Railed handguards for the C8
- Thread starter suprathepeg
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Any will fit all C8 variants, depending on what the intent and place they will be used I cannot stress enough that the FAB, CAA, UTG,and the rest of the bargain basement products are not suitable for any military use (or casual range work IMHO).
As well Free float designs that require the removal of any part of the barrel and sub assembly are not allowed, the rail system MUST ONLY replace the hand guard and nothing else, as the user will be committing a service offense
As well Free float designs that require the removal of any part of the barrel and sub assembly are not allowed, the rail system MUST ONLY replace the hand guard and nothing else, as the user will be committing a service offense
If a an M4 RAS is in your budget and you can find one yes it is my first recommendation, if not there are alternatives that work as well:
Troy MRF/DI
Daniel Defense Omega
Yankee Hill machine makes some affordable rails with decent quality
Surefire M73 some like it, others hate it
Troy MRF/DI
Daniel Defense Omega
Yankee Hill machine makes some affordable rails with decent quality
Surefire M73 some like it, others hate it
angryeyebrows
CGN frequent flyer
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- Oscar Mike
The nice thing about the DD Omega is that it's a drop in freefloat design but Reaper is 100% correct about NOT using the cheapo rails if your intensions are to deploy.
angryeyebrows
CGN frequent flyer
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- Oscar Mike
True, but it isn't free-float. Which is OK if someone doesn't wan't/need free-float, otherwise not.
My testing shows just over a 20% improvement in group size going from to a free-float system.
and how many different rifles did you trial and how many different handguard configurations did you try ??
The tone of your question leads me to think you already know the answer: my Stag with regular handguards, a Surefire M73, and a DD Omega. 50 yards at an indoor range off a bench, with and without optics and magnifiers, measured by the Mean Radius method, ten-shot groups, handloads with cheap bullets duplicating M193. 20% on this measurement is not immediately clear to the eye (doesn't show much with edge-to edge measurements).
Since my statement about mild accuracy improvement is not contentious - it's relatively conventional wisdom on AR's, and perfectly well understood on other rifle systems - it wasn't necessary to go into detail, or to extend my personal testing beyond this basic level.
The accuracy difference would tend to be more pronounced if the shooter used a sling, bipod, or was in other ways putting pressure on the handguard - keeping the pressure uniform is difficult.
Having said all that.... with a normal rifle, plinking or speedshooting out at a hundred yards or so, the accuracy difference will not make one whit of difference in practical results for most shooters. It's still useful information to have.
To answer your question:
- a continuous top rail surface is a bonus (no gap between the receiver and the handguard rails).
- zero-modification (aka "drop in") is a bonus - they go on faster and easier and your rifle can be returned to stock easily.
- free-float is a bonus. There is a mild accuracy improvement
- having a built-in sling swivel attachment is a bonus - if you ever want to sling your rifle it will save you weight, money and bulk.
- light weight is a bonus
- low cost is a bonus
- having the top surface of the rail at the same level as the top of your rifle is a must (hence I would avoid the M73) if you're pushing optics forward.
I can't think of anything else. If you're bench shooting and on a budget, the UTC's from Questar would be fine. If you're using your rifle hard and can spend a bit more, I like the DD Omega ( http://www.militarymorons.com/weapons/ar.uppers2.html#omega ) series as it meets all of the above bonus criteria.
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I have a Yankee Hill on my issued C8 here in Afghanistan. Love it.
Troy MRF-DI. Awesome product for the money, feels very solid and I am very happy with mine. I will be doing some hard-use training with it at some point, but so far I can't say as to how it would stand up to legitimate use, but it looks like the proverbial brick sh**house.
