Aridus Industries has released a carrier spring tool designed to set the springs in the Aridus Q-DCs deeper. Further, the newest Q-DCs will already have the springs set deeper by default, so those of you who are newcomers to the ecosystem won’t have to deal with this in the first place.

Why is this important? Because setting the springs deeper fixes the issues I had with too-strong retention that I encountered during the Green Ops shotgun class. Shells go into the carriers without getting caught on the cut-outs, and they come out of the carrier with much less force. The shells are still held in pretty well, so you’re not losing that Q-DC retention performance that made the system so attractive in the first place.

The tool comes with instructions, but you really don’t need them… just stick the tool into each slot on the carrier from the top and then the bottom (or vice versa), and it will push the spring in adequately. The tools are supposedly calibrated for Federal Flite Control shells, but the difference was immediately obvious even with dummy shells.

The one caveat that that you’re paying $12 plus shipping to buy the tool to do this, and if you only have a couple carriers, I’m not sure it will be cost-effective. I have a whole bunch of carriers, so it seemed worthwhile. There is a part of me that wonders if a 3D printed version could accomplish a similar goal, but that is an experiment for another time…