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View Full Version : Daniel Defense 7.0 Lite Rail Review



Stickman
24 June 2007, 14:22
See below link for Installation Guide and additional info.
http://www.weaponevolution.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1



Below are pictures of my duty carbine. Its used pretty heavily in the course of training and police work. While the rail has taken some pretty good impacts, as well as having thousands of rounds through the weapon, I've never had any issues or complaints. I picked up a DD 7.0 Lite rail off the initial production run, and used it heavily on my mule, which is a carbine that is dedicated to testing new equipment. If an item shows itself capable for my needs, it may make its way to my duty weapon. I won't stake my life on anything that I haven't done long term testing on with the mule.

The DD 7.0 Lite rail arrived nicely packaged in a cardboard box, with the rail being bubble wrapped for additional protection. The additional pieces were sealed in plastic, with the exception of the ladder style rail covers, which obviously didn't need any protection in shipping. Instructions were also included.

Out of the box the rail was a deep black, with clean laser markings. The edges, corners and rails were smoothed and without any sharp edges. Before installation I mounted every optic, VFG, mount and BUIS I could come up with to determine if there were going to be any compatibility issues with any gear that I owned, and found that everything locked in nice and tightly.

Installation was straight forward, and above is a link that walks the reader through the entire process. The highlight of the installation to me was the ease of gas tube alignment. Since the collar rotates freely until locked into position, all that is needed is to tighten the barrel nut to your desired spec. Gone are the days of going back and forth making sure you are perfectly centered. The reason this becomes a big deal in my mind is that I've seen the results of an improperly assembled upper that canted the gas tube. Minor variance becomes and issue with the tube getting shaved on one side, but larger variances will cause larger problems in short order. Gas tube alignment is worth doing correctly on any weapon, and when AR15/ M16s are used to go into harms way, there is no excuse for installation errors.

On my duty carbine, I run an Eotech 552 as my optic, and typically push it out as far forward as possible while still keeping the locking bar on the optic of the upper receiver. The continuous uninterrupted upper rail allows for this without any problem. While some people are horrified at the concept of running any optic that overlaps the upper receiver and rail, I've never found this to be an issue when using quality equipment and an Eotech.

For people who get down into the numbers, Daniel Defense lists the total weight of this rail at 9.0 ounces, and unlike the way some advertise their rail weights, DD includes the barrel nut (and all other pieces) with their calculations. I've not found any rail system on the market that weighs less and uses a steel barrel nut. For those shooters who want the absolute lightest rail possible, the Daniel Defense M4 rail series uses an aluminum barrel nut, and is even lighter.


http://stickman.rainierarms.com/galleries/Daniel%20Defense%2C%20Inc./IMG_1010%20Stick.jpg


http://stickman.rainierarms.com/galleries/Magpul%20sub/IMG_9694%20Stick%20a.jpg


http://stickman.rainierarms.com/galleries/Daniel%20Defense%2C%20Inc./IMG_9929%20Stick.jpg

Stickman
13 August 2007, 08:09
Here are a few pictures that shows the enhanced venting of the Daniel Defense 7.0 Lite rail.

http://stickman.rainierarms.com/galleries/Daniel%20Defense%2C%20Inc./DD-7-LITE-Eotech.jpg

http://stickman.rainierarms.com/galleries/Daniel%20Defense%2C%20Inc./IMG_0401%20Stick%20a.jpg