Best Handguard Lengths for Rifles
Best Handguard Lengths for Rifles Handguards are an indispensable rifle accessory. They offer protection from the heat dissipated from the barrel, allow slots to mount other accessories, and improve your grip on your rifle during firing, improving the accuracy to an extent. The handguard is such a crucial part of your rifle that without it, the scope of modifications is severely limited. Based on the purpose of your rifle build, whether hunting, range shooting, or home defense, there are multiple barrel sizes available and based on it the handguard types also change. Choosing the correct handguard length is important as the weight of the handguard will change accordingly and may cause the rifle to dip forward while aiming from the excess weight.
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Why use a handguard? Longer sight radius for Iron Sights: Iron Sights provide a larger sight radius because the rail may be pushed out past the gas block and closer to the barrel’s end. A wider sight radius enables accurate longrange shots.
Recoil control is improved: This depends on your shooting style and skill level. In general, you may have your support side hand further out if your rail is longer, regardless of the barrel length you use. Using an AFG, front grip, or the tried-andtrue C-clamp hand posture, the wider you can extend your hand on the rifle, the better you’ll be able to manage recoil, resulting in faster follow-up shots.
Better Accuracy. According to some calculations, the rifle with a Free Float Handguard has a.5 to.75 MOA advantage over drop-in rails. This can imply the difference between a hit and striking the soil around the target at greater engagement distances. This is accomplished by allowing the barrel to float freely within the handguard, making no touch throughout its entire length. The harmonics of the barrel are unaffected by forces applied to the handguard.
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Different Handguard Lengths
Out of the multiple handguard lengths, three are the most standard offerings by most manufacturers: ▪ ▪ ▪
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10-inch 12-inch 15-inch
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10-inch Handguard This pistol handguard length is suitable for rifles with a barrel length of 10.5 inches or longer. These can be safely used on pistol, carbine, and mid-length gas systems but not suitable for Marlin loop lever rifles or similar build from Henry Repeating Arms. You can also install the 9.5 inch M-LOK handguard but about 1 inch of the barrel may remain exposed which might affect the accuracy. Not many manufacturers offer handguard lengths shorter than this, as the gun loses serious firepower. For smaller barrel lengths it is never recommended to go for a handguard that leaves the gun barrel exposed more than 2 inches unless you are sure about the build and have consulted a registered gunsmith beforehand.
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12-inch Handguard This mid-length handguard is more suited for rifles with at least 12.5 inch or longer gun barrels. It is the most preferred handguard length for 14.5-inch rifles, even though it does leave a few inches of the gun barrel exposed. Most people prefer this arrangement as their hand will never come in contact with the exposed area and the absence of a handguard over the 2.5 inches of the barrel means the rifle is comparatively lighter and more stable due to the changed center of gravity.
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15-Inch Handguard Suited for full-length rifles, the 15 M-LOK handguard length is ideal for longer barrels used in precision shooting. Since they have more slots compared to the shorter ones, it is suitable for tactical purposes to mount things like Angled Forward Grips, hand stops, Keymod, or M-LOK accessories. Moreover, the extended length helps achieve accuracy in long iron sights and offers more space for hand placement.
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Wrapping Up For first-timers and novices, the handguard length may seem overwhelming and they might opt for the longest handguard for attaching the most rifle accessories. Later they realize their flaw and revert to the right handguard length only after an eye-opening mishap. As time passes, they understand that when it comes down to the right handguard length, you may utilize any handguard length you like as long as you stick to the minimum and maximum lengths specified. The blog was originally published at networkustad Blog panel.
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