UPDATE WARNING!!! I tried to purchase the handgaurd that's mentioned in this thread from Lucky Irishman Firearms AKA lifeindustries.net It was a nightmare and he never sent me the handgaurd. But you shouldn't buy anything from him and here's why "I’m getting out of the parts business because of things like this.  I’m not a full-time shop, I do this on the side and I really don’t need the irritation." He's not staying in business but he's taking people's money and not sending them the product. After he took my money, didn't send the product and refused to refund my purchase (of course I got mad) but he even hint threatened me... he said "perhaps your county Sheriff needs to be notified of your imbalanced nature. Florida does have an Involuntary Gun Restraining Order.  Perhaps you don’t need to own firearms if you are this psychotic." for wanting my money back! You don't have to believe me... just go to his facebook page and read the other customers who didn't get their product either!

I just got my RDB and am looking for suggestions on what to equip it with. What works, what doesn't and why.

Scope or red dot? Light... if so is there a mount that will move the light to the side?

I see the muzzle has slots top only, am guessing it needs some downward compensation... is there a better muzzle than the stock one you'd suggest.

what don't I know enough to ask about?

Thanks for your help

It probably is just a standard m16a2 style muzzle device the reason for top slots only on that isnt so much for compensation but so when you are prone you don't have bottom slots that throw up a cloud of dust every shot. Personally, I would recommend against any sort of comp on a 5.56 it doesn't need it they barely kick and they can be especially unpleasant with the backblast with a bullpup.

lol.. that makes a hell of a lot more sense :)

Up to what range do you expect to shoot out to? A red dot is better for close range, but a LPVO like a Vortex Strike Eagle and the like will give you a lot of flexibility since you can either use it in 1x or crank it up to 6 or 8x to hit farther.

+1

Except you can use a red dot at range but just like irons the farther out the harder because eventually the reticle is the size of the target and it can be hard to see the target with the naked eye. Magnification also helps with identification, and/or can help correct for vision deficits. We used 4 moa aimpoint comp m1s out to 300 meters during qual they worked but that far it was a bit challenging seeing the little green silhouette much of the time. Just like anything else though there are trade-offs.

Red dot pro
Cheap rugged units available
long battery life
extremely forgiving on where your head is placed so they are great in unconventional shooting positions
most models have very long battery life measured in years of on time
great field of view
quick to use

red dot cons
no magnification
needs battery

LPVO Pro
Magnification and at 1x almost as good as a red dot for close range
the etched reticle is still usable with no battery

LPVO Con
Cost you can get a multiple cheap rugged red dots for the cost of one cheap nice LPVO
Battery life is not very good on illuminating the reticle so you should turn it off when not in use
Less field of view than a red dot
The eyebox is much less forgiving than a red dot while some models have a generous eyebox they still don't compare to a red dot in this regard.

So you basically need to figure out what you want and go that way. Id recommend watching some of inranges videos if you want more they cover a lot of the applicable optics stuff in some of their what would stoner do series.

Also grats on your new rifle I hope you enjoy it .

I don’t own a RDB but if I did I’d use a flashlight mount that attaches to the top Picatinney rail.   I have several Streamlight PolyTac lights I use with 1” scope rings which I use on my rifles and shotgun.   Vtac makes a polymer mount which could be mounted on the RDB top rail.   I’m not sure if this would clear the charging handle on the RDB.   Some people will mount a light on the top rail in front of their optic.  A Friend did this with a TLR-1 on his AR-15 top rail.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/2729277037/vtac-offset-picatinny-rail-flashlight-mount-polymer

Thanks for the input. :) although... I was stripping the rifle last night and the GD thing isn't new. I was pissed! The bolt face looked like it was all messed up. Carbon built up, chips in the nitride, and some rust. I got it off of gunbroker. It was listed as factory new.  I got a call from the owner and we just worked everything out. He's covering the costs to send a new one and to get this one back, including shipping and transfer fees. I don't think he knowingly sold a used gun. I'm guessing either some guys at Keltec or some guys at his place had some fun with this rifle. It looks like I'm going to have to wait another week

Anyway, I'm thinking if I had to use this, it would be in close so a red dot probably makes more sense. Although I love my vortex strike eagle. I may shell out the coin soon to get a razer. my concearn with using something like that on this is durability. I like the relief on it and it's comfortable on my AR. I may just have to try both and see how that works. Your pro's and con's are right on. What do you think about a dot and a magnifier?

