Benelli M4 -- Mesa Tactical Truckee 15" Rail Review

[StrangerDanger]

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.

[StreetSweeper56]

Well written, informative review; do you anticipate any blast affect on the light having it mounted that far forward? I opted to mount my light underneath to, like you, avoid barrel shadow but it does need a bit of a shim to raise the beam up on target, still thinking it through.

[Doge]

Question:

Is it easy to take the barrel off with the rail installed?

[Dkay67]

Certainly not field strip friendly. 

 

 

[CAUS]

Wow, Mesa did change the rear-end cap to two pieces! I made the suggestion in my review on the 11" Truckee. It was harder to install with the one-piece rear-end cap. 

As for the wobbling, I added a tiny stripe of duct tape (2~3 layers) on the bottom of the read-end cap. It worked great. 

Edited January 27, 2022 by CAUS

[CAUS]

I didn't mean using duct tape on the outside. I meant adding a tiny stripe of duct tape as a plastic washer between the rear-end cap and the receiver. You can't see it from the outside. 

Edited January 27, 2022 by CAUS

[StrangerDanger]

13 hours ago, Doge said:

Question:

Is it easy to take the barrel off with the rail installed?

Yeah. It’s pretty easy. The assembly slides off the end of the magazine tube. Aside from hanging up a little on the carbon fiber Briley tube. I feel that may sort itself out over a few cycles. 

 

16 hours ago, StreetSweeper56 said:

Well written, informative review; do you anticipate any blast affect on the light having it mounted that far forward? I opted to mount my light underneath to, like you, avoid barrel shadow but it does need a bit of a shim to raise the beam up on target, still thinking it through.

It shouldn’t be an issue with a quality light. Where I have mine set, the light bezel is just behind my barrel. I’ve let my .223 rifles blast my lights in the past and the only issue is they get dirty. 
 

If I can make the switch sing to me, I may keep it. I really do like being able to grip farther forward than the oem grip allows.  
 

I haven’t gotten to mess with it as much as I’d like, I’ve been in firearms class most of the week, so that’s eating up a lot of my spare time. Thankfully that’s over with as of today. 

[CAUS]

I just emailed and heard back from Mesa . Mesa will send me the new improved end cap for free! 

[Ben elLes]

What choke is that?  And what does it bring to the table?

[StrangerDanger]

4 hours ago, Ben elLes said:

What choke is that?  And what does it bring to the table?

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. 

[Anon4755]

8 hours ago, StrangerDanger said:

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. 

I ordered that same choke, yours looks like IC with the orange tip?

My only concern would be with the orange tip is if someone thought it to be an airsoft gun. Silly theory i know, but where i live people are not that smart.  But i ordered IC as well. I wonder if i can get it re colored with cerakote?

[StrangerDanger]

Yep, I went with the IC. You could certainly get it cerakoted. You also cannot shoot steel shot thru it, but that was of no issue to me since I never shoot that crap.

 

 

[Anon4755]

8 minutes ago, StrangerDanger said:

Yep, I went with the IC. You could certainly get it cerakoted. You also cannot shoot steel shot thru it, but that was of no issue to me since I never shoot that crap.

 

 

I dont shoot that garbage either.   Do they make a titanium choke thats not extended but is flush to the barrel? I cannot find one on briley's website. 

[StrangerDanger]

I haven't seen one unfortunately. Realistically it sticks out about .875 inches.

[Anon4755]

2 minutes ago, StrangerDanger said:

I haven't seen one unfortunately. Realistically it sticks out about .875 inches.

Thanks for your help.  You have a ton of great info.   Do the flush mobil chokes from briley with the black oxide coating end up rusting like the oem chokes?

[CAUS]

On 1/26/2022 at 10:00 PM, StrangerDanger said:

3. This thing is super smooth and hard to hold onto. Expect to add some kind of rail covers to build some traction.

 

How do you like the pattern on your M-Lok covers? Compared to other patterns? Thanks!! 

[StrangerDanger]

14 minutes ago, Anon4755 said:

Thanks for your help.  You have a ton of great info.   Do the flush mobil chokes from briley with the black oxide coating end up rusting like the oem chokes?

I haven't tried them. Even the OEM ones will resist corrosion as long as you take care of them and grease the threads. I've found most don't do this including myself apparently and found out the hard way that they'll rust up. In the past I've had several of them NP3 plated which now seems like a really good idea. Unfortunately that isn't really an option at the current time.

I'd get the grease kit Briley sells along with the wrench and brush. I used to have my chokes come loose after shooting frequently when I tightened them with the supplied OEM tool. With the Briley wrench, I've never had one come undone.

 

9 minutes ago, CAUS said:

 

How do you like the pattern on your M-Lok covers? Compared to other patterns? Thanks!! 

It's all I had available at the moment in MLOK. I tried to make some of those Railscales KOS panels fit, but the profile is wrong. Most would be served well with like the Magpul MLOK panel covers. You'll definitely want something for texture though, this rail is smooth with almost zero texture.

I'm going to change the light mount to an offset mount unit. Hopefully it'll clear and won't require any modification to the rail in order for it to fit. This should reduce how much the light sticks out.

[Anon4755]

So in other words, just use the briley grease on the threads? How often should i grease the threads

[StrangerDanger]

If you did it once a year or if the barrel were ever submerged. Or maybe if you spent some time in a high humidity area it would be worth regreasing. It's kind of like putting oil on steel parts to prevent corrosion. The OEM ones are parkerized if I recall, so there is only so much that finish than do before rust takes hold.

 

[StrangerDanger]

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.

[Anon4755]

6 minutes ago, StrangerDanger said:

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.

Is np3 plating or cerakoting better for corrosion resistance?

[Milspec]

57 minutes ago, StrangerDanger said:

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.

Glade mine is NP3'd but I like the Briley option as well.  I like the small extension protruding.  It might protect me from my own dumbness.

Even though my choke is NP3'd I still have it coated with Briley grease.

[StrangerDanger]

NP3 is definitely better than Cerakote or phosphate. 
 

Definitely use grease. Carbon can work its way into the threads and make it a pain to remove the choke.

[StrangerDanger]

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.

 

 

Edited February 1, 2022 by StrangerDanger

[CobraBG]

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