Posted by on 11/1/2021 to
Ejection Port Doors or Dust Covers on your AR-15 are optional. You don’t actually need it for your rifle to perform. However, if you fire your rifle with the Dust Door closed you may be dealing with a jam. So do you really need it, or is it just there?
When it comes to the question of Dust Door or not, the answer may be a question: why not? There are very few problems when it comes to having one, and not having one might cause problems or it might cause no problems.
They do weigh more than nothing, but it’s not much more. You’re looking at an increased weight of approximately an ounce, maybe less. Hardly worth worrying about. But an ounce is an ounce you say, why not just hang a bunch of lucky charms off my handguard while I’m at it? Well if they are truly lucky that might be a good idea. So the problem isn’t weight, I’d accept a ten pound lucky charm if it guaranteed every shot I took landed exactly where I wanted it to. The Dust Cover may not be lucky, it certainly doesn’t help accuracy, but it does help keep the inner workings of your AR-15 nice and clean.
There are some who close the Dust Cover at the same time they engage their safety, and this is a great habit, as long as you are also in the habit of opening it again when you disengage the safety. It’s usually not an issue, because when you pull the bolt carrier back, it should automatically pop the dust cover open. If you do fire your rifle with the Dust Cover closed it will either pop open of its own accord, ejecting the casing, or stay closed and jam your rifle. It probably won’t cause an explosion, or more accurately cause the expected explosion to do damage. Usually, when that happens, it is the cartridge that causes it, not the Dust Door. So Dust Covers are safe, why should you use them?
Closing the door while you are walking around with it will help to keep any dirt, mud, rain, dare I say dust, or whatever else out of your rifle’s internals. These internals are lightly lubricated, moving parts, it’s a good idea to keep them clear of foreign material. If stuff does get in there it can lead to jams or things just not working as smoothly as you’d like. Keeping the internals clean will also make cleaning and lubricating your rifle later that much easier.
Even if you aren’t going to be proactive with your opening and closing of the Dust Cover as you use it, you can still close it when you are putting your AR away for the day. This is one of those things that it’s really good at, keeping dust from collecting on the Bolt Carrier Group. So if you have a cover, at the very least close it when yer done with yer gun!
Another reason to have a Dust Cover, and a good one, is that it personalizes your AR-15. A Dust Cover is a great place to add a little flair, with images and/or sayings. There are literally hundreds (or more) of unique options. You can use different colors to get an interesting or aesthetically pleasing motif going. If you want something subtly different there are Dust Covers that have a unique yet understated style to them. Some Dust Covers will have the ammunition type printed on them, which comes in handy if you have multiple ARs that run different types of ammunition. It could save you from a heap of not-fun, like loading 300 Blackout into your 5.56 NATO rifle.
When you take all of this into account, along with the low prices that Dust Covers tend to have, it really seems like the answer is, why not? Why not add a helpful and personable thing to this rifle you adore? Why not decorate one of your favorite tools with another useful tool?