StrangerDanger

I received my Sidearmor rail in the mail today. This rail system has generally been given a thumbs down in the past mainly due to the out of spec Picatinny rail system. I saw value in the system due to the retention of the factory handguards and the ability to mount the weapon light parallel with the barrel. This keeps the weapon light out of the vicinity of your hands on the handguard. A velcroed tape switch to the factory handguard would work great. A properly placed light with a momentary rear cap could be activated via your thumb. The top rail is closer to picatinny spec than the factory unit. The raised locators are thicker, and part of the center cut is left in tack. While it isn't true spec as being a solid locator, it is better. Without getting too technical, there is more meat on the rails than on the factory one. In the current configuration, a true spec picatinny rail could not be used on the Sidearmor rail because it would obstruct the iron sight view. The rail sits slightly higher than the factory one. I attempted to use a ladder rail from Surefire, but it completely blocked the view. It sits up higher because the rail itself is sitting on top of a base that conforms to the top of the receiver. This wider base adds lateral stability to the rail. The Sidearmor rail is attached with five hexhead screws. It also does away with the washers like the factory unit has. At the front, there is a barrel clamp that indexes and attaches just ahead of the handguards where the barrel casting supports the magazine tube. Once the barrel clamp is installed, the top rail aligns with the clamp and has a captive spring loaded knob that links the barrel and the top rail together. This offers much needed support to the front of the rail. No tools are needed to disassemble and clean the weapon. The side rails are proprietary to the Sidearmor top rail. The top unit has a dove tail that their shell carrier and side rails engage. Then they are screwed into place. Sidearmor offers two different size side rails. The rail comes with a long rail. I purchased a small rail for my light. I may purchase a small to replace the longer one for my sling mount to reduce weight and bulk. I decided to give their shell carrier a try. I have tried the Tacstar and the Mesa unit in the past. This one is by far the better of the set. It uses a spring loaded detent to retain the shell in place. It is also easy to remove. Two bolts, and it comes off. It only holds four rounds, so it is relatively light weight. I had no issues carrying the weapon slung on a brass hunt I went on earlier today. Mounting my front sling mount to this rail was better than on the Surefire M80 rail. The rifle seems to hang a little better being higher up. It also keeps the sling away from the handguard. The sling is out of the way of the shell carrier also. Kip's Picatinny rail is a much more solid rail. If you're primary purpose is mounting an optic with a rock solid mount, his is the way to go. Weights Sidearmor claims that the rail weighs around 11 ounces with one full length side rail installed. They didn't mention that you are removing 1.5 ounces by removing the factory top rail. The small side rail I added is around 1 ounce. The shell carrier is approximately 4 ounces. A stock Benelli M4 weighs approximately 8.5 pounds unloaded. Mine, fully loaded weighs around 11 pounds. 12 gauge rounds weigh quite a bit of it. There are 12 rounds in/on the weapon. Overall, I'm happier with the rail than I had expected. A lot more thought went into it than you can see from their webpage. They performed a lot of lightening cuts on the underside of the rail.

If you want new, I can use my Gov. and LEO discount at Brownells to buy a set. http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=23720&title=FOREARM,%20LEFT http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=23721&title=FOREARM,%20RIGHT They're $30.91 each with the discount. Brownells usually hits you for 10 bucks for shipping. The ebay link would be a better deal.

The gun works with a wide variety of loads without any type of adjustment. It'll eat low dram sissy stuff. Even the ***** handicap loads up to the 3" magnum ball busters. When it does break, it'll usually continue to chug along to some extent. She I sheared my gas piston in half (faulty heat treatment) it kept working with a single piston until the broken piece of the piston caused a jam in the action. If I had kicked the broken piston piece out, it would have kept working! Good prices can be had on gunbroker. I see great listings here often too. Well within your stated budget.

I was looking inside the receiver earlier. Seems they did the rear sight right. Screws from the inside, and screws from the outside. The inside screws are massive compared to the rails. They're also on the thickest portion of the receiver. Sure, the receiver is milled out in the front for the barrel. So it would have required a thicker receiver. They screwed it into 0.128" of aluminum. Afterthought? Absolutely.

