Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1365706
use short barrels, the roof team could choose long barrels. Perfect! At least in theory. But it took time before first uppers arrived. Then, we had to set them up. So for the next deployment we went with short barreled rifles and we were still trying to shave some weight off them. H&K was pretty slow when it came to "new things" and the HK416A5 was coming from the factory with a quad Picatinny rail handguard. Big, thick and heavy. In the meantime we are able to get some lightweight handguards. We choose the M-LOK attachment systems which are lighter and far more comfortable than Picatinny rails. We have tested the Geissele Automatics and Lancer Systems handguards which were the best aftermarket parts available for HK416. And again, both had their pros and cons. Geisselle is rugged but heavier and heats up faster. Car- bon fiber Lancer is lightweight and does not heat so quickly, but it is not a MIL-SPEC product so we require more complex testing. Our team fell in love with Lancer handguards but JWK ultimately purchased Geissele ones. For us the deployment was al- ways the best testing lab, literally a sandbox. It verified our assump- tions and perfect configurations built home usually were not so per- fect anymore in-country. In A-stan we preferred rifles with magnified optics (HWS + magnifier combos or Specters). HWS with a short bar- reled rifle wasn't a problem - it just needed to be zeroed properly. Spec- ter was more complex as its reticle was matched with a 14.5" barrel so it required adjustments and cor- rections when shooting at a longer distance.But the perfect glass of Specters allowed better target iden- tification. We have tested different config- urations of optics, including PCO MU-3 night vision monocular or L-3 WTM Thermal monocular installed in front of HWS or behind it. Ulti- mately, we ditched such ideas. Returning home from Afghanistan we were far more experienced but we still had to wait for additional up- pers. Finally, uppers arrived and we had to overpower our brains again looking for best configuration. For uppers with 14.5" barrels we decid- www.fragoutmag.com