AR Stoner handguards

[TTv2]

Been specing out free float handguards for my AR builds and while Carbon Fiber is all the rage right now, I think Aluminum is still king in terms of durability vs price and for only an extra ounce more in weight.

AR Stoner again caught my eye given its lower price. $150 regular price for a 13.5" handguard vs $190 for a comparable Midwest Industries seems like a good deal to me, especially when all the handguard is doing is holding a front sight and an angled fore grip and at night a flashlight.

Has anyone here tried the AR Stoner handguard? For a sale price or MidwayUSA's birthday discount, do you think they're worth say $130?

 

[greyling22]

I have been super impressed with the UTG pro handguards. I haven't tried the mlock, but the super slim and the keymod are superior the older midwest industries I have as far as I can tell.

https://www.opticsplanet.com/leaper...uard.html?_iv_code=LP-HZ-MLMP10FFH-MTU020SSMC

 

[TTv2]

Trying to keep the weight as low as possible. Yeah, that would mean Carbon Fiber is the most ideal, but to essentially spend double to save only an ounce doesn't do it for me.

And I do want MLOK.

 

[greg_r]

I have three different AR Stoner barrels and some of their magazines. No problems with them. I expect their handguards would be just fine.

I am in the process of building a lightweight minimalist AR. Looked into a carbon fiber. It would have saved me 2 ounces and cost $70 for each of those ounces. No thanks! Plus I do not know how strong carbon fiber really is. I have no experience with it, but my brother does freestyle bicycle. He says carbon fiber handles flex well, but cracks from hard impacts.

 

[imashooter]

I don't know of anyone using carbon fiber so I find the word "rage" a bit much. Of late I've been using either Matrix or the non-stamped equivalent by http://www.chandlerhardwoods.com/product-p/ar15-9ml.htm

Both are very affordable, well made, and made in th USA.

 

[<*(((><]

There are some carbon fiber handguards that shave 4-5 ounces off some of the lightest aluminum handguards.

I’ve been looking into Coda Arms handguard as its only 8.4 oz. including the barrel nut and trunnion for a 17” long handguard. (15" is 7.4 oz.)

I have a hunting AR in 6.8 SPC II with a 20” barrel I have in mind for this to counter the longer barrels weight.

 

[greg_r]

Both of these are budget builds. The blue one is a 223 Wylde, the purple one is a 6.5 Grendel. With few exceptions all the parts are either Anderson or AR Stoner.

The receivers are Anderson, as are the stocks. The barrels and internals are AR Stoner. The 223 wears a Centerpoint scope in a Millet mount. The 6.5 wears a Simmons Pro Target in a Millet mount. Millet no longer markets these mounts, but Weaver does. The 223 has a Magpul grip, that I am going to change out to an A2, and the 6.5 Grendel just wears a thread protector. The rails are off of E-Bay. That's the only place i could find 19 3/4" rails.

Both of these will shoot as well or better than my 300 BLK which is a premium build. Both the 223 and 6.5 will shoot into 3/4 MOA with the right loads. And both rifles together cost less than the 300 blk which uses Aero Precision, BCM, Daniel Defense, Magpul, and CMMG parts along with the Ruger 2 stage trigger. The 300 BLK is a better quality though and you can tell it just by hefting it.
Older pictures of my 300 BLK. It no longer wears optics, but a set of Daniel Defense fixed sights.

 

[TTv2]

My 5.56 build isn't a budget build, it's a lightweight build, but I'm not willing to spend considerably more on a handguard, I would rather take the money saved and put it into a better optic or trigger.

Sounds like the AR Stoner handguards are just fine, so I'm going to go with it.

 

[rbernie]

Cheap, free-float, MLOK, anti-rotation, and anti-pull.

https://www.primaryarms.com/MTMC01_2

 

[TTv2]

Besides reducing weight, if all I'm going to do is mount a flip up front sight, a fore grip, and a light on the handguard, is there any reason to buy a handguard that costs more than $60?

 

[TTv2]

Update time and it's not a good one.

I bought the AR Stoner MidwayUSA handguard a couple weeks ago while on sale and the rail is excellent, but the barrel nut... oh boy, that barrel nut is called a barrel nut because it'll drive you nucking futs.

So, unlike NORMAL BARREL NUTS that have all those openings for the gas tube to go through, plenty enough to index to a decent torque between 30 and 80 ft/lbs, the AR Stoner's barrel nut has 8 slots to work with and that's not enough. I used the shims that come with the rail and whether I used none of them, all of them, or 1 or 2, the nut never indexes correctly within the torque spec range.

Oh, BTW, if you want to use a torque wrench, you have to buy a $10+ tool to do that, otherwise you just guess with an adjustable wrench. This pisses me off because I already bought an armorer's wrench that has the keys to index standard nuts, but nothing to work with the AR Stoner's.

Back to the shims, if you don't have enough, then you have to buy more because you only get three of them and they're all the same thickness!

This is my first AR, but I wasn't trying to do this alone, I was working with a former employee of YHM who use to build, test, and troubleshoot AR's for a living and he's never seen anything as dumb as the barrel nut Midway supplies with the handguard and apparently, we're not the only ones who've had issues with the nut.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/2...-barrel-nut-kit-for-ar-stoner-ar-15-handguard

The rail is great, but the nut is a complete dealbreaker and I cannot recommend the AR Stoner handguard.

 

[boom boom]

Update time and it's not a good one.

I bought the AR Stoner MidwayUSA handguard a couple weeks ago while on sale and the rail is excellent, but the barrel nut... oh boy, that barrel nut is called a barrel nut because it'll drive you nucking futs.

So, unlike NORMAL BARREL NUTS that have all those openings for the gas tube to go through, plenty enough to index to a decent torque between 30 and 80 ft/lbs, the AR Stoner's barrel nut has 8 slots to work with and that's not enough. I used the shims that come with the rail and whether I used none of them, all of them, or 1 or 2, the nut never indexes correctly within the torque spec range.

Oh, BTW, if you want to use a torque wrench, you have to buy a $10+ tool to do that, otherwise you just guess with an adjustable wrench. This pisses me off because I already bought an armorer's wrench that has the keys to index standard nuts, but nothing to work with the AR Stoner's.

Back to the shims, if you don't have enough, then you have to buy more because you only get three of them and they're all the same thickness!

This is my first AR, but I wasn't trying to do this alone, I was working with a former employee of YHM who use to build, test, and troubleshoot AR's for a living and he's never seen anything as dumb as the barrel nut Midway supplies with the handguard and apparently, we're not the only ones who've had issues with the nut.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/2...-barrel-nut-kit-for-ar-stoner-ar-15-handguard

The rail is great, but the nut is a complete dealbreaker and I cannot recommend the AR Stoner handguard.

Sorry you had an issue but thanks for letting people know about it.

 

[Corpral_Agarn]

I have two that have been just fine for my purposes. I do, however, have the smith at my work put uppers together for me.
some pics:

 

[TTv2]

Since Brownell's had a coupon code and I needed to buy a 9mm mag adapter, I decided to buy some more shims to see if I could get the right indexing with the barrel nut.

Now, 30 ft/lbs with 1 shim did index properly, but I did not feel comfortable with using only 30 ft/lbs of torque on the barrel nut, even though it's within the spec range of the AR.

I'm going to try again, I want it between 40 and 70 ft/lbs. If I don't get that with these shims, I'm sending the rail back to Midway.