They quickly turn a 6 pound AR into a 10 pound AR (I know, that’s drastic, but you get the point). And because of all the room, people tend to put a lot of stuff on the handguards.

Quad rails have a lot of metal, which means more weight. ( Magpul & Daniel Defense).Īnother issue is the weight. To remedy this, some companies make covers for the rails you don’t use. Many people will refer to the quad rail as a cheese-grater, and if you’ve ever felt one then you’ll understand why. The quad rail has many benefits, but with great benefits comes great downfalls… At least I think that’s how the Spider-Man quote goes. Someone looking to deck their AR out, however they want, more than likely ends up with a Quad rail. Therefore, the quad rail has great customizability. You’ll notice they all have picatinny rails for the full length of the handguard on all sides (hence the name “Quad rail.”) This allows someone to put an AR accessory anywhere on the length of the handguard. The Good and the Bad of the Handguard Debate Quad rails differ from company to company, but they all have the same basic design.

And where the military and LEOs go, the civilians follow, because the military and LEO guys know best. The quad rail became the staple in both military and law enforcement around the world. With the quad rail you can have a sight on top, a light on the side, a foregrip, etc.

It’s perfect for adding all the goodies to the AR that you couldn’t add before. Coming to popularity in the late ’90s to early 2000s, the Quad rail was the best thing there was to replace that standard plastic handguard. The quad rail is probably the most widely known style of handguards, partly because it came out first.

We have the great handguard debate for you. We decided that we wanted to give you a deeper look into the three most common categories of Handguards: Quad Rail, M-Lok, and Keymod. In that blog we mentioned that there are a ton of different options out there for someone to choose from. A little while back we wrote a blog on How to change your AR Handguard.

Quad rail handguards