ParallaxTactical FSSR Keymod 15 inch rail

This is my first review. I’m a pretty practical guy. I don’t do product unboxing. I’ll save you ten minutes about how cool a box is. I care that the product reaches me in acceptable shape. Mission accomplished.

My First impression was Holy Smoke this thing is small. The second was Holy smokes this thing is light.

The rail has a very small outer diameter. According to Parallax its 1.52 outer diameter. I can wrap my thumb and index finger around the rail and have some room to spare. I have normal human sized hands not hulk hands.

You probably aren’t going to fit a suppressor under this unless it’s tiny.

The finish is acceptable. It's bead blasted and it’s going to get scratched. That doesn’t bother me I use my rifles and they get scratched. I consider them well loved.

The barrel nut is proprietary and is drilled out to shave weight. This is probably important to some people, but it wasn’t a big consideration for this particular upper since it was going on a 20 inch H-Bar barrel.

The barrel nut is also probably my biggest complaint with this particular forearm system. You need a 1 ¼ inch wrench to install it. Not a big deal. Once upon a time I was a mechanic and much like Spicoli’s Dad I have an awesome set of tool’s.

Well, I needed a 1 ¼ crows foot wrench to properly install it and the wrench is too wide to fit on the small pseudo flat area. I had to break out a grinder. I’m a big believer that proper torque on a barrel nut affects accuracy. The barrel but doesn’t have a thick flat area due to all the holes drilled in it and in reality it’s pretty thin. I’m guessing this is somewhat necessary due to how small this rail really is.

The instructions leave a lot to be desired. Mostly pictographs, but it’s a simple process. There are three spacers to help align the barrel nut so that the 6 screws line up and the top rail aligns with the rail on the upper receiver.

While a little frustrating, some fitting, removing the rail and adjusting the barrel nut and the rail was installed and aligned.

Considering I am running this on a heavy barrel the light rail helped cut down on the weight and the center balance of the rifle without optics and a full magazine remained just in from of the magazine well.

I really enjoy having the extra real estate. I like being able to shoot from different positions and stances from a full Costa to close magwell grip.

The rail is a close fit onto the nut and is attached to the nut by 6 torx screws two on each side and 2 on the bottom side of the rail. It feels solid and there is no play in the handguard. I have noticed zero play and everything has remained snug.



This particular rail is a keymod and it has a whole lot of slots on 3 sides. On the 45 degree angle, it has MOE slots. I have a few keymod accessories and they pop on and off easily. I tend not to put too much on any rifle or carbine. On this one, I don’t run anything on the handguard.

I sighted the plastic sights in and shot probably 60 rounds 3 to rounds at a time. 3 to get it sighted in and 5 at a time for groups. I barely warmed up the barrel and noticed no heat at all on my hands. Temperature was around 55 degrees so this seems pretty normal.




The next trip to the range should be to sight in the optics and I will see how warm things get. If the temperature is reasonable

Between range trips, I spend time dry firing and practicing weapons manipulation. I was playing around with the Supine and Urban prone/Fetal shooting position. I was switching back and forth between my Middy carbine and the Full sized rifle with the 15 inch rail. With this rail, you can get really low. It’s thin. The extra length lets you do a bit of contortion and use your leg as a support and get a solid base even if it looks stupid. I’m guessing a bit like an overweight ostrich jamming his head in the sand.

Here is the rifle as she sits today.



Unfortunately, in a freak accident. I managed to dislocate my trigger finger so any further testing is going to have to wait until my booger hook heals up enough to allow some extended range sessions.

Overall I like it and the issues I found are minor and wouldn’t prevent me from recommending the rail to anyone looking at it.

The one characteristic that stands out the most to me is how slim the rail is. I really like it. I will have to try to get some side by side shots of this rail compared to several other rails.

UPDATE

Here are some comparison shots. Right is a MagPul MOE Center is the Parallax and left is an unknown brand picatinny rail.



Left is the Parrallax and right is a Midwest Ind SS Gen 1. There is a huge difference between 2 different slim rails.