OK, here are some pics of my hand guard. I will start with the cuts to the aluminum chassis.
Here are the cuts I made to the front of the chassis, in order not to cut the sling attachment ring and the stock ferrule off the rifle. The one closest to the muzzle is to accommodate the sling attachment ring. The channels to the rear of that are for the stock ferrule:
I also cut a rectangle at the bottoms, because I was planning on installing the chassis a little higher than I ended up doing and needed it to allow the bottom of the stock ferrule to go through it. Now, since I installed it lower, I probably didn’t need to make that cut.
The original CZ-58 handguard seems to put some tension between the receiver and the stock ferrule, so I wanted my Zhukov to exert the same pressure, once mounted. With that in mind, I didn’t follow Magpul’s instructions which call for the handguard to be “hanging” from the barrel. Instead, I made the cuts for the stock ferrule in the aluminum chassis at a specific distance to be able to squeeze the chassis up between ferrule and receiver to exert that bit of pressure the original handguard was exerting (or at least close to it).
I have only been able to shoot it at close distance since installing the Zhukov, but POI doesn’t seem to have changed and neither has accuracy. But I need to test at longer distances to be sure of it.
Here are the cuts at the top rear of the chassis, needed in order to fit it tight against the receiver and high enough to hug the bottom of the receiver underneath the rear sight block.
Notice that I had to drill and tap a new hole to each side of the rear of the chassis. This was necessary because I didn’t want to cut the rear M-Lok channels like id64 did. Cutting those rail sections is required if you want to install the handguard the closest possible to the barrel. So, since I had to mount mine lower, once I installed the plastic cover it interfered somewhat with the magazine insertion and removal. This forced me to move the plastic cover further forward, hence the need for the new holes.
Be aware that doing it like I did pushes the holding tabs at the front of the plastic cover out of their recesses in the aluminum chassis. I didn’t mind this at all, because I had planned to install M-Lok rails at the front of the handguard, and they hold the plastic cover securely onto the aluminum chassis, so no need for the plastic tabs.
And finally, here is the modification to the top half of the barrel clamps needed to clear the NEA railed aluminum handguard:
The aluminum pieces next to the barrel clamp halves are the spacers required to fill the gap between the aluminum chassis and the bottom halves of the barrel clamps. I couldn’t find any at the hardware store, so I had to make my own.
the hard part is after ( the frame of the Zhukov hand guard)
