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I finally got my hands on one of these Agency Arms rails to take a look at in person. One of the benefits of bringing in a lot of peoples builds is I get to check out all the new accessories without having to pay the price of admission. I've used a lot of Agency Arms components in other firearms, so I was hopeful for this rail to be one that was actually a win for a change. The rail itself is well made, it does have some significant set backs that aren't entirely Agency's fault, but more along the lines of working around the Benelli M4's ARGO system without making the rail too big. I'm not a huge fan of the need to disassemble the rail in order to access the ARGO system. This renders the gas system inaccessible in the field unless they happen to have brought a torx bit with them. Basically if something needs screws, this is an armorer level job now and not meant to be messed with in the field. Most of the MLOK sockets are unusable. Many of the sockets ride so close to the ARGO system that mounted items do not have the clearance to cam lock. I fixed this with a few railscales panels by profiling the cam lock and screw with a concave grinder shape. Thinning the cam permitted the cam to rotate and not make contact with the ARGO system. Still a pain in the ass. The rail was not removable with several of the railscales in place. The rail would hang up on the cam locks. So the end user would have to remove several of these panels or other devices mounted in order to remove the rail to service the ARGO system. Ergonomics are better than the Strike Industries or the Surefire M80 rails. Ergonomics sucks compared to the OEM handguard however. Even with premium rail covers like G10 railscales, the OEM wins hands down. With any rail, you're paying a weight penalty by equipping one. One must consider what benefits you're receiving by adding the part. With the step back in ergonomics and weight penalty you're facing, personally I would recommend using an IWC weapon light mount for your sling and weapon light needs. Placing sling mounts on your handguard is a step back in ergonomics since they tend to interfere with your hand placement. On this build we will be adding an IWC front sling/light mount as well to use the sling mount. If you have Trypophobia, you probably hate this. Reprofiled cam lock. Look at all that clearance to the ARGO plug!

For now, this is just an initial review since I just got the rail in this evening. I'll list the issues I see with it and some of the positive attributes. At this point, I don't know if I like it or not, and if I can make it function for my intended purpose. All of the secondary spare parts have not come in yet from other retailers. Cons. 1. The rail is a pain in the ass to install. I assume it'll get easier with more exposure, but it's kind of retarded and not intuitive at all. I read the supplied instructions like five times and thought I might be retarded since most of it just seemed to be an assembly of big words that made no sense. When the manufacturer is claiming to line up such and such flange, they should probably build a diagram indicating what exactly they're calling the flange. 2. This thing has a lot of wiggle in it. With moderate hand pressure, you can push the rail enough to make contact with the barrel. You'd have a bad time trying to zero a laser in on this thing. Part of the wiggle is that you're compressing the polymer caps that fit into the barrel hanger. Other flex is the fact that you're just flexing 6061 aluminum. 3. This thing is super smooth and hard to hold onto. Expect to add some kind of rail covers to build some traction. 4. This rail did not want to fit over the Briley carbon fiber magazine tube. It seemed to be hanging up around the barrel hanger. I had to motivate the barrel/rail assembly over the magazine tube by lightly mortaring the buttstock on the desk to force the magazine thru. This is likely the fault of that stepped design of the Briley carbon fiber tube. Pros. 1. The weight is a lot less than anticipated. I weighed the rail and its polymer end caps and got 11.5 ounces. The OEM forend is approximately 5 ounces for comparison. 2. Ergonomics are pretty good. Having the 15" rail gives you a lot more options for hand placement. If you shoot with your support arm more forward on AR type rifles, this will feel a lot more intuitive and comfortable. 3. The primary purpose I see for this rail is getting a light pushed out to the muzzle to eliminate barrel shadowing and light blow back off of the barrel and front sight assembly. In minimial outdoor testing, this worked great. The only issue is now how I want to use the switch. If you hand hands forward, its quite easy to reach the activator button on the back of the light. Routing a tape switch rearward is also an option. I'm still waiting on a few options to arrive in the mail to see if they'll work. I'm mainly interested in trying the Unity Tactical Hot Button. 4. Switching to a MLOK front sling mount is an improvement. You have quite a bit of mounting options and the ability to use angled QD sockets which really improve sling comfort. 5. MLOK mounting is much easier than the Agency Arms rail. No modifications were needed to any of the MLOK mounting hardware for clearance with the gas pistons. I've rough tested the light at 3, 6 and 9 o'clock. 9 o'clock works well if you're using a regular Z68 type tailcap. You're still going to risk jamming your thumb though. 3 o'clock works well for using the tape switch. 6 o'clock works, but may interfere with hand placement. Note on my railscales placement, I spanned the gap in the center of the rail that doesn't have an MLOK socket. This was helpful in making a continuous griping surface. I'll probably move to an offset MLOK light mount if I keep this setup as is. Moving it high to a 1:30 - 2:00 o'clock position will clean up the package so that the light isn't sticking out the side so far.

Opticworld and agency arms said theyd have more in 3-4 months, there not selling for 750. Thats some biden supporter on ebay. Same guy on gunbroker trying to sell them , each for 750 lol. He tried tellin me it be over a year till they make more if they do lol

This direction for the HotButton seems to feel the best, and least likely to jam your thumb during recoil.

That Unity Tactical Hot Button is pretty slick! I haven't seen it before.

I got some more parts in finally. Optics Planet had sent my Unity Tactical Hot Button via pony express and took a few weeks to come. I found the rail is a nightmare to remove from the gun. You must remove all of your MLOK items before you can slide the rail off of the barrel. So yeah, that's F'ing retarded. Just what you want to do when cleaning your gas system. I don't know what the deal is with these companies making accessories. People would spend big money on these items if they weren't so poorly designed. This rail is also extremely sharp, I paid a blood sacrifice trying to get it off the barrel and split open a finger pretty good. Wire looming is pretty easy if you're willing to modify the rail some. I bored two half inch holes thru the center of the MLOK's near the front end so that I could fish the wire plug thru the rail. This lets me coil up excess wire inside the rail. This wouldn't work on an AR style system since it gets too hot in there, but it should be fine on a Benelli. WIth the nice design of the Unity Tactical Hot Button, you can route your cable thru the bottom of the switch and directly into the rail. This leaves only about an inch of wire exposed leading from the rail to the back of the weapon light. I'm waiting on a different MLOK mount that won't push the light out so far. The Hot Button is my favorite of the tape switch type setups by far since it feels nothing like a tape switch. It's basically an angled momentary/constant on button that you can locate wherever the wire can reach.

The OEM choke on the left was cleaned up as best as I could with wire brushes to remove the rust. You can see the discoloration near the top of the choke and there was a lot of rust inside the threads. This rust was also inside the threads of the barrel. The choke on the right is an OEM choke that I had sent out for NP3 plating thru Robar years ago.

It’s a titanium choke from Briley. It’s a fraction of an ounce lighter than the oem and cannot rust. The oem chokes are prone to rusting at the threads if not cared for well even in Arizona. It’s the only area I’ve experienced corrosion on the Benelli M4.

OK, you forced me to google the meaning of Trypophobia.... ? Thanks for the review. Cross it off the list and keep relying on the tried and true OEM.

Here's some images for reference. You can see clearance with IWC mount and how my X300U hits it. Also, if you were planning on throwing in some railscales or the like, there's a screw that interferes with one of the mlok slots.