that means the user can pull off consecutive shots faster at a steel or paper target.

Aftermarket Trigger

Not everybody can be Milspec Mojo with his lightning finger reflexes. Some of us need extra help, and that’s alright! Mil-spec triggers come pretty tough and rigid feeling out of the box so if you want a lighter trigger for competition, performance reasons, or just preference we’d recommend you to take a look at the following brands and their aftermarket triggers to get a feel for what’s out there and figure out what you want/need. (We’re preferential to CMC Single-Stage 3.5 lb. trigger for its high quality, smooth action and affordable pricing)

CMC – Carries fantastic single and two stage triggers and great price points. They have both curved and flat triggers.
Geissele – An industry powerhouse and perhaps standard with trigger setups as expensive as $400+. They do have lower end triggers but good luck finding them in stock.
Trigger Tech –Offers lightweight triggers around the $200 mark.
American Gold Trigger – As the name suggests, sells a couple of gold triggers in black housing that are either adjustable or fixed.
Rise Armament – Has a wide variety of triggers with a range of low to high price points. Their design makes us reminiscent of our younger days and some paintball gun triggers actually.