My dad came back from his deployment in Iraq a few months ago, and today was showing pictures he had of the guys in his unit.
One of the guys took the removable carry handle off his M16 and mounted it under the handguard, and apparently used it as a some kind of vertical grip. My dad said he probably did that just so he wouldn't lose track of the carry handle or something.

My reaction was still . Funny thing was I tried it on my AR, and it was actually comfortable.

I wasn't able to get the picture of the guy from my dad, but I figured I'd share anyway.

Quoted: My dad came back from his deployment in Iraq a few months ago, and today was showing pictures he had of the guys in his unit. One of the guys took the removable carry handle off his M16 and mounted it under the handguard, and apparently used it as a some kind of vertical grip. My dad said he probably did that just so he wouldn't lose track of the carry handle or something. My reaction was still . Funny thing was I tried it on my AR, and it was actually comfortable. I wasn't able to get the picture of the guy from my dad, but I figured I'd share anyway.

Think I've seen that on this site before, actually. Kinda strange if you ask me Why not just stick it in your pack or a pouch? Seems like it's just adding unessecary weight to the rifle and taking up rail space. But hey, whatever floats your boat

Hey, whatever gets him through combat. I've seen people mount their carry handles right behind their front sight too which is very impractical to me.

No, he had optics of some sort mounted, and had his sighted in carry handle hung on a rail where he could get it and mount it in place of the optics shoud they go out.

Mounted as he had it, he knew where it was.

That's all there is to that.

A wise man once said, "If it looks stupid but works, it ain't stupid!"

In combat you do what you need to do. That is all there is. I am sure if he could poll the Arfcom Hive Mind he would have been shunned as a Mall Ninja.

Most of the marines in my Bn had their carry handles like that so that you wouldnt misplace it. Our armory now requires us to turn the rifles in like that if they have optics mounted.

Quoted: Think I've seen that on this site before, actually. Kinda strange if you ask me Why not just stick it in your pack or a pouch? Seems like it's just adding unessecary weight to the rifle and taking up rail space. But hey, whatever floats your boat

If you had it in your pack or in a pouch you might as well have left it back in the rear. Arfcom is not the realworld, combat is not a fashion show. Check out any "gear pr0n" thread and you will see thousands of dollars in gear thats shiny and new and never gets used for anything more than clearing the kitchen during a dress up session. No one cares if it looks funny. It is a back up system ON THE GUN, where i belongs. In the past i have put mine on the 3:00 rail so that i can 1) loosen optic 2) roll rifle left, optic falls off and handle is upright 3) loosen handle and move to the reciever as i roll the rifle upright.

Ive never had to do it in an emergency but i have practiced it and it is fairly quick.

A lot of guys are still skeptical of optical sights. If you're not issued a BUIS, or haven't went out and got one yourself, keeping your carry handle with the rear sight on the rifle also give a warm fuzzy feeling that you can get your rifle back on target if your optics go down, without having to search through you pack which may not even be near you (left it at the ORP with everyone elses) and you don't have to find space for it in the gear you do keep on.

DvlDog is spot on.  The solution, of course, is for the military to stop buying guns and optics that can't be used together.  But until then people will make do.

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Quoted: I've seen people mount their carry handles right behind their front sight too which is very impractical to me.

Maybe they wanted to fire their AR from the hip while holding it like a gatling gun from the movie Predator.