Centurion C4 decision: 12inch vs. Middy Cutout

[Aiden Fontana]

I know, I know, there have been about a billion posts on why keeping the A2 FSB is good or bad. I am putting this rail on a 16" BCM LW Middy and the only advantage I see to getting the cutout rail is strength, and I won't have to buy a front BUIS. The biggest disadvantage I see is I can't hold as far up on the gun as I would be able to with the 12". Plus, The 12 is pre-installed. I'm stuck and I wanted to hear you guy's opinions. Thanks.

[Wake27]

I was just going through the same debate with a 14.5". I chose the 12" lopro because of one of the biggest lessons I learned in a class recently: a FF rail is pointless if enough of the barrel is exposed that you just rest the barrel on the barricade rather than the rail. In short: I now want every rail I own to cover as much of the barrel as possible. I had rested my barrel on a barricade and missed about 5 shots at roughly 75m before my instructor prompted me to rest the rail on the support. I scored two hits after moving it.

[jstalford]

I ran my AR w/ C4 Mid-Cutout at 3gun a couple weeks ago and came to the same conclusion. I'm sure I could make it work, but the longer shots were much easier with my other AR wearing a 14" rail b/c I was able to stabilize it better on the barriers.

[ra2bach]

y'all do realize the Midlength Cutout is 11.5", right?..

[justin_247]

I was just going through the same debate with a 14.5". I chose the 12" lopro because of one of the biggest lessons I learned in a class recently: a FF rail is pointless if enough of the barrel is exposed that you just rest the barrel on the barricade rather than the rail. In short: I now want every rail I own to cover as much of the barrel as possible. I had rested my barrel on a barricade and missed about 5 shots at roughly 75m before my instructor prompted me to rest the rail on the support. I scored two hits after moving it.

At 75m you couldn't hit the target without a FF rail? This doesn't seem right to me at all, unless you're leaning all of your weight on the barrel...

[Wake27]

y'all do realize the Midlength Cutout is 11.5", right?..

Haha no I didn't.


At 75m you couldn't hit the target without a FF rail? This doesn't seem right to me at all, unless you're leaning all of your weight on the barrel...

I have a FF rail on my Noveske, but its like a 9.5" behind the switchblock on my 14.5 barrel. Since so much of the barrel is exposed, I kept placing it on the barricade instead of the rail on accident. And I had it locked in there pretty solid with a lot of my weight so there would have been a significant amount of upward pressure on the barrel.

[Matt O]

I know, I know, there have been about a billion posts on why keeping the A2 FSB is good or bad. I am putting this rail on a 16" BCM LW Middy and the only advantage I see to getting the cutout rail is strength, and I won't have to buy a front BUIS. The biggest disadvantage I see is I can't hold as far up on the gun as I would be able to with the 12". Plus, The 12 is pre-installed. I'm stuck and I wanted to hear you guy's opinions. Thanks.

It's really personal preference, along with how you normally use your support hand to grip the rail, how long your arms are, etc.

If you have normal sized arms, run your stock all the way in and "scorpion" grip the rail all the way out by the muzzle, well then you may want the extra rail-estate. But if you run your stock out (which is generally a good idea anyway), given that the middie cut out rail is pretty long, I'd double-check to see if you wouldn't actually be putting your hands in the exact same place on either rail, fsb present or not.

FWIW, I'm 6'3, run the middie cut out with my stock fully extended and it fits me fine.