StrangerDanger

Thanks! Unfortunately I was thinking again tonight and I've been thinking about taking the weapon light to the next level. I have a 40" tape switch, and I'm thinking about cutting the collapsible stock's pistol grip core to accept the switch. The rubberized grip would then slip over the top of the pressure switch. Then looming the wire through the grip core's interior up to the top of the receiver near the rear iron sight. The tape switch would be upside down with the wire pointing towards the bottom of the grip. This is to use up addition wiring length and to put the useful portion of the pressure pad under the middle and ring finger. As the wire gets to the bottom of the grip, it would loop inward and up the inner core back towards the top of the grip core. I'd machine a notch on the bottom of the rear iron sight to allow the wire to pass beneath the rear sight and over to along the side of the top rail. The iron sight base is actually hollow, so it would only require a minor cutting operation to allow the wire beneath it. I'm still weighing options of looming the wire along the side of the top rail. I'd rather not put LaRue clips along the top with the wiring looms, but it would work. I was also considering pinching metal zip ties between the receiver and the top rail. What I really need to do is buy a Bridgeport or a Grisly milling machine so I could mill a channel along the bottom of my aluminum top rail to run my wire in. Then cut a hole into the rear edge of the forearm and route the wiring inside. Stow the excess wire inside the forearm and epoxy it in place. There is a lot of room between the magazine tube and the forearm on either side. The another hole near the weapon light and connect into the light. This would give me momentary control over the weapon light. It would be controllable from my strong hand much like a CTC laser grip's activation. You could conduct reloading operations and still have momentary control over the light. Problems: 1. With my existing weapon light mount, this would have been better if it was done on the right side of the weapon. Not a deal breaker, but not ideal. 2. Looming excess wiring inside the forearm may be difficult. 3. The pistol grip portion of the stock will not be easily removable after the install due to the wiring. Here is an old install I did with a grip mounted wiring loom on a fixed pistol grip stock. Here is the rubber overmold over the top of the tape switch.

That height measurement might not be correct. The male portion of the swivel is like 0.350" long itself. That 0.688" figure sounds like the rim measurement. Figure the body is 0.500", that leaves 0.188" difference, or 0.094" height difference from the body. Removing that much material wouldn't be that hard. Or, the hole could be enlarged to the 0.688" spec, then back-filled with epoxy. The only real problem with this is drill bits larger than 0.500" are somewhat pricey and sometimes difficult to find. Most sets only go up to 0.500". Finding a 11/16" drill bit would be a PITA. At this size, the hole would be touching the raised up shelf of the grip. Also, I noticed with my dual QD setup, I essentially made my VCAS padded sling a single point sling by connecting one QD connector to each side. Sadly, it'll be about six weeks before I find out if it works in the field or not since the bulk of the shotgun is off at WMD Guns.

I mainly like the limited rotation feature.

If you have the capacity to thread the plate retainer, that would probably be the best route to go. However, you'll still want the fastener to insert into the opposite side to help retain the plate retainer. For the swivel, you don't want the loop to twist and hit the pistol grip raised edge. You'll end up scuffing up the plastic. I doubt you'd be able to find a QD mount that is thin enough to actually make this an issue. The cheap Uncle Mike's QD socket is 0.500". The Magpul threaded unit is 0.750". The only way to get the mount lower would be to drill the retaining plate to allow for the QD mount to seat even lower. You'd have to drill into the retaining plate about 0.180" for a maximum inset. You'd need a drill press to drill out the retaining plate properly. Drilling the steel is hard to do with a hand drill. I searched around today looking for a better QD socket to use, but haven't found anything. The closest thing I've found is the QD Rotation Limited Sling MOUNT-N-SLOT. You'd have to machine this mount to work for our application. You'd need mill off the oversized groove so the outside diameter was 0.500". You could use a poor man's lathe and put the QD socket in a drill chuck, and run a file on it while it spins. The bottom has those alignment posts as well. They might need to be cut off, or the retaining plate would have to be modified to accept them. That would be ideal, since it would prevent any unwanted rotation. It would just be a lot of work. It says it is aluminum, so it would be pretty easy to modify.

