Gents,
I am building a 16" AR and am looking for the longest possible handguard (free-floated) to maximize sight radius. I have discovered that DD makes a 14" Lite rail, and MI has two offerings in 15" length.
Looking at Larue’s site, they show handguards one inch shorter than the bbl length has leaving enough room to remove the brake/hider. My concern is that all manufacturers do things slightly differently.
Does anyone have photos of a 16" bbl AR with the DD 14", or MI 15" handguards? The bbl is a Lilja 16.1 if that makes any difference.
so you’re going to shoot irons exclusively on this rifle? I’ve owned a DD Lite 14" rail and ran it on a 14.5" barrel, I didn’t run it that way for long. The tradeoff in sight radius vs overall balance of the rifle wasn’t worth the extra inches. Especially since I never really shot irons with the gun.
Not exclusively iron sights. I am still going back and forth with the optic I want to use. I just figured the longer sight radius, and more real estate for other accessories would be beneficial - espeically if I adopt the x300 ahead of the front sight setup. The DD rail is supposed to be very light, but balance overall would be a concern. The DD Lite 12 is 14oz v. DD Lite 14 at 15oz, and the 15" MI at 17oz.
What is the longest handguard you have found to work well? I may end up with a bipod and S&B Short Dot on this rifle so it isn’t like I’ll be clearing rooms with it.
One of my last builds was a 16" in 762x39 with a Troy 12" MRF-R. I had the rail and at the time it was my HD carbine, so I did have a Streamlight TLR-1 on it and a VFG with pressure pad to the light. I wanted the light at the end of the rail but not having to reach all the way out to the end of the rail. That setup has changed slightly due to that rifle going scoped and my HD weapon is now a 10.5" AR pistol in the same caliber. I personally think that 12" of rail is plenty. The only place I’d use more rail is if this were a 20" or longer barreled upper for bench shooting. Having that much rail at the end of the weapon is beneficial if it balances right. If it doesn’t balance then it’s a RPITA—royal pain in the arce.
No light attached but a Vortex strikefire on the end. 16" bbl
The longest I would go is 13" and only if it was a Troy TRX Extreme or a VTAC TRX Extreme. Anything heavier is too front heavy for my taste, I plan on taking lots of carbine classes in the future and hefting a 10+ lb carbine doesn’t appeal to me.
I have an 11" rail on my 16in Middy and wouldn’t do it any differently. I think anything more would start to make the gun too front heavy, especially with a light.
I have a 14" DD on a rifle. The rifle is too heavy but not really due to the rail (the DD LiteRail is quite lite and the weight difference between the 12 and 14 inch rails is not much). I have a recon barrel profile on it and the barrel is what is heavy. I am redoing it with a Centurion Arms LW profile barrel (from what I hear not the lightest LW profile but lots less than the existing barrel).
I don’t have any good pics but I have some crappy cell phone pics somewhere. Let me see if I can find them.
I can stick the AFG on there where it feels comfortable and still have enough room in front of the AFG to mount a light such that my thumb can trigger it as well as add a flip up iron sight.
Each person will have different needs and different points that feel comfortable.
Besides the DD 14, I also have a Troy MRF 13.8 I will be trying out… And a Troy TRX Extreme 13. Trying to find that perfect (for me) setup…
DD12 M4 rail with Krieger 16" Recon barrel, OPS 12th Suppressor, USO 1.8-10X37 on Nightforce Uni-Mount with T-1 on SAR ring, AN/PVS-22 UNS and fantastic night performance, only missing my PEQ2A laser/illuminator from the picture.
