KEY MOD Rail Question

Tom E Gun

Tom E Gun

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Hello;
I have a new CMMG .22 Mk4 PDW AR upper on the way. It has a Key Mod free float front hand guard. I had to google it, as I was not familiar with this style of hand guard. I have a Magpul AFG2 & a folding front grip, I would like to be able to mount one of these on the new upper. My question is where do I get Key Mod compatible rails? Based on my recent research it appears that a standard rail, i.e.: Magpul, will not work - can anyone confirm this? I found Noveske rails are key mod compatible, but have not been able to find any in stock in Canada. Brownells carries Midwest Industries key mod rails, but are out of stock. Any useful recommendations would be appreciated.
Thanks

22B8F26-2.jpg
 
A standard rail will work. But you will need to get shorter bolts, and it will be a pain in the ass to install compared to keymod rails. See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6quU65l_Z7U

Essentially, on the actual keymod rails the nuts are attached to the mounting bolts and the nuts are shaped in such a way that you can just slide the bolts into the keymod slots and tighten from the outside. With a standard rail, you will need to insert the bolts into the keymod slots from the outside, and find a way (tweezers?) to seat the nuts onto the bolts from the inside of the handguard and hold them there while you tighten the bolts. You'll also need to find shorter bolts as the ones that come with whatever standard rail you use will likely be too long for this application. You'll save money using a standard rail as the keymod rail sections are expensive.
 
I was ready to order the rail from Armtac, but with tax and shipping it was $51.20 !!!......I think I will have to do more research and find a cheaper option.
BadRonald; thanks for the info I will look into this.
 
BadRonald said:
A standard rail will work. But you will need to get shorter bolts, and it will be a pain in the ass to install compared to keymod rails.
Click to expand...

This is what I did using a Magpul rail section. All I had to do was shorten the bolts as mentioned. I went down to Home Depot and found nuts that would fit into the rail, simply started the nuts on the bolts and popped them right in, slid the rail into place and tightened them down. Not bad for $12 worth of parts.

 
I was going to arder a keymod rail from armtac but they never got back to me at all so I will prolly get the one from wolverine but its much more expensive! might have to look into adding my own rail like factionrr did.
 
Now that I have received my new upper in the mail, I am rethinking my strategy. The keymod hand guard is significantly smaller than I imagined. I think the rail mounted AFG or folding front vertical grip may both be too bulky. I am leaning towards just installing the plastic Noveske NSR panels and finger stop like shown in the video in post #4. Now of course comes the question who has these in stock in Canada????
IMG_6322_zps8516c61f.jpg

IMG_6324_zpsd793a5c9.jpg
 
I got some noveske keymod panels from ebay. Many listings say "USA only" but if you ask around some sellers will help you out.
 
Tom E Gun said:
Now that I have received my new upper in the mail, I am rethinking my strategy. The keymod hand guard is significantly smaller than I imagined. I think the rail mounted AFG or folding front vertical grip may both be too bulky. I am leaning towards just installing the plastic Noveske NSR panels and finger stop like shown in the video in post #4. Now of course comes the question who has these in stock in Canada????
IMG_6322_zps8516c61f.jpg

IMG_6324_zpsd793a5c9.jpg
Click to expand...

Lol.. In Canada? I believe only Armtac carries them. They're all out of black panels. They only have FDE ("tan" on their website). I picked up mine from them a couple months ago.
 
Not to hijack the thread but with new offerings from companies like DD, and their "Light Rail" quad rail systems. Is there even a reason for Keymod.

The biggest selling point to Keymod was that you didn't have to have an overly heavy rail system only to cover half of it in rail pannels. Keymod gave you rails where you needed them, yet there are some quad rail systems that weight just as much as a Keymod system now, except you don't need to start adding rail sections. Even with panels they aren't that much heavier.
 
mini15 said:
Not to hijack the thread but with new offerings from companies like DD, and their "Light Rail" quad rail systems. Is there even a reason for Keymod.

The biggest selling point to Keymod was that you didn't have to have an overly heavy rail system only to cover half of it in rail pannels. Keymod gave you rails where you needed them, yet there are some quad rail systems that weight just as much as a Keymod system now, except you don't need to start adding rail sections. Even with panels they aren't that much heavier.
Click to expand...

Yes there is first of all a DD 12.0" Lite rail weighs 15.5oz
While a 13.5" Noveske NSR weighs in at 7.9oz. (11.0oz including the barrel nut).
Secondly the DD Lite measures 2.06" wide while the Noveske is 1.48" wide.
The difference in circumference on the 2 rails is quite noticeable.

Here is another thread where I discussed the advantages of keymod.
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1022002-what-is-this-whole-key-mod-thing-about?highlight=GG%26amp%3BG
 
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^^^ good info. only reason I ordered a keymod is cause its on the xcr I ordered and that rifle needs all the help it can get in the weight loss program LOL
 
thump_rrr said:
Yes there is first of all a DD 12.0" Lite rail weighs 15.5oz
While a 13.5" Noveske NSR weighs in at 7.9oz. (11.0oz including the barrel nut).
Secondly the DD Lite measures 2.06" wide while the Noveske is 1.48" wide.
The difference in circumference on the 2 rails is quite noticeable.

Here is another thread where I discussed the advantages of keymod.
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1022002-what-is-this-whole-key-mod-thing-about?highlight=GG%26amp%3BG
Click to expand...

I guess there is still weight savings to be had, the thing I see though is it fragments the accessory market. Picatiny rails as found on traditional quad rails are almost a universal standard by now, it's like the Phillips head screw of the accessory world. One standard.

I think Keymod might be more of a civilian AR thing instead of the next "big thing" which will become the new mil standard. I can't see how the mil would deal with the logistics of having to stock all sorts of proprietary adapters for every accessory for negligible weight savings.
 
BCM has some cool key mod stuff but I didn't have much luck finding in Canada. I did the NSR grip panels, side note there is really only enough pieces in the bag to one face of the grip area properly.
 
Kendres said:
BCM has some cool key mod stuff but I didn't have much luck finding in Canada. I did the NSR grip panels, side note there is really only enough pieces in the bag to one face of the grip area properly.
Click to expand...

The BCM keymod vertical grip is a work of art. It's completely tool-less for install and removal. Extremely well designed and it is incredible how comfortable it is on the rail. I thought i was going to ditch VG but man that feels good in the hand!

 
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