The perfect ar15 rail?

rally guy

rally guy

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Hello I am looking for an ar15 rail but I am thorn between the older quad rails and newer m lok rails. Truth is I want neither I want an hybrid of the two.

I really like my rail on my gen1 DDM4V5.

Pros.

-solid, you could probably drive over it.
-great to mount lights, grips and any accessories you want
-it's really versatile.

Cons.

- it's heavy
- without rail covers its like holding a cheese grater and adding rail cover on an already heavy rail is not the best.

The M-lok and keymod rail

Pros.

- light light light light!
- looks good and is the "cool" thing to have.

Cons.

-you probably can not walk on most of then with out collapsing then in.
- they SUCK at adding things to them:
*cause you have to buy separate m lok rails for them
*once you bolt the m lok rails on then you are stuck to that location on the rail
*since there is hardware to attache the m lok rail often you can't attache the rail beneath the gas block due to clearence issue.
* the m lok rail can come loose
-most flex easily even with just loading the bipod.

So I think I found the rail I would like... but its only a Daniel defence prototype.
7B0E37E6-C16D-4C5F-AEFB-002F9DC4AD36.jpeg


So I am left searching for something similar, a rail that IMO is the best of both world: free floating, weigh conscious, SOLID, a good capacity for mounting crap with front quad rails and the rest is m lok and confortable to hold.

Now I found 2 other possibilities

1. Aero precision M4E1 GEN 2 QUAD RAIL
aero-m4e1-gen-2-quad-rail-handguard-aero-precision.jpg


Pros.
- railed like I like, affordable, looks ok

Cons.
- questionable strength, no m lok sloth before the rails.

2. Geissele SUPER MODULAR RAIL MK13 M-LOK
ga-smr-mk13mlok-13-blk-05-559b.jpg


Pros.
-railed like I want, looks awsome, great name and has m lok sloth befor the rails.

Cons.
Expensive, discontinued?, can't be dropped from 5 feet with out bending so poor strength.

To summarize the aero I dont like that there is no m lok and the geissele is discontinued, both have questionable strength but the geissele were proven very week.

So I am left searching and that is why I am turning to you.
 
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Geissele mk4 - still being made
Knights armament URX 3.1 - no mlok but super light and strong
Parallax tactical ffssr - don't think you can get these in Canada tho
 
khw said:
Geissele mk4 - still being made
Knights armament URX 3.1 - no mlok but super light and strong
Parallax tactical ffssr - don't think you can get these in Canada tho
Click to expand...

Dont the geissele mk4 also bends easily or is that only the mk13?
 
rally guy said:
Dont the geissele mk4 also bends easily or is that only the mk13?
Click to expand...

The mk16 that is on the USASOC uppers has reportedly had issues with holding zero in some drop testing. So would just about anything if you did what was done to them I would imagine. Bends easily is not how I would describe what was reported. The rail is crazy light because that's what the customer wanted. Turns out if you whack it hard enough physics occurs.

I have a mk13 and it feels plenty solid to me. The barrel nut is a very close fit to rhe rail - no wobble or anything. Geissele makes a great rail mounting interface. I also have a monolithic CC upper and that is obviously going to be damn near indestructable.

There is no free lunch - you can have light or super strong, not both. The mk 13 is likely stiffer than the mk 16 and the mk 4 is likely the stiffest of the three. The mk 4 has a larger cross secton, so you may or may not find that comfortable.

Also, what crap are you mounting to the front anyhow? You can run things like lasers further back which helps with sight clearance and keeps the weight closer to your body. See this article for some thoughts on that:

https://sofrep.com/gear/mounting-ir-laser-carbine-youre-probably-wrong/

An option with a lighter rail is to run the light(s) up front and the laser back some.

You might also think about light mounting - 3, 6 and 9 o-clock mounting of lights is going to make for a wide forend of the rifle. The new Surefire Scout Pro series can be pivoted along the attachment point axis and looks like a great solution to dial in the mounting.

I would happily swap my mk 13 for a mk 14 because I find the 3, 6 and 9 o-clock pic rail sections a bit of a pain. YMMV.

