Magpul MOE handguard

**Army Chief** · 24 January 2009, 02:50

Originally Posted by Ryo

Train with what you're going to use.

Sound advice to be sure.

I guess the part I left out is that I'm in something of a transition; after 26 years in uniform, I'm finally in a position where my needs/wants/desires no longer need to be driven by operational requirements. In exploring what might be the best fit for me personally, without respect for team compatibility or external standarization, I'm admittedly branching out a bit. As a LH rifleman who has always altered my manipulations to suit the weapon, I'm now interested in altering a weapon to suit my manipulations. That was at least partly what drove me to invest in the MOE, as the MPLA offers a host of new possibilities.

To get back on topic, I've spent most of my career as an iron sights guy, and while I have some experience with Aimpoints, the only glass I use on a regular basis is a S&B Zenith Flash Dot (1.5-6x42mm) on my hunting carbine. I'm a very young 43, but 43 nonetheless, so I'm beginning to appreciate some magnification for general range work as presbyopia begins to set in. For close-in work, obviously that can work against you, so I wouldn't hesitate to go with a Short Dot if I thought it offered the best compromise. Trijicon has me rethinking that just a bit with the TR-24 release, and I had some earlier interest in the Nightforce NXS -- though the latter didn't offer much in the way of daylight-visible illumination. I'm looking for variable versatility, as opposed to a 1:1 RDS -- and am willing to pay for the right product -- but I'm just not settled on what that might be. (ACOGs definitely appeal to me as well, but at what cost for close-in work? I don't really want the compexity of a Docter riding shotgun.)

Now we've ventured pretty far afield from discussing MOE handguards, so this might be a better conversation for an altogether new post; that said, whatever I end up doing optics-wise, I think the ability to add short rail sections to the MOE will really eliminate the need to retrofit a rail. A light, and maybe a short VFG will more than suffice for my purposes.

NOTE: I've transplanted the optics part of this conversation as a new post, so please limit follow-on discussion here to the topic of MOE handguards, so as to maintain the integrity of the thread. Thanks!

AC

**103m 95g** · 31 January 2009, 06:31

Here is my contribution, This is a mutt of a carbine, but the MOE furniture is very nice.
Bushy lower, A1 upper, Colt 1/2 circle BCG, 16", heavy under the handguards, cast FSB. purchased back in '92 for $350. A range toy/beater

Front to rear fit of the MOE HG's are nice and tight, there is slight rotational movement, almost unnoticeable. the light mount is an Elzetta, purchased from Rainierarms. the Hg's and the light mount touch ever so slightly but the combination seems to work.

**Stickman** · 31 January 2009, 08:48

Interesting looking setup, I like it. Nice and simple.

**Tim_AZ** · 31 January 2009, 22:04

I've posted this in a couple of other places but I just can't help the fact that this picture makes me smile. I fired the rifle with the MOE hand guards installed for the first time today and I absolutely love them. The level of comfort they provide is way beyond the stock guards and they just look cool. While I like the fact that they partially wrap around the gas block I am also concerned about this design element. If this was a battle rifle I could see that portion of the guard getting snagged on random things and possibly ripped off. I’d like to see Magpul either beef the tabs up, round them off more at the bottom or even eliminate them. Other than that, I see these ending up on any rifle I don’t need a free floating rail on.

**Stickman** · 31 January 2009, 22:24

I was asked to show the Magpul MOE handguards next to a standard carbine, here it is.

**103m 95g** · 1 February 2009, 08:11

Another thing I have found in checking fit of the MOE HG's on diffrent rifles.
I like for my Eotech to be as far forward as possible for better field of view, however when using standard M4 style handguards the Eotech has to be mounted pretty far back because the battery compartment makes contact with the handguards.

However with the MOE handguards I can mount the Eotech as far forward as I like and the battery compartment does not contact the MOE HG's.
Magpul probably designed it this way but I have not heard or read anyone talk about this feature of the MOE HG's

**sodak** · 4 February 2009, 21:14

I really want to get one of these to mount a light on, but I'm not sure how well it would work since I don't want to use a vgf. So I'm asking the guys who have them, if I mounted a surefire 6p on one of the side slots as far ahead as possible, would it be a very usable setup?

**Stickman** · 5 February 2009, 06:11

Its usable for me in that configuration, whether it would be for you or not depends on how you use your weapon, and your own likes and dislikes. I tend not to use a VFG on my weapons most of the time, so I mount a light and slide my hand out to manipulate the switch.

**Tee-Bruce** · 6 February 2009, 11:20

Easy modification with Dremel, file & sandpaper...

Installed on this...

**Ryo** · 6 February 2009, 14:51

That looks like a very clean cut.. looks great.

jmorrell · 8 February 2009, 06:46

I've got a Colt 6920 with the side mount sling attach point. Do these handguards work with this type of sling attachment without modification, or would I have to remove some plastic to get them to fit?

**Stickman** · 8 February 2009, 15:29

I've read people are using them on side swivel versions without trouble, I have not done it myself.

**sodak** · 8 February 2009, 17:37

Originally Posted by Tee-Bruce

Easy modification with Dremel, file & sandpaper...

Installed on this...

Who makes the rail mount you have you light mounted on?

**Army Chief** · 8 February 2009, 22:27

Photographic evidence in some of the posts that Stick is referencing elsewhere would seem to suggest that the side sling mount isn't problematic, although the handguard FS extension does prevent it from lying flat. Likely a non-issue, but I don't know if this would become a point of irritation or present any long-term manipulation problems. Conventional wisdom would suggest that it would not, but the MOE handguards haven't been out long enough for us to see a wide variety of alternate sling mounting configurations -- nor to get much feedback from those using the side mount in hard use.

I suspect that in the end, this will still be much ado about nothing, as it does not appear to be an issue.

AC

**Tee-Bruce** · 9 February 2009, 11:48

A YHM. clamp on, tri rail bbl mount.. custom mounted for me by a machinist buddy of mine utilizing part of the bayo lug.

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