What's the deal with HK rails?

[Lucky]

(disclaimer)I tried search, but it's not narrow enough.

I see 'HK Adapter rails' for sale, advertising that then you can add ordinary stuff to your USP. But the Streamlight TLR-2 is advertised as working on the USP as well as other pistols AND picatinny rails. Are HK rails different, an insignificant bit different, or not different at all from picatinny?

 

[DogBonz]

Yup

HK rails are different. How different, I'm not sure of. I think that the USP was one of the first pistols with a rail. After that, everyone jumped on the wagon. HK, being HK, probably had a patten on its rails and doesn't let others use their design. I'm sure that some one will come along and correct me, but they are different.

 

[bdg146]

HK started putting picatinny rails on their new pistols (P30 and HK45). The older models (P2000 and USPs) have a different rail. I don't think the TLR-2 will fit a USP out of the box. On Streamlight's website, they offer an adapter for the TLR-2 so that it fits a USP. http://www.streamlight.com/product/product.aspx?pid=81

Scroll to the bottom to see what I mean.

 

[Shipwreck]

The rail on the P2000 is the standard rail. It is only the USP that has the proprietary rail.

 

[Black Majik]

You'll have to get a rail adapter, Surefire makes the best one though most expensive.

The Surefire mounts the light closest and highest to the triggerguard than the others (Promag, GG&G, sidearmor etc...)

 

[Lucky]

damn.

 

[Autolycus]

As Shipwreck stated, the P2000 and P2000sk have a standard rail. HK was one of the first to use a rail on their pistols.

 

[Black Majik]

It's not that expensive, and it works well. The Surefire mount runs $80, but it's very much worth it. GG&G will be less, but it doesn't pull the light as close to the triggerguard as the Surefire. The promag mount sucks, it hangs below the triggerguard and doesn't pull the light close to the triggerguard. Then again, the promag mount is only $20 or so dollars.

Here's my fullsize USP with the Surefire MR09 mount with a Surefire X200.



Hope this helps. It's a good mount.

 

[S&W620]

I use the gg&g adapter on my USP with a tlr-2 and it works very well.

The adapter is about 50 bucks. It's unfortunate that most accessories don't fit directly on the rail, but the adapter works well.

 

[Gixerman1000]

The USP, USP Compact and the Mark 23 all use a proprietary rail different from each other as well as all other brands. Newer designed HKs like the P2000, P30 and HK 45 now use the picatinny rail that has become the standard.

Others like the Steyr M series, Sig Pro series and Walther P99 series each started out having their own proprietary rail system as well.