The easiest way I've found to "ghost load" a round onto the carrier of an M4

[Morton]

First pull the bolt all the way back, then ease it forward until the carrier pops up, drop in your round and push it and the carrier down into the receiver and release the bolt.

 

Watch to make sure the bolt doesn't pick up the round. If it does, you must have pulled the bolt back inadvertently. Make sure when you let the bolt forward to make the carrier pop up that you don't pull it back again or it might pick up the round. If you're gonna do this and load a round in the chamber at the same time, it won't matter which you do first, but if you pull the bolt back after you ghost load your round with one in the chamber, the round will jam against the one you put in the chamber.

Just FYI.

Edited May 16, 2021 by Morton

[bambihunter]

Though much more tricky on newer guns, it's pretty much the same procedure since the beginning. I have at least a half dozen HK import models and the SBE is easy to do this since it has such a long chamber. My 3" only guns require one to be a little more precise on how far back to hold the bolt.

Ghost loading was not the intention for the design. The ability to do that stemmed from an anti-jam feature, where if a round slipped past the shell stop in the magazine, that it wouldn't jam, instead feeding that round into the chamber without releasing a new one from magazine. It is a great feature. Too bad people were using it during shell capacity limited seasons such as migratory birds.

[filthy phil]

Subd