For my first SBR I’m going with an 11.5″ 5.56 AR15. I’ve got the lower, upper, barrel, and most of the lower parts already but I can’t decide on the handguard.

Now I know what you’re thinking - I’ve got 8-10 months before I can even take it home what’s the rush? Well since I help manage an SOT we’re going to Form 2 it on one of our lowers then Form 4 it to me. Why? Because then I don’t have to wait to assemble it, don’t have to engrave it, and can play with it at the shop / demo it at the range. I just can’t actually take it home. I love my job.

So far the top contenders are:

Midwest Industries Gen 3 M-LOK Light 10.5″:

EraThr3 M-LOK 10″

Geissele Super Modular Rail MK8 M-LOK 9.5″

With the mount for my suppressor realistically 10.5″ is about as long of a rail as I can have while still leaving me room to on/off the suppressor easily. 

I really like the Midwest one since I’ve installed a few for customers and like the cut out top rail, plus it has a nice price point, but after reading about CRANEs testing on them during their M-LOK vs. Keymod trials I’m a little worried that if I drop the rifle or eat sh*t at the range it might not stay secure. 

I like the Erathr3 due to it’s similarity to the Midwest one, but I feel it has a better lockup. And the Geissele is well....it’s made by Geissele. It’s really damn hard to go wrong with that.

If BCM had a 10″ KMR in M-LOK out I would be all over it but even though they announced them realistically it’ll be 2018 before we see them and I’m impatient.