By christmas I will be finishing my 1st AR (rookie officer with a new house and bills)  This one will be fairly simple.  My 2nd will be decked out.  For this one I've decided on

CMMG A1 Upper.  14.5" Lightweight barrel.  Vortex perm FH.  CavArms M4 Middy handguards.  

CMMG stripped lower.  LPK.  4-pos CAR.  Tango Down Battlegrip.

I have a few questions reguarding tac light placement.

I will not have a railed forearm so I must mount the light in other ways.  Preferable I would like to have a G2 LED with an offset Larue mount.  I would like to have it mounted at about the front sight base and I would like to have a tape switch that was long enough to reach all the way back to about the lower reciever.  But I'm not sure there is a Surefire tape switch long enough.

Here are a couple of solutions I was considering.

1. Hahn precision light mount.  It clamps to the barrel just infront of the front sight base.  The main problem I see is I'm not sure if there is enough room between the front sight base and the flash hider because its a middy with a 14.5" barrel and I'm not sure it will mount to a LW barrel.  But it does look very robust and I could live with the tape switch not reaching all the way to the reciever, but it is prefered. http://www.hahn-precision.com/armory/armory.htm

2. Cletus Front Sight Pic Rail.  It mounts to the bayo lug and has a pic rail on it.  I can definately us this.  But I like the idea of having it on top of the barrel or handguard and off set on the right side.  Again I have concern that there is not a tape switch long enough.

3. Use a pic rail that clamps between the gap on the front sight base

4. Install a piece of pic rail on top of the M4 handguards.  I am concerned with strength here.  It seems like with a hard bump or drop the handguard could be damaged.


So what are your opinions?  Which system should I use?  Should I just use a CAR gas system with the 14.5" barrel?  If I really want a middy do I need to go with a 16" barrel?

if it was me i'd go for the front sight dual rail.  works well for either a light and/or laser combo.  you can always put on a set of upper and lower picatinny mounts that use the vent holes, and use some sort of dovetail offset mount to put the flashlight off at 45* to one side on top or bottom.

you can bolt picatinny accessory rails onto regular handguards, can you not?  if you can, they're only like $8 or something like that

Yeah you can.  And a rail ont he top of the handguard just behind the FSB is something I'm considering.  And it is probably the most economical.

Quoted: . . . a rail ont he top of the handguard just behind the FSB is something I'm considering.

This is my wife's gun which also serves the home defense gun. G2 mounted on top of the handguards using a Viking Tactics mount with bolt on rail:



I have the light mounted on the right since I shoot rifles left handed, and the position allows me to easily activate the push button switch with my support (right) hand.



The Elzetta mount is another option:

My 14.5" midlength CMMG barreled gun...



Same gun, new furniture...