Correct, a completely flush QD socket would hit that raised shelf above the socket. I could get away with about 1/8" of more depth before the swivel would start making contact with the shelf. Correct, I started with a bit just barely larger than the grip pin hole. Then kept moving the size up to 0.500". This gives you more control. Having the steel Plate Retainer in place will prevent you from drilling too deep. Plus, most drill bits have a pilot tip that will hit the Plate Retainer first. This will leave a shelf of sorts around the edge of the bottom of the hole. Expect a tight fit for the QD socket. I had to hammer mine in with a derlin punch and a 16 ounce hammer. If you're going to just put the threaded QD connector on the left side, you'll still need to drill out the right side to the diameter of your fastener. I'd recommend putting a small washer between the fastener and the grip core. Try to find a fastener with a nice round head that won't grab your finger. You can get a stripped grip core from Numrich Arms occasionally for like 42 bucks. I have a spare unmolested one myself just in case I yard-saled this one. They actually have a complete assembly there for like a 100 bucks. I'll purchase a non-rotating QD selector when I find one that will fit correctly. The sockets are steel, so they're pretty tough. The male portion of the QD connector will wear out long before the female side. There is no need for glue on the rubber grip. Once you pull one off, you'll realize that it will never come off on its own. Prepare for a lot of swearing as you pull on the rubber, rocking it front to back as you pull. To put it back on is very easy. I hit the inside of the grip with silicon lubricant, and it pushed on in one easy push. If you look at the grip core of the collapsible stock, it has serrated raised edges that grab the rubber grip. If you add glue, you'll never get the grip back off without ruining it.

Well, I decided to give this modification a try and replace the Mesa Tactical attachment point. First I removed the existing mount and disassembled the pistol grip, I even pulled the rubber grip off so I could get a better clamp position for the vice. Measuring the grip itself, the grip is about 1.300" wide. My assembly of an ambidextrous sling mount measures out at about 1.800". To compare, the Mesa Tactical mount mics out to a little over 2.00" For my assembly, I used the Mesa Tactical sling mount and a Magpul threaded sling point. The basic plan was to bore out both sides of the plastic grip core to 0.500" so that both sides QD sling socket will fit inside the grip and won't protrude out the side so far. Using the existing pin hole, I continued to step up my drill bit to 0.500". I left the steel grip core in the grip to act as a stop. This left a small lip at the bottom of the drilled out hole for the QD sockets to sit in. I drilled out both sides pretty easily. I then enlarged the hole through the steel bracket so that the fastener would pass through. I then had to drill out the Mesa Tactical sling mount's QD socket so that the Magpul fastener would fit. I also had to bore out the bottom of the QD mount with a large bit to allow the fastener to seat lower into the QD socket. If I didn't, the male end of the sling would not fully seat. The only bad thing about the Mesa Tactical QD sling mount is its size. It is pretty long compared to most. So even though it is countersunk into the grip core, it is still sticks out about 0.500" on the right side. On the left side, the mount only pokes out about 0.250". I don't have the rest of my shotgun to test the unit on. It's off getting coated. Having the QD socket on the right side doesn't seem to interfere where my trigger finger is too much. I would prefer it to be a lower profile though. I'm going to try to find some better sockets that might have limited rotation and perhaps a little shorter.

For this option, I was referring to modifying how the Mesa Tactical QD mount attaches. It would fit in that same location, just recessed almost flush with the grip. It could even be set up ambidextrously so a mount was on both sides of the grip. You would take the grip, remove the metal bracket that the pin holds in place. Then bore out the plastic to exactly the diameter of the QD sockets. This would likely be half an inch. You'd then have two QD sockets from Magpul that are threaded to 10-24 if I recall. You'd need to drill out the metal bracket so it was just large enough to allow the fastener to pass through. The threaded QD sockets are sold for the UBR. Both sides would seat into the grip core against the metal bracket. Look at the typical QD socket, and see how tall they are. Compare that to the thickness of the pistol grip where the pin goes through. On the Mesa QD mount, about 2/3 of it would set into the grip on both sides. The fastener would then thread through either side of the QD socket, through the grip, through the metal bracket, through the grip and thread into the opposite side QD socket. Issues I've thought of that need to be resolved; 1. Both QD sockets cannot be threaded since they will be opposing each other. The threads on one of them will be reversed. 2. The metal bracket within the grip core will be holding the QD sockets in place. The QD socket will be locating the bracket in place as the original pin did. The bracket itself would prevent the QD sockets from lateral movement. 3. Sourcing a fastener will be needed. This 10-24 thread is pretty common at any hardware store. The length can be cut if needed.

It depends on your weapon. If you had a non collapsible receiver extension, then it would be considered a fixed stock. If I recall, the m1014 was legal to own in California because of this. I've also heard some people have pinned their stock.

