I now have 3 of these fantastic rails. 10.5, 13.5. And 15. I love the square profile, the light weight, the smooth profile, reasonable price, and on and on I could go. I would replace the rails on all of my ARs, except for two things...
1. You don't make all the sizes I would want, like a 7.5" for my 8.5" 300 BO, 9.5" that I prefer on 10.5" barrels, 12.5" for a 13.7" barrel... All the usual suspects basically.
Aaaand
2. What a PITA to time them just right!!! You see, I'm OCD, so when I install a handguard, I MUST have it timed exactly with the upper receiver. I mean laterally dead perfect. (Nothing you can do for the vertical on any rail). Thing is this handguard has no rotational adjustability on the barrel nut.
My issue was having to keep playing with the shim to alignment ratio. More detail might help since I was never good in geometry. For example- if it's exactly here, use two .003 and one .002. It's doable, but I hate trial and error. The rounded alignment notch didn't seem to help me much either. The included barrel nut tool blocks the notch while using, so I make adjustments, remove the wrench, eyeball, insert the alignment rod I made into the gas rube hole, then start over. Not difficult, Just annoying.
Don't get me wrong, these are still my new favorite rail, but installing takes me a good bit of time. I wouldn't want to see the solid attachment method to change in favor of easier timing, but I won't be installing 12 more. A couple more? You bet.
Before you judge me too harshly, I have installed countless rails over the years for myself, for friends, for two shops, and my reputation for detail and using the right tools and fixtures for each job landed a gig years ago assisting an AMU gunsmith in his AR15 armorers classes.
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