Problem solved. You are welcome.

Do what you want then and don't worry about how hot it gets.

As others have stated, barrels are cheap; replace as necessary.

Gloves or a thicker barrel,

Damn, that's ghetto! Just use aluminum foil, it's already in your kitchen and cheaper

 

The original M16A2 plastic hand guards had aluminum heat shields.

Quad Rails often have enough material & clearance, so that even small rail ladders offered enough protection from heat buildup.

KeyMod and M-Lok setups have their own "challenges".  Their lighter weight comes with other costs.

Too Cold to Hold!!!!!

I love the look of the M-Lok rails and the new super lightweight rails too but....... I'm super happy with my old dinosaur Midwest Ind. T-series Quad-rail. I can run mag after mag without gloves of any kind, (though I wear gloves now.) OP, definitely wear gloves. I do it now shooting pistols, rifles, even my shotty. I thought I would hate using gloves but I have become quite fond of them...

Agreed!

Back to topic... Have you ran it lately since you removed the rail covers?

No not yet but I can see how removing then will help

Wow...just get a forward grip and uncover the rails.  I will never baby a milspec.  Use and replace as necessary.  Get some hair on your chest guys.  That's the trouble.  Everyone is hairless nowadays.  Peace!

It's going to be hard to follow a real man's post like above this, but I'll try.

I've honestly never noticed an issue with heat through handguards on an AR. AK74 with cheapo solid plastic handguard, YES, but not AR's.

My pistol has a Seekins SAR rail. My LMT is the MRP, so little choice. My backup has a 16" M4 profile but never noticed anything through the KAC RAS/RIS/whichever. Never noticed through A2 handguards on an M16A4 or KAC RAS/RIS on an M4.

I supposed many times I was wearing light gloves, but not these days. Still nothing.... Do you have a lightweight profile barrel? I stay away from those.

I use gloves and would recommend you trying some to see how they work for you.  I still run and prefer for the most part the old school double heat shield Colt hand guards and have no first hand experience with the hand guards you have however, I think a VFG and removing some of the rail covers may help.  I hope this helps.

There's a reason that the military has standards. It doesn't take any hair on your chest at all to blow thru a combat load too quickly, run out of ammo, and overheat the weapon. All it takes is shoddy training and adrenaline.

Let's not forget that 90% of the service is NOT combat arms, so the little finesse points of actually using the M-series weapons are sometimes lost in translation or lack of focus getting the daily paperwork done.

12 - 15 rounds per minute is three seconds a shot. The environment would have to be highly rich in stupidity to provide that many targets, it could happen, but it's not often or likely. When it does, the machine guns are the appropriate weapons to use, and are often at hand. The combat rifle/carbine, not so much.

If you are firing it so fast it gets too hot to handle - fail. You are no longer combat effective, you are now a weak link in the line, and you are letting your team mates down in a lethal situation. You don't need hair on your chest to shoot the M16, you need a steady pace and enough ammo to be the winner.

"My handguards are too hot" = not using the weapon correctly for combat. What you do shooting piles of dirt is your business, but its unrelated.

Gloves are probably best answer. They're always where your hands are, help with picking hot brass out of your collar when shooting and also help prevent blisters.

Having gone through some carbine courses, the guns get hot.  If your uncomfortable with  the heat and distracted by it, you won't be able to focus at the task or training at hand.  

The heat wrap probably works just fine too, but you lose the other benefits of gloves. The only downside is that you'll end up with 30 pairs of gloves looking for the perfect ones!

If you cannot find a suitable pair of gloves, walk into your kitchen and grab one of your mom's oven mitts.  Done.

There is a reason so many in country wear gloves on duty. Barrels heat up.   Watch the Military Channel and see how many have a forward grip and wear gloves.  Oh, and sunglasses are a must too.  I would not be overly concerned, just take some ideas and use them.  And...don't worry about the hairy chest comment.  It is from the old days.  Peace!  

I do have a hairy chest lol

So I was able to shoot today at my father in laws house.  I removed a bunch of the rail covers from the back  and after a couple mags was still to hot.  So I moved a couple covers away from the gas block area shot a few more mags and found it to be much much better.  Other thing I might do is get a new mount for my flashlight move it off the top and move my sight forward so the gas block can vent more.  Throw an mvg on it or gloves and it will be set.

I was shooting 1 round per second as in fire wait one fire.  so any one claiming I'm shooting to fast is crazy.  The last two mags I shot as fast as possible and could still hold it.

I bet if you took all those squares off the problem would be gone.

So it would seem the best recommendation is shoot with bare rails.  Most pictures I see on the forums with modular rails don't have any type of covers only there quad rails do

Like this.  Modular rail.  No covers.  Only one min-rail at bottom front for bipod or light.  Otherwise slick.  I think quad rail covers are more to eliminate the cheese grater feel than anything else.

I have no problem with heat too hot to hold and shoot about the same rate as you.  No full mag dumps, but about 1 per second when training.  I mostly wear a glove on support hand of habit, as stated above, but have run this bare handed with no problem.

This is my first upper with this type of rail, Ive always had quad rails or regular handguards. But I will try it with nothing on next time (phrasing)

Not tossing covers on absolutely everything just because you have the covers is an important point.  I use covers that help me properly retain control of the front of the rifle, and leave everything else open, especially the top.  You want to have covers to do specific things, but I really think that it depends on how you use the rifle.  If you tend to support the front of the rifle in exactly the same spot all the time, you might want some covers right there, for a tactile reference that your grip is "right" if nothing else.  And knowing whether or not those minimalist handguards actually guard your hands from barrel heat is another issue.  Basically, "do what works for you."