Some years ago, back before commie Karl went off the rails with his political ranting, I definitely got swept up in the WWSD hype. My favourite channels like Polenar Tactical and Forgotten Weapons were showing tons of content about them and I stopped by the Brownells booth at SHOT one year when the builds were prominently featured. Having that hands-on opportunity with a proper sized carbine, that featured a full length handguard, but was so light and handy feeling, was quite a compelling moment.
I can’t get a KE plastic lower for my faux gáts, but the other prominent feature of the setup was the handguard from Faxon Firearms and that, I could fit (with a little bit of work). Was it cheap? No. Did it make sense for me though? Also no. But it does have a serious girth to it and overall it’s evidently built to a very high standard.
There’s obviously an aluminium assembly at the rear to interface with the barrel nut (which is totally standard mil spec AR) and then there’s another small alu cap on the front to protect the most vulnerable part of the carbon. With the 2 cinch bolts, side screws and anti rotation tabs it’s a solid lock up, though you do of course have to time standard barrel nuts properly for gas tube fitment. I’ve tried a few small MLOK accessories on this and not run in to issues myself, but I don’t think the 12 o/clock is the right height for irons without a specific type of picatinny segment.
The main selling point of course is the low weight and this 13″ rail comes in at 7.4oz with a plain old steel standard barrel nut. Now, would any military issue a carbon forend as standard? Most likely not, it suffers specific issues under abrasive wear vs metal, but it is also massively insulating; so it won’t get blazing hot from firing or when left in the hot sun, and it doesn’t sap warmth out of your hands anything like a metal handguard does in the cold. Since freefloats can’t be made from either plastic or wood, this is the best alternative choice.
For most things you might need to do that fall anywhere short of tough, long-term military use, these rails can be really quite nice indeed.
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