ETA: Brownells is still listing the mk 13 so I don't think it's been discontinued. [Further edit, I was wrong, see below]
 
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jadam said:
The mk16 that is on the USASOC uppers has reportedly had issues with holding zero in some drop testing. So would just about anything if you did what was done to them I would imagine. Bends easily is not how I would describe what was reported. The rail is crazy light because that's what the customer wanted. Turns out if you whack it hard enough physics occurs.

I have a mk13 and it feels plenty solid to me. The barrel nut is a very close fit to rhe rail - no wobble or anything. Geissele makes a great rail mounting interface. I also have a monolithic CC upper and that is obviously going to be damn near indestructable.

There is no free lunch - you can have light or super strong, not both. The mk 13 is likely stiffer than the mk 16 and the mk 4 is likely the stiffest of the three. The mk 4 has a larger cross secton, so you may or may not find that comfortable.

Also, what crap are you mounting to the front anyhow? You can run things like lasers further back which helps with sight clearance and keeps the weight closer to your body. See this article for some thoughts on that:

https://sofrep.com/gear/mounting-ir-laser-carbine-youre-probably-wrong/

An option with a lighter rail is to run the light(s) up front and the laser back some.

You might also think about light mounting - 3, 6 and 9 o-clock mounting of lights is going to make for a wide forend of the rifle. The new Surefire Scout Pro series can be pivoted along the attachment point axis and looks like a great solution to dial in the mounting.

I would happily swap my mk 13 for a mk 14 because I find the 3, 6 and 9 o-clock pic rail sections a bit of a pain. YMMV.

ETA: Brownells is still listing the mk 13 so I don't think it's been discontinued.
Click to expand...

Browells is listing it as discontinued. And yes its a game of compromise. To me the Daniel defence rail would be ideal but they dont make that one I posted. What am I mounting? Right now not much but I would like sturdiness, I am fairly sure I could drop my DDM4V5 from way higher then 5 feet without any rail deflection.
 
rally guy said:
Browells is listing it as discontinued. And yes its a game of compromise. To me the Daniel defence rail would be ideal but they dont make that one I posted. What am I mounting? Right now not much but I would like sturdiness, I am fairly sure I could drop my DDM4V5 from way higher then 5 feet without any rail deflection.
Click to expand...

You're right about the rail being discontinued - I hadn't clicked through to the product page. Weird. I guess it wasn't a good seller.

I seem to recall the issue was the rifle being dropped on an offset laser mounted mount (MAWL) and the mk 16 is 13.5" so that makes a pretty long lever for bending. I'm not all that familiar with the mk 18 rail - is it not two long rail pieces attached to the mounting plate on the receiver? That is certainly a lot less robust than a monolithic system like the CC and presumably weaker than an equally thick single piece rail system.

For what you're describing it seems to me that the mk 4 will give you pretty comparable but likely lower strength for less weight than the DD. Any sense of when/if the DD rail will drop?

What about getting the excess pic rail sections on your current rail? Looks like that's exactly what DD did with the prototype. Folks have had success doing similar on the huge ass pic rail system on the Rob Arms XCR. Souldn't be cheap, and you'll need to coat or paint it after. Would be one of a kind though.
 
I don't think the dd rail will ever drop.

Btw on the strength of the dd quad rail check this video at 15m30 and 29m15. Tell me what yoy think vs the 5 foot mk13 drop :p
 
The aero m4ewhatever I found very light however it’s so thick it was really difficult to handle unless you have Shaq size hands.
 
impressive test but not really apples to apples. The rail is bare and it’s soft ground. Also, they are testing the barrel zero. The mk 16 test looked at the deflection of the rail mounted aiming laser as I recall.

That DD rail shouldn’t touch the barrel at all so I wouldn’t expect the zero to change. I gotta be honest and say any decent rail system should pass that test. The rail could deflect 1/8” or much more and still have a good free floated sight post zero.

In and event, good luck on your search!
 
Why not get a colt canada mrr upper? Or a iur upper? They are both extremely strong and can handle a lot of punishment.
 
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