DD 9.5 & 7.0 LITE Rail (new pics)
I received my Daniel Defense 7.0 LITE rail today.
Initial observations were that it was packaged different than the other DD rails that I have bought in the past. Instead of the plastic shell, it is now in a white cardboard box, labeled on each end, with a sticker across the top. I like the idea of a box, mainly because I hate paying for uberexpensive packaging that I know I paid extra for as the consumer. Not that DD did expensive packaging before, but a few other companies come to mind.
Upon slicing the seal, and opening the box, I saw the rail was packed in bubble wrap inside. This is a nice idea, mainly because I've ended up with boxes that looked like UPS hired angry drunken monkeys to deliver them. Let face it, this isn't a cheap rail, it needs to be safe from UPS. Inside was the rail, lightly coated with what looked to be oil. There were also rail covers, which is nice to see as well. The rail covers in mine were ladder covers, which is what I'm running on most of my equipment. Under all of that were a nicely printed up set of instructions that I promptly left in the box. I have previously installed the DD RIS II, and found it to be the easiest rail I've ever worked with. I assumed this would be the same basic installation.
Moving along.....
Along with the rail, the barrel nut, bolt plate, and screws were in another bag. These also had a light coating of oil on them. None of the rail, or additional parts had any wear, marring, purple hue, defective areas, or any of the other complaints that are often brought up about rails. In fairness to DD, their standard rails don't seem to get complaints anyway aside from the occasional sobs when a new guy sees the weld marks. To those people, I can say that thankfully the weld marks are still present, which reassures me there won't be any issues down the road. Color me cranky, but I've had too many things fail in real world use, and I swear that Murphy is perched on my shoulder at times.
Next came the installation, which thankfully was as simple as the DD RIS II. Off came the FH and FSB. Off came the old assembly. On went the plate, with the barrel nut over it. The most enjoyable thing of all is NOT HAVING TO ALIGN ANYTHING WITH THE GAS TUBE! The plate rotates until locked into position with the screws. I tightened down the barrel nut, then dropped the rail into position. To me, the easiest way to align the rail to the receiver, and to make it perfect, is to tighten a carry handle on each side covering the receiver and rail. This locks everything up, and makes it easy to tighten the screws. Speaking of screws, 4 go in from the rear, while the other two go in from the front. Tighten them the same way you do lugnuts, and get them snug. Once they were each snug, I continued tightening them opposite each other until they were all nice and tight.
The end result is a rail that continues off the upper, without leaving a gap. I like the idea of a one piece rail (I'm sure the 2 piece rails are plenty strong, but I'm a paranoid type of guy). This rail is within 1/2 ounce of the older DD 7.0, and that includes the new steel barrel nut. It locks up tight, and there is zero play, which is what you woudl expect from any top end rail company.
Lastly, I'll give my thoughts on the cosmetics, as I know it is important to some people. The rail is flawless. The color is nice and deep. The machining is cleaner than my other DD rails (not that I have any complaints on my old ones). The laser engraving looks a little different, which gives the rail a cleaner look to my eyes. Its a smaller gray font, but still easy to read in case you are one of those people that likes to read their rails.
I'll get up some more (and better) pictures, and answer any questions I can.
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Originally Posted by -Wes-
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