Adjustable Gas Block with Picatinny Rail

[lee1000]

Thats why taking a fixed fsb and replacing with a folder for robustness is backwards.

At the end of the day, if you die because your rail bent and threw off your poi so much you cant kill a threat... the gods were against you.

I was thinking the flip up sight might be somewhere in between. Less robust than a pinned A2 sight and more robust than rail mounted.


Haha, true

[Chris Bonesteel]

I came up with it just by looking at it, the steel barrel is going to resist bending over an aluminum rail, I don't think that's even disputable.

I find that very easy to dispute, typically handguards are over twice the outer diameter of the barrel, are much stiffer, and require far more force to bend, or even flex than the smaller diameter barrel. Material isnt everything, structural geometry plays a much larger role.

Handguards dont really bend, they can withstand quite a beating, and other than skewing them by actually denting one side in I dont think anyone will actually "bend" a free float handguard, it is most likely that they would crack first, which for all intents and purposes just isnt something to worry about happening.

Handguard attachments are a different story though,
Anything that doesnt affix the longitudinal positioning of the handguard, can have significant flex, and can be shifted under impact. Clamp style handguards only need to stretch a tiny bit around the circumference of the clamp (and only really at the front and rear of the barrel nut, at the centerline no stretch is required) for the rail to deflect significantly. If impacted they can also shift on the barrel nut and remain that way. If the handguard is fixed longitudinally(daniel defense, larue, almost noveske but the slots can cause shift) the handguard can not move separately from the barrel nut, and can only deflect as much as the rail actually flexes, which is extremely little, because in order to flex it must compress all the material on one side of the handguard, and stretch all the material on the other side(if unclear look up I beam strength for more detailed explanation).

Real world example, i have a bent 18" galil barrel, i can prop it on an angle and easily bend it with my foot like breaking a stick, i also have a 48" length of a handguard extrusion, despite the significant extra leverage that can be place on the 48" aluminum i still cant bend it.

Your assumption that steel is less bend prone than aluminum does not at all take into account geometry.