The Noveske mount will work. The BLAM4 is 0.120" thick steel. My concern with the Noveske is the lack of an anti rotation feature. The QD socket could twist in the mount if enough of a load is applied. Since these are limited rotation QD connectors, there is a chance of it. You could bed it in place by applying epoxy around the back side of the BLAM4 to prevent the square nut from moving. The IWC mount will not move once the tensioners are torqued into a notch. The Noveske is probably a lot easier to install since it doesn't need that spirolock ring. Since the bottom surface is flat, it's a simple install. If it has a convex, the IWC will be more forgiving. Unless you have access to a back face counter bore.

I guess the back edge of the sling mount could be hit with a file if it interferes. Then hit it with Alumablack. Another concern is what the back mounting bracket looks like. It's probably a big oval style nut like I got with my light mount. That might be a bigger pain to massage into fitting. I think the MOE unit would probably be the easiest.

You don't think the lip of the socket would interfere with the curved back if the sling loop?

Using an optic would probably make that top rail mounted QD mount a little more forgiving. The mount may obstruct some iron sight picture. I have concerns about the sling bunching up in the firing position when no tension is on the sling and obstructing your sights/optic. Mounted that far forward may present some hanging issues as well. Ive also considered removing the Mesa unit and replacing it with a QD cup from Magpul that is threaded. Then drill out the stock to accept the QD cup and seat it up against the internal steel bracket. It wouldn't be completely flush, but it would mount about 2/3 of the cup internally. I looked at the GG&G options before. I think the IWC mount would be better. The eight point limited rotation notches would be a benefit.

I'd rather have the QD point on the upper pistol grip myself as well. Mainly for use with a single point sling. With a good two point sling, it shouldn't be an issue mounting on the tail piece. I'm going to order one of those mounts today. I think I'm going to mount it on the right side of the stock. I think this might help with limiting how the M4 tries to hang away from your body. The mount itself seems easy to modify for our application. I'm wondering if the screws are small enough to fit through the existing sling loop? I don't have a problem notching the stock for the screws. This might even be better from an install point of view.

For the front mount, I plan on putting one of these in the half inch hole. http://www.impactweaponscomponents.com/product/qd-micro-mount/ Check out this mount. I think it could be adapted to the tail piece of the stock through the existing sling slot.

I've had a few posts disappear as well after a lot of work. It sucks. I think it happens when a link is posted. The rear sling mount is a PITA. I scrapped my plans to flush mount a QD socket into the pistol grip. There is just too much interference between the receiver extension and how the tail section slides into the pistol grip when collapsed. I have a spare grip core, so I will revert to stock form when I come up with a solution. What I'm considering now is a flush mounted QD socket through the right side of the cheek riser. That way when you bring the weapon up to fire, the sling isn't bunching up between your face and the stock. It shouldn't try to interfere with shouldering the stock into the pocket of your shoulder as much either. The front sling mount is going to be a win. It's lightweight and pretty easy to make. It's a solid mounting solution with little risk of it breaking free from hard use. Good thing I didn't cut into any wiring. Once relays are involved, I'm in over my head.

The main wave of fools are out of money. Until you start seeing components like uppers and lowers in stock, the demand still exists. I glanced at my walmart's ammo shelf last night, there was literally absolutely nothing on it. It's worse than four years ago.

Bm4sbs, Clean install. I really like the 14" barrel. Some day I hope to go that route myself. You could set a QD sling mount with a BLAM4 bracket like how I mounted mine. It appears you have sufficient clearance for the bracket. It would also protect your wiring. Min just missing the actual QD mount. It's been on order for like three weeks now. Ive tried to find someone who would splice tape switches together to run a light/laser. Sadly, no one seems to have done it. I agree that having a single momentary control over both the light/laser would be ideal. I've considered cutting in to the wiring and attempting to splice the two together, but I've moved away from the need for a laser is most applications. After my adventures in modifying the FFT handguard, I'd be pretty comfortable milling a recessed placement for the tape switch. Then build up around the pocket with epoxy. Using the epoxy as a filler works really well for shaping. Once it dries, you can sand it to even everything out. I'm curious to see what the actual pressure pad looks like inside. I could build a sealed unit into the side of a handguard. I'd epoxy thin rubber over the naked switch and shape a fence around the activation switch. It would be much thinner than the existing tape switches. SideArmor used to make a barrel clamp that did not interfere with disassembly. I had one years ago, but foolishly sold it.

Looks interesting. What I would do is, I'd bore out the plastic so the base set in against the steel bracket. With a drill press and a clamping base, the bracket could be countersunk to accept the stem of that socket. This would be a lot of work.