Shaved some weight off the old girl tonight

[shepp]

Went and bought a bench vise finally and replaced my fore grip tonight. Took off the DPMS quad rail and installed a MWI 12" SS-key mod ultra light gaurd, packaging says it weighs in at 12.4oz with barrel nut, I took off 2 pounds roughly.

Edited April 22, 2014 by shepp

[sketch]

Nice work bro!!!

[Microgunner]

The DPMS quad rail weighed nearly 3lbs?

Holy crap that's heavy!

[BLKSHEEP]

Excellent!! <thumbsup>

[shepp]

Think it was mostly in the barrel nut

[seasprite]

Nice job, hows the balance since you shaved all that off the front end.

[washguy]

Now you got sumthin....way to go! :) Wash

[shepp]

Ok I'm an idiot lol, I put it all back together and forgot to put the bcg and the charging handle back in.......... So I gained a pound back. Still 10.5 is a lot better than 11.7

[shepp]

Sprite it still feels good

[Microgunner]

That 1.2lbs will be a huge difference after 5 miles.

[gnatshooter]

Any idea what the weight is of the foregrip on this? It's what I have...

http://www.dpmsinc.com/LR-308T_ep_127-1.html

 

Since the weight is 9.75 lbs, maybe I shouldn't complain. But it sure feels heavier than that.

[shepp]

Gnat, did you check in their parts section some have the weight listed on them, the brunt of the weight came from the barrel nut, also that's unloaded weight figure another 1.5-2 pounds

[gnatshooter]

Shepp,

 

That was a good idea. I found my stock free-float tube here. Unfortunately, no weight is given. I suppose I could remove the durn thing and weigh it, but I can't see how the thing was installed, much less how to take it off.

[shepp]

I bet the end it's threaded I put mine in the bench vice block, removed the gas block and flash hider, wrapped the grip in electrical tape (so I wouldn't mar it up) and spun it off with a strap wrench. Think the quad rail helped a lot in getting grip with the wrench. I read else where guys used pipe wrenches and wrapped the "teeth" in tape

What's the diameter of the grip I bet it uses the same barrel nut mine does and that's where all the dam weight was

Edited April 22, 2014 by shepp

[gnatshooter]

Shepp,

 

Yeah, the thing looks like it's probably threaded and would come off with a strap wrench. The diameter of the free-float tube is 2.27 inches.

 

Does this mean I would be using a different barrel nut with a different foregrip and that's where the weight savings would be?

[shepp]

Yes the MWI one comes with a nut and a wrench that goes on a torque wrench it's more of a sleeve then a nut lol

[gnatshooter]

Is the weight savings worth the trouble? This is a carbine-length FF tube (7.25" long) and aluminum, so that part is probably pretty light already. I have a 16" HBAR barrel so that may be where the most weight is.

[shepp]

I changed mine for two reasons, I thought the quad rail was cool when I bought it, but I ended up not liking it. It's bulky IMO and it gets snagged up in my hunting cloths, also I realized how heavy the gun was after I bought it and wanted to lighten it up. It really wasn't any trouble per-say but by buying the new hand guard I got a look I wanted shaved off some weight and bulk and eliminated 3 rails I really wasn't using. Also I can now ditch the quick release sling post I was using because the rail has 3-4 drilled holes to accept a sling at

[unforgiven]

I thought this was about something totally different. <dontknow>  <lmao>

[planeflyer21]

I thought this was about something totally different. <dontknow>  <lmao>

 

Me too brother!