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How to add a picatinny rail to the lower handguard


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If you are like me you really wanted the rail on the bottom of the factory hand guard that could not be imported. after looking at a few rails at the gun show i found one that resembled the factory rail. The rail i found was a magpul, here is the product number.

 

20121105044515.jpg

 

its about 5 inches long.

 

The rail almost fits perfectly with just a little bit of material that needs to be removed from the end of the rail. you can see where i am referring to here.

 

handguard.jpg

 

The rail just needs a slight angle sanded on the end of it to sit perfectly level.

 

after that position the rail on the handguard, mark your holes and drill them.

 

bolt it on and there you go. now you have a rail on the bottom of the handguard that looks very close to the original.

 

20121105044302.jpg

20121105044231.jpg

and here is the factory vepr 12 handguard

handguard2.jpg

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Awesome work. Keeping my eye open for what will work for side rails. DAC milled his vepr handguard and mounted rails, looked awesome as well.

 

I am wondering what the best method of coating these handguards would be and would it stick properly.

 

Ultimately, I'd love to see if the magpul 870 MOE hand guard can be properly fitted to the Vepr.

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So is that parallel to the bore, or sloped slightly?

 

Good question. If you are talking about the rail on the bottom I don't know. But for vfg's I wouldn't think it would make a difference. I will see what happens when I put a straight edge on it and compare it to the barrel.

 

Edit:

 

Answer:

 

Picture060-1.jpg

 

not very scientific but it looks close enough to mount a laser to. i wouldn't though because there is a little movement of the hand guard on mine. not enough to notice until you mount a laser on it and the zero starts to shift on you.

Edited by rogers
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Just added a rail on the bottom and side of mine. Bottom was super easy. Side was a pain!! The screws were too long, so instead of getting new ones I ground them down which added a lot of extra work. And after it was all done, it's a little canted. I'm done with messing with it for now. I added the side rail to mount a flashlight with a thorn tail. I might just put a slight bend on the thorn tail and call it a day. It's only like a 1 or 2 degree cant. Shame on me for not taking my time and winding up with a cant. Oh well.

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It looks good. Widen one hole and straighten in out. No biggie.

 

I dremeled out the material on each side of the handguard to flush mount a rail on each side, sanded a rail for the bottom and drilled holes for all three rails. The parts along with the gas tube cover, rails, hand guard, and grip are all off to be cerakoted.

 

Once I get them back and installed I will post a pick of the complete setup.

 

If you're sensitive to colored parts or modern mods to AKs, then please ignore the pictures. Getting a bit tired of the pundits that complain about others preferences around here.

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Thanks. I was going to dremel out the side ribs so the side rail would sit more flush, but I want to run a thorn tail flashlight mount and worried about clearing the sling loop. I need all the height I can get I'm pretty sure. Also if anyone is curious.. Both rails and the VFG are Magpul, the RDS is Primary Arms Micro Dot, and the pistol grip is a MFT engage. Now just have to wait for CSS to release there M4 stock adapter for the Vepr 12. Going to install a Magpul CTR with an enhanced butt pad.

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check out gearsector light mounts to, they have offset light mounts that appear to have less material / parts than the thorntai

 

I have a gearsector on my Ak and love it. Very simple stuff.

 

EDIT:

 

Although, I just looked at the Thorntail and SBR version and like the adaptability of the system. Will be considering one of these. Thx

Edited by ec4321
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  • 1 month later...

Ok, I bought this MAGPUL picatinny rail. I have a vertical grip to attach to it. Before I start hacking away, could someone confirm I'm doing this right?

 

1. I'm going to remove the handguard

2. I'm to line up the rail on the bottom of handguard and mark the holes

3. I'm going to drill holes into the handguard using my Dremell

4. I'm going to screw in the rail to the handguard

5. I'm going to reattach the handguard to the gun

6. I'm going to attach the vertical grip to the rail

 

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

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That's pretty much what I did. The bottom rail is easy, the side one is the pain cause of the ribs. Also there is a seam on the bottom of the handguard to help you center the bottom rail. I used a dremel too.. and started with a small hole.. then made bigger to make sure small holes were lined up first. Depending on the length of the rail, you have to do some sanding to the rail to make it contour with the slight raise towards the rear of the bottom of the forend grip. If it is a smaller rail and does not cover most of the bottom of the grip you obviously can skip the sanding step. Clear as mud? = ]

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