I have wanted to convert my V22 to a standard delta ring handguard for a while.  I know some of you might think going from a free floated handguard to a non-freefloated handguard seems crazy, but I was willing to possibly lose a small fraction of potential accuracy.  I normally use my V22 for shooting various drills at 25 meters, so I didn't think I would notice a difference.

My plan was to remove the old handguard,  and simply screw on the the new delta ring assembly in the rear.  Up front I wanted to retain the current sight base with the removable front sight tower and use it in conjunction with a standard AR15 front handguard retaining cap (nomenclature?).  The cap normally indexes on the gas tube, but since the V22 has no gas tube I marked the spot where the gas tube would be, and drilled and tapped a hole for a screw to retain the cap to the front sight block.  The block is aluminum so it is realtively easy to drill and tap.

After attaching the cap to the sight base  I reassembled the rifle and attempted to install the handguard.  I was pretty surprised to discover that the handguard would not fit.  The factory sight block extends about a quarter inch farther towards the rear than a normal front sight base.

To make it work I had to remove and disassemble the front sight block and shorten it by about 1/4 inch.  (I forgot to save the exact measurement).  I cut it off, ground it nicely square and then refinished it with AlumaBlack.  Because I had shortened the whole assembly I had to redrill and tap my cap retention hole.  The shorter length of the sight base will put you closer to the set screw hole in the block, so if anybody tries this be careful that you don't drill all the way into the sight base set screw hole.

Then I reassembled it again.  This time the length was correct, but it still wouldn't fit.  Remember the screw I used to retain the cap?  It's head was wider than a gas tube and wouldn't fit into the notch on the front upper YHM handguard I used.  I carefully removed a small amount of handguard material to widen it to fit.  The removed material is not externally visible.

I put it together again.  The handguard wouldn't fit at the rear!  The YHM handguard has two pins that index on the barrel nut, and since the V22 has no gas tube I hadn't aligned the barrel nut with the gase tube hole.  I had to fix the barrel nut timing as if the rifle had a gas tube so the handguard would fit properly.

I tried again.  Now it all fit together.  I was pretty happy with the outcome, because I have never like the cosmetic appearance of the standard CZ tube.

If anybody is planning a similar conversion I hope this helps you to avoid any pitfalls, since I seemed to have found plenty of them.

I shot it at the range today.  My CZ has always been very good for accuracy and the handguard change didn't make any noticable difference.




Here is the V22 with a YHM handguard wearing KAC rail covers.  The 5.56 carbine that it emulates is in the picture too.

Nice Job!