Here is some cool stuff I found out tonight. I found out that the rubberized pistol grip simply pulls off of the plastic stock. Inside is a solid core that is hollow. What this means is I don't need Ranger bands, or any kind of straps to hold the tape switch to the pistol grip. What I'm going to do is cut a recessed spot into the stock where I want the switch. This spot will only be as thick as the tape switch. I only have to carve out 0.10" deep. The thickness of the stock is 0.24" thick. Once this is done, the tape switch can be seated into the cut area and the rubber grip will slip over the pad. Without cutting the slot, the grip would be too tight on the switch, and would activate the light. I'm still plotting a good path for the wire channel. I'm waiting on some tech data from Surefire. I'm seeing if they'll sell me a method to install a disconnect from the stock to the receiver.

Good info. I didn't know there was that big of a difference in energy per pellet between OO and OOO. I may pick some up from Midwayusa.

It has to be made like a rag pad with wings at the front to limit leakage... Er, torsional twisting. Those aluminum threads are very easy to strip unfortunately. The receiver itself flexs very easily too. Benelli really screwed up by not installing the bolts from the inside of the receiver. Then it could have the threads into the picatinny rail, or into a bolt. Then if you did strip the screws, you'd only need to replace the rail rather than do costly repairs to the receiver. The bolts wouldn't be able to fall out from the inside while the barrel is installed either. Or do it right and have the rail apart of the receiver like the on an A3 or A4 AR15 upper receiver.

Have you tried Gunbroker? I bet you could have it within a week and cheaper.

Unobtainium, I'll let you know within a day about the 600. I have to weigh if it is worth the trouble since I want to get the Larue mount and I need the tape switch tail cap. I'm leaning to go tan too. Anyone know how to disassemble the pistol grip?

Very nice! Have you considered making a steel replacement handguard bracket (the one captured by the magazine tube) that indexes with the boss on the rail? This may help with torsional forces for when the usual suspects mount a big heavy optic. For military units who are mounting night vision and thermal imaging scopes, this added support would be welcome.

Heres one on Gunbroker. http://v4.beta.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=130616843

I'm interested to hear how much recoil the comp reduces. I imagine the weight is around 5 or 6 ounces for the comp alone. The magazine nut might add several ounces over stock too unless Kip has a magic rabbit. If you're going to get one, you might as well get both. I don't know yet if it is worth the weight/length penalty.

Duggan, I know, it is quite a departure from the normal. I was worried about the top rail being out of spec also, but then I realized I don't have any plans to add an optic. I'm just using a relatively light top rail as a bridge to get to a high mounted rail mount that is clear of the handguards. I already did some testing with the tape switch on the pistol grip. Basically, the activation system ends up like how the crimson trace grips work. It doesn't feel awkward or like there is a huge wart on the pistol grip. The only viewable wire when I'm done will be the stub from the back of the Scout, and then from the rear iron sights along the back curved portion of the receiver onto the rubberized pistol grip. I have no qualms about applying an adhesive cover over any exposed wiring. I also run some full size and SBR AR15's with lighting setups similar to your LMT. I'm moving away from the FVG's. I did like the offset light setup when running a FVG though. If things don't work, you guys will be the first to know. I'm not worried about the costs. Since if I hate it, I can send new items back or sell them on gunbroker and recoup the majority of my cash. The only way we're ever going to get a full on rail system that is in spec is if Kip does it. I imagine he's working on this in some fashion. The bosses on his in spec rail are a clue I think. I probably know less than you guys about this though. If you think this project is crazy, you should see my truck. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3234/3028305216_6b742df9af_b.jpg Yes, it is covered from top to bottom in color matched Line-X.

