After reading a recent S.W.A.T. article by Pat Rogers on the new Grail rifle from Greg “Sully” Sullivan’s Defensive Edge, I began wondering about the pros and cons of the carbon-fiber handguards from Precision Reflex, Inc. (PRi). Please share your experience with these forends. Ease of installation? Durability? Ability to configure modular rails to fit your needs? Weight/dimensions relative to other free-float tubes? Many thanks in advance for your feedback.
PRI produces great stuff.
Carbon fibre is lighweight, does not transfer heat, and is very durable.
Just the same I believe the Military switched to aluminum PRI handguards on the interdiction rifles.
Heavier than a typical alum FF tube.
We had issues with them coming loose.
I beleive all the Mod0 rifles have now been upgraded to Mod1 and the PRI tubes removed and replaced with either KAC (mod1 spec) or Larue FF tubes.
I can believe that.
If anything can be broken, overtorqued, or loosened, a Trooper will find a way to do it!
I have some personal issues with all two and three piece free float tubes because no matter how it is installed, short of tack welding and I won’t guarantee that will work, someone can always managed to loosen one up.
I have only seen Knights Armament stuff in pictures, that stuff came along long after I left Service, but it is supposed to be the best thing going right now.
I’ve got a third generation PRI FF tube on my SPR. It’s stout, has less flex than an aluminum FF, doesn’t get hot at all, and it “feels” lighter than an aluminum one. I’ve had the KAC FF rifle length, a Larue rifle length, and the PRI and the PRI feels the lightest on the gun.
I’ve had no issues with it getting loose (the third gen has an improved mounting method over the 2nd gen that was used on the Mod 0’s). The mount is similar to the KAC in that a cover screws over the threads to tighten it down.
It can take 8" rail sections at any of the positions (3,6,9,12). PRI makes rail sections with sling mounts, bipod mounts etc, so it can be configured how you want it, except it can’t have a continuous rail unless you use the ARMS 38 SPR rail which raises the height above bore by another 1/4-1/2".