forend Military Standard 1913 rails

[Sacamuelas]

Looking for suggestions/opinions on purchase of handguard for a personally owned .223 Bushmaster A3 w/16" m4 type barrel. I want a free-floated forend system to counter the effects of adding a weapon light/etc.

I have been looking at the Knight, SIR, Bushmaster, and surefire rails...

Any practical reasons that I should go with the higher priced Knight or SIR system for a civilian/police type application. The list price variance is $350-400 for the SIR/KAC verses $125-150 for the BM or Surefire.

Looking at the latest Bushmaster catalog, it appears they have started making a new 2nd version that has the rail that includes the attachment over the A3's upper rail sort of like the SIR system. Is this type setup significantly better? It is $235 verses $135 MSRP?

Note- I am not LE, however, this particular weapon may be used as a patrol rifle by a close family member once the newness wears off to me. Gotta take care of baby Bro's.

[The Reaper]

With production on those models at a premium right now, you may be driven by what you can get as much as anything else.

I have the SIR, Freefloated RAS, RIS, and RAS. I may soon have the Armalite and Surefire. No idea on the BM.

To some degree, you get what you pay for. Part of the KAC price is to get the name on it. The FF RAS is nice, I like it, some feel that it is weak. A lot of the civilian versions are seconds. Also watch for Barney Purple anodizing. The FF tube on the SR-15 is definitely weak, as are most of the other plain tubes.

The original ARMS SIR-M is the strongest, best ventilated of the bunch, and would run well on an automatic weapon. It is also the clunkiest feeling, and most expensive.

The RIS and RAS are garden variety attachment rails and are not free-floated. Neither is the Surefire or the Armalite, IIRC.

Frankly, the advantage of a FF front rail system is that it may improve the accuracy of a precision weapon, which I do not think you have. You do not need to counter anything, you just need an attachment system. I would recommend that you skip the FF version and get one of the rail forend assemblies, like the RIS, RAS, Surefire, Armalite, or BM. Be sure that it is actually made to 1913 rail specs, or accessories may not fit. With the rails, you can easily attach and remove optics, lights, lasers, sling swivels, bipods, and a partridge in a pear tree.

I would get one of the lower end rail attachment systems and try it before I dropped big bucks on a high end FF RAS.

For better advice, talk to Wes at MSTN.

TR