After brain storming most of the weekend, I think I'm going to try to do something a little different. I decided that a forearm mounted activation is okay, but not ideal. I determined that a switch on the pistol grip itself would be far better. The trouble is, getting the switch there without causing a wiring nightmare. I also decided that I need the Sidearmor rail system in order to get the light out of the handguard area. I'm not real happy about having to go that route, but it is a necessary evil. I need the full length top rail in order to route the wiring discreetly. I'm going to use Ranger bands to attach the switch to the left side of the pistol grip so my fingers rest over the switching area. I am also considering mounting it so my strong hand thumb does the activation. I need to perform some tests to see what works best. Why to the pistol grip? I'm a follower of the momentary light is best. Constant on can lead to problems. Also, controlling the light source with your support hand can lead to problems. Lights out any time you reload. Lights out if you move to open a door. Or, you're stuck with constant on. With the light being controlled by your strong hand that isn't moving positions, you have a greater control over the output. I don't think I can route the wire down the center channel of the top rail abd hold it in place with a ladder rail. The cable is too thick and bows the ladder rail upward and into the iron sight plain. So I'm thinking I'll route it along the side of the rail instead. I think I can get this taken care of with a 18" cable. I'm going to switch out lights to a Surefire Scout Light with a LED head. The reason for this is the X300 is too big when the wiring tail cap is installed. Since the Sidearmor unit is attached to the receiver, there will not be any disassembly issues except unscrewing the stock from the receiver. If needed, I'll use silicon to seat any exposed wiring to the receiver to prevent a snag hazard or damage to the wiring. This will take a few weeks to put together.

I fired up my postal scale at work and got some fairly accurate weight readings (within a tenth of an ounce) for some of the parts. I found some of the weights to be surprising. Benelli M4 Factory Handguards: 5.0 Ounces Surefire M80 Rail System: 7.9 Ounces Surefire Ladder Rail: 0.4 Ounces Daniel Defense Picatinny Rail Sling Mount: 1.5 Ounces Magpul XTM Panel (two pieces): 0.25 Ounces Factory Top Rail with screws and washers: 1.59 Ounces I was expecting the factory handguards to weigh less, and for the M80 to weigh more stripped. Before adding a light or any other crap, my weight is 11.4 Ounces assembled. This doesn't take into account the fact that I removed the factory front sling mount. That's probably worth half an ounce. Deduct the weight of the removed factory handguards also and we're at 5.5 Ounces removed. So I've added a total of 5.9 Ounces so far. Almost the amount that Kip's Titanium tube will remove.

Very nice. Yet another product that I want. Hopefully it'll be on the burner sooner rather than later. Will the spring you supply with the Ti tube work with this extension, or is it going to require a longer spring? Is this brake considered a breaching brake, or a componsator? There was another company that made a breaching device for the muzzle of the Benelli. But they refused to sell to law abiding citizens. Even said no way to GSC's. Royal Arms if I recall. I have no need to breech doors, my interest is in a comp to speed up my follow-up shots. I'm not familiar with the history of the Benelli produced brakes. Any back story?

May have to get one of these. Any thought at making an extended magazine cap to increase capacity by 1? When adding length to the barrel, might as well add to the tube capacity. Or would the ports of the comp be obstructed by an extended magazine cap?

I tried that method, but I like to have my support hand further forward. My hand ended up against the cables. So it all got 86'ed.

8.1 ounces? Interesting. Remember, you're removing the handguards from the weapon also. So that is probably worth 3 or 4 ounces maybe. I am running the ladder rails on the side rails. Then Magpul XTM covers along the bottom. Having XTM covers on all the rails made it feel quite thick. The 5 ounces you'll save with the Ti tube will really help. I 86'ed all the tape switches for now. The trouble with the M80 is it mounts the device where your hand will be. So I'm currently running the X300 (3.4 ounces) on the right side of the M80 at the very front. I can hit the switch with my support thumb. I'm concerned that the light is going to get beat up or accidently turned on being on the inside towards my body. With this setup, the sling has to be relocated behind the light, or you'll run into obstruction issues. This isn't exactly what I wanted to begin with. The XT07 remote switch was difficult to press and hold in a momentary on fashion. My hand would get fatigued within 20 seconds of pressing it. The 7" cable was way too short too, and they do not offer longer lengths. I have not function tested the weapon yet with the M80 installed. The shotgun is disassembled waiting for the Ti tube.

Is that FAB top rail plastic? It looks like a molding mark down the center.

Changed my mind. The offset would be best.

The ergonomics of the FCAM were lacking in the prototype stages. The bottom was very bulky. I wasn't a big fan of the forward vertical grip on this weapon. The lockup and engagement of the FCAM is awesome. However, there are further problems that I see now that could be addressed in different ways. Relying on the 5 screws in the top of the receiver to stabilize the top rail is a no go in my opinion. If I was going to advise again, I'd opt for a different route. Replacing the bracket that is held in place by the magazine tube and the receiver has a lot of potential.

Thanks! I like the worn look also. It keeps you from babying it.