I'm def going to add a light... but the handguard was actually very comfortable. not sure I need any kind of fore grip. I don't like that the bottom rail is polymer and build into the handguard. I have an amazing smith here. I'm going to bring the new one to him and see if he can think of a reasonable priced way of doing an aluminum handguard. (prob cost more than the gun lol )

I think I'd like a fixed charging handle. Any thoughts on that?

Sucks to hear about your rifle, but it's great that the seller is handling it.

There already is an Aluminum hand guard available for the RDB if you wanna go that route: https://lifeindustries.net/dir/product/kel-tec-rdb-handguard-anodized-black/

I'm not sure if anyone has tried to do a fixed charging handle, but you can certainly try.

I like LPVO's. I'm pretty sure I have astigmatism since under certain conditions these days red dots bloom like crazy for me I'm guessing its a side effect of my eye getting scratched from pepper spray during police academy and my short tenure as a police officer. While practising head to toe assessments in school a few months ago I've found I have some muscle issues with my right eye which Uncle Sam and every other vision screening I've ever had never caught, it explains why I get double vision like a mother when I try both eyes open with pistol Irons and messes with the binden concept unless I practice a lot which I don't have the free time to do currently. For those reasons, I'm not huge on red dots. That being said I probably will buy a few for some future gun builds I have in mind I just don't think they are optimal for me anymore. I never had any issues with them back when I was in the army either the m68 (ours where aimpoint comp m1s but they used that designation for multiple generations of aimpoints) or an eotech 512. That's part of why the choice is so subjective. You can objectively say a red dot is far superior to a LPVO in certain settings or vice versa but the individual trigger pullers physiology can throw that all out the window. If you don't have issues I think a red dot would be a fine choice and also be lighter and cheaper.

I'm pretty sure there are already aftermarket foregrips for the RDB so id look at those before trying to get something custom made.

I don't have much experience with lights so I'll leave that to other people. I used one on a m249 in a night time shoot house once and that's about it for my experience with WMLs lol. Usually, I just had a... PEQ2 IR device I think, for night stuff when I was in, and in the police stuff it was hold a flashlight in one hand pistol in the other. So its honestly something I need to learn about as well.

I don't really like fixed charging handles and I don't see how you could easily retrofit a non reciprocating to a reciprocating very easily. They introduce something you need to be cognizant of when shooting because at best it can slaps your hand and hurt at worst it hits something and causes a malfunction by bleeding off energy in an impact with something or potentially completely stopping the action mid cycle, while the benefit of being able to press check or use it as a forward assist are pretty damn minimal. There is a reason that most military weapons do not have reciprocating charging handles.

G3 and the rest of that family of roller lockers
AR Family
M249
M240
FAL
M2 browning
AUG
Tavor family
PKM
FNAC variant of the SCAR
The second generation cz Bren
ETC.

I hope your new one arrives soon and you don't have any more issues with it.

Whhhaaaaattttttt?????????????????  OMG!!!!!!! You da man!!!!!!

Thank You

I do have an astigmatism. I've found that I can just get used to it. At under 50yrds it really doesn't make much of a difference. I have found lowering the brightness helps a lot with that. I do have a bit of an issue with focusing dominate eye when both open. I will sometimes close one for a second to make sure I'm aiming right. I'm going to go see an eye doc about that. I never considered the two were connected.

For the fixed charging handle... ummm.... FUCK, I'm an idiot!!!! lmfao... It didn't occur to me that it reciprocated. I'd take a thumb off. lol Good point!

