Hey Hunter,
Thanks for the questions and please accept our apologies on the delay in response. We moved our office this year and our customer contact through this forum fell by the wayside. In the off chance you haven't had some of these questions answered, I'll give it a shot now.
Regarding rail pinning: The Wedgelock rail has anti-rotation features built-in and we normally don't pin the rails. I suppose we could ask our gunsmith to do it but one of the advantages of the Wedge Lock system is it's ability to be easy to don/doff for cleaning and maintenance.
Regarding gunsmithing services: With the Obama era ruling that made gunsmithing an ITAR regulated activity, we paused our services for awhile to make sure we could receive parts on behalf of customers and transfer them to a gunsmith for servicing. Once we felt confident we could continue to re-activate our services, we did and have been trying to make it an easier to shop format.
Try this link to build a cart for the work you need.
Regarding the Ballistic Advantage Gas Block: This gas block does fit under the rail, just note that any M-LOK accessories can't be mounted on the rail directly around the gas block due to clearance issues. The only accessory that we've found where this is a problem is a forward mounted sling QD socket. If you moved the socket aft one M-LOK slot you'd be fine.
And lastly, the ALCOA issue: Regular supply has been tough for anyone in the industry. When available, Hodge makes uses ALCOA on his military contracts. We've since gotten the 7076 rails and they are damn nice, haven't met anyone who has broken them yet. ALCOA is just 10% lighter so it's not a huge difference but I'd understand if you were holding out for rails or rifles in ALCOA, we just don't have an indication even still on when that is.
Feel free to reply here, email
[email protected] or call (425) 968 - 8444 if you have anymore questions!