As my needs in gear become more high-speed, I keep watch for little tweaky things that will simplify my life or make it easier. I need to be able to trust my life and the lives of others with my equipment, and I can't waste my time or money on B.S. doo-dads, fancy slings that tie themselves in knots, silly mag clamps, or anything that gets in the way or simply does not work. My life could be lost or saved by my reactions to a given situation, and I cannot risk any questions when it comes to the performance of my gear.
Here's something I ran across recently here, and couldn't wait for the release date. I was fortunate enough to receive a set of Dark Parts rail covers for evaluation, courtesy of John Carney, from Excalibur Arms (He posts here as Bandit-ExcaliburArms, website
www.sr-25.com). I immediately tried them out on a few different rifles, and left them on these, a Bushmaster w/ Knight's RAS, and a DPMS w/ Knight's RAS. The DPMS is part of my standard load out. I have an Olympic FIRSH tube on my "varmint" gun, and these also work on it, with no modifications at all.
These are polymer rail covers, overmolded with soft yet stiff rubber. Very similar to the process Hogue uses, it looks like. They lock onto the rails very securely, I'd say they're more secure than the Knight's covers, with NO rattles at all. They really stay in place.
The benefit to the overmolding is GRIP. These things are so non-slip it's not funny. wet hands, dry hands, muddy gloves, chocolate, bloody mess, whatever.
They have a very matte finish, so no reflections. No rattles, so no sound. no slip, so no dropping the weapon unintentionally.
That's 3 variables removed from my rifle, quickly and easily.
Anyway, I could write for days and it would only get more boring.
Here's the part you're looking for, the pics:
Standard gear:
A little closer view:
The rail cover itself:
I give these covers 3 thumbs up out of a possible 3.