As many who read my blog know, I like Spike’s Tactical. Granted, they’ve given me a lot of stuff – but it’s all looked at with a critical eye, and I don’t often find things to complain about.
With the SAR rails, however, I did.
Spike’s sent me two SAR rails, a 12″ and a 9″. They’re very light – the 9″ weighs under 10 ounces – and I like the titanium barrel nut that makes installation very easy. They have 4 QD sockets for sling swivels, and the width and height are pretty slim, meaning that it’s easy to get a good grip on the rail.
My major issue with them is length. While the older BAR model rails left a short, perhaps 1/4″ gap, between the end of the rail and an FSB at any standard length (carbine, midlength, or rifle), the SAR leaves a gap of over 1/2″ – meaning that the gas tube is far too exposed. This 12″ rail should not leave such a large gap with a rifle length gas system.
I’m using KAC rail covers to cover the gaps, and they seem to do a fine job of protecting the exposed area. Still, it would seem that the SAR rails are intended for use with low profile gas blocks only, in lengths that would cover the gas blocks, not with FSBs placed at the carbine, midlength, or rifle locations.
Interesting, since ST usually is very good about paying attention to detail. If it indeed is for a low pro gas block, they should be a bit more explicit about it. All I can say is if I’d ordered this and found that gapping, I’d send it back.
There’s a big trend towards free floats with a solid top rail and modular side and bottom rails. Any chance you’ll be reviewing any of those?
I did the TRX a while back. I would like to take a look at some others.
I hadn’t seen that, thanks for pointing it out. I think I started reading your blog about 6-8 months ago and while I did look at some of your older posts, I don’t think I caught them all.
I’m torn between the Troy you reviewed and the Samson Evolution. The Samson uses the stock barrel nut, which is a big plus. But I plan on building an upper from scratch so it’s kind of a wash…
Hmm. The Evolution looks interesting, but just as a comparison, the 9″ SAR with four full rails is only .7oz heavier than the 9″ Evolution. And I’m betting that the latter doesn’t include the stock (steel) barrel nut – it just says “with bushing”. So the Samson product with only a top rail is most likely heavier than the SAR with all four. It’s also made of 6XXX aluminum instead of 7XXX aluminum.
The 6XXX aluminum instead of 7XXX will probably account for the price point difference.
This rail is clearly different from the one photographed for the website. They must have changed something; if you look at their railed uppers the forearms at one point did run the full length. They also used to feature the spider logo. Maybe you could ask them about that.
Damn Andrew, I never really paid much attention to my BAR rail being that short. I mean I knew it was slightly short but paid no mind. After this I realized that yeah, it is a 1/4″ short. My free float on my DPMS is flush to the FSB…
the problem here is not the length of the rail but rather the barrel profile, for example on the wilson combat barrel on my project a 10 inch rail would put the edge of the rail over what ever gas block i put ont while a 12 inch would go go past the block by roughly 1 an 3/4 inches. you really gotta pick the rail thats best suited for your barrel or choose a barrel that will look and work better for your rail.
Your logic is illogical.