The astigmatism and the muscle thing aren’t related in me. 2 separate things basically the muscle that turns my right eye inwards is kind of weak so past a certain angle or distance close to my face if an object is in a spot where it has to turn inward enough it will give out and relax so that eye looks straight forward while my left continues tracking like it should hence the double vision. Besides that my visions 20/20. Look up convergence insuffenciensy and if you are going to the eye doc if you have symptoms of it you can have them check for that too. From what I understand they can basically fix it by putting your eye through some workouts to strengthen the offending muscle. Once I’m done with school next year I’m planning on getting mine looked at because while it was self diagnosed in nursing school it’s plain enough to the naked eye I videoed it with my cell phone to figure out wtf was going on with my eye when my training partner was getting confused while practicing a cranial nerve assessment on me lol.

I had always though everyone got double vision on stuff that close before that and before doing research lol.

I would also recommend getting the mag well accessory from Kel-Tec.  It's twenty bucks and shipping that looks decent and really helps in those mag changes.  Installation was easy, and they included an allen wrench of the right size as well.
At the K-T forum it has been mentioned that having a spare firing pin (or two) is a good addition to the range bag.  I contacted K-T via email and they mailed me a spare one gratis.  Don't forget to loctite all of the rail screws either (and check the rest of the screws on the gun while you're at it).  I did find a couple of rail screws loose out of the box, but those were the only ones.  The rest got a drop of loctite 290 for my peace of mind.

I've had a Eotech, Aimpoint micro, a Vortex 1-6x, and a Primary Arms 2.5x Prism.

Aimpoint was the perfect dot site due to size, imo. I had it on a Larue HK height riser and it was perfect for me and didn't interfere when cycling the charging handle.

Eotech was a little too wide. Looked great on the gun and I'm a big fan of the reticle, but I'd always mash a knuckle if I ran the charging handle in a hurry.

Vortex was a scope. Great for the range but as I have no interest or reason (big city) to reach out past 100yrds it was unnecessary. I don't really like scopes anyway.

Primary Arms 2.5x is what is still on my rifle.  ACSS reticle (awesome, btw) is illuminated and etched into the glass so I don't need to worry if the battery were to fail. The magnification is fixed but low enough that I can still find targets and shoot with both eyes open. It is bulkier than I like but I haven't found a better option.

I have a light on the gun too. I took the hand guard off and mounted up some Magpul rings so I can keep it out of the way. I did 3D print a small rail that mounts up using two of the factory screw holes on the hand guard with longer screws. It fits, but I need some better quality filament for the next print. I plan on using that to mount my Inforce WML.

Attached File

Here is mine as it stands.

Lightweight, cheap, and effective.

Here’s mine.  I’ve since replaced the big ex-SiG sights with some smaller MBUS pros.

I just love how that handguard looks. It just makes the gun more svelte.

variable optic, i have a leupold 1-4x. bullpups are really the only weapon that can navigate close spaces and long range targets. that's really the whole point of the bullpup - to be smaller than an SBR and to have the ballistics of a full length rifle.

a suppressor. the RDB is the best suppressor host. tune the adjustable gas to your ammo + suppressor and you'll have a gun that does everything. in other discussions, it lacks the ejection port near the face, so no gas in the face. the long barrel makes it easy on suppressors - basically all suppressors are valid options because of the long barrel. once tuned, it's ultra quiet and less recoil.

and combined - it can be used indoors for home defense while suppressed to keep your family's ears safe. the rdb with suppressor is shorter than a 14.5 AR without. it's great for long range stuff as well, able to reach out to 200 or 300 m made even more effective with a 4x scope. without the need to change anything on the gun. it's a great gun for basically everything.

YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!

Huge props on all the great advice. I'm diving into some of the suggestions y'all brought to the table. I already ordered the handguard, and the mag well adapter. Looking into optics now.

I was unaware there was a mag well. I just bought one too!