Picatinny rails for handguards?

[LowAndLeft]

What's the take on polymer rails vs aluminum ones? Is there risk of an accessory detaching from polymer?

And I'm sure not all rails are built equally, e.g. a Magpul polymer vs a genetic Amazon one...maybe the same goes for aluminum as well?

[BK14]

It’s all going to be use-case specific. What are you putting on the rail piece? That use case is what I’d use to determine what I’m mounting. X300 on the 3:00? Polymer should be fine. Bfg, bipod, or tripod mounting, were the potential for torque on the rail piece I’d go aluminum. That said, I couldn’t tell you what the actual shear specs are for polymer vs aluminum, or if that value would even be reachable without breaking the rail or mounting hardware.

For critical use items, I’d always recommend going with the actual manufacturers part instead of the generic brand. I don’t use picatinny pieces on my guns, but I’ve seen enough examples of issues with amazon knock-off pieces that I’d strongly steer clear.

[Pnut]

I agree with BK. But out of personal guns, I go all aluminum for my rail pieces. For me, The cost and weight savings would be minimal with the plastic parts. I’ve ever seen a plastic part fail, but I’ve seen then wear out a bit on accessories that come on and off often.

I’d also stick with the big name reputable brands like Magpul, BCM, etc.

[BrassSlapper]

are you jumping out of planes or dragging gear through the mountains? if not most likely polymer will hold a light on your gun.

if that is a concern at all, the name brand metal versions will probably not weight a lot more and help you sleep at night while not costing all that much.

[Chuck Whitlock]

I once used a polymer pic rail, that mounted to the standard vent holes on a carbine handguard, with a VTAC light mount and had no issues.