Attaching a flashlight to a Clark carbon fiber handguard

[suesstech]

I really enjoyed the night-shoot our local club did last year. We've got another one this weekend so I'm looking for a better long term solution. Last year, and most likely this weekend, I hose clamped a flashlight to my clark carbon handguard with a spacer since there are no holes to mount a rail. It's a pretty ghetto setup, but was the only thing I could come up with on quick notice that would hold through the night. It was ugly but it worked. I know its possible to drill holes to mount a small rail for a light attachment however I really don't want to take the upper apart. Triangle built it and its a tack driver. Questions:

Has anyone had the same problem? What was the solution?

Has anyone used some super adhesive to attach on a small piece of rail? Success?

Does the upper have to come apart to drill holes?

[Chuck Anderson]

Duct tape.

[chevyoneton]

I am not familiar with that handguard but don't know why a carefull fellow could not drill a couple of holes and hold the nuts inside with some needle-nose pliers and screw a piece of rail on (with a dab of Loctite). Just like that run-on sentence. Seriously, I would not "glue" anything to my handguard. I might not want it on there, or in just that spot, forever.

[GuildSF4]

Super glues handle tensile stress (pulling directly away from the joint) fairly well, it does not handle shear stress (side impact) very well.

For temparary use electrical tape works pretty well. If you want some thing more permanent I would try what Chevyoneton suggested.

[nheiny13]

Call up Clark. They have curved metal back plates that go inside the tube for support. I used those and did what Chevy said and it works great

[suesstech]

Thanks. Think I will call Clark after the holidays. Like you said, combined with both your post and Chevy's I'll figure out a way.

[mike4045]

Part of the issue is removal of the hand guard to get inside guard and tighten up screws. I got rid of mine because of this issue. My carbon fiber tube was not meant to be removed.

[Towely]

My carbon fibre tube is glued on too but poster #2 has nailed it unless you want something more permanent. Duct tape and a spacer fits the bill. Nothing ghetto about that if it functions as needed, is there?

[Chuck Anderson]

All kidding aside. Drilling into carbon fiber is not as easy as it sounds. Apparently there are some hazards that happen when you have tiny little bits of CF floating around. I've never done it but talking to people that do it for a living, it kind of a pain in the butt.

[nheiny13]

When I drilled into mine, I used a pretty low speed so that it wouldn't throw any fiber around. It took a few minutes but it wasn't much of a problem. Having said that, I still wore eye protection and a face mask

[suesstech]

Still trying to determine if its even worth doing since there's 1 maybe 2 night matches a year. I'll talk to some of the local smiths and get their thoughts on it. Thankfully the match is dark so noone has to see my rigging job. It'll come off again that night because their's a morning rifle only match the next day.

[CraigS.]

if you decide to drill it your self, use a spray bottle of water while drilling to keep the fibers from becoming airborne.

[dauntedfuture]

Buy a rail section for the jp rails. Drill two small holes and you're all set. Mount and lock tight in place. A 1" qd ring on a surefire g2 makes a nice set up all for about 100.00

[Chuck Anderson]

Still trying to determine if its even worth doing since there's 1 maybe 2 night matches a year. I'll talk to some of the local smiths and get their thoughts on it. Thankfully the match is dark so noone has to see my rigging job. It'll come off again that night because their's a morning rifle only match the next day.

I know the Miculek family showed up for the first year of the Crimson Trace match with what could best be described as a ghetto set up. Lots of duct tape. I think on the rifle and the shotgun.

[suesstech]

Thanks guys. The surefire g2 is what I use. Cheap but durable. Thanks all for the tips.

[Doug H.]

Buy a rail section for the jp rails. Drill two small holes and you're all set. Mount and lock tight in place. A 1" qd ring on a surefire g2 makes a nice set up all for about 100.00

This is what I did. Moistened the surface a little before drilling to keep the dust down. I added a 4" rail section at 3:00 as far forward as I could get to hold my light. Works great, I use a pushbutton Surefire and its easy to turn on and off and I never notice it when shooting. You can zip tie it in place to play around with the location before you drill any holes. A little double faced tape and some zip ties would also work if you decided not to drill.

Doug

[suesstech]

Doug, never thought to zip tie a rail. Think I'll do that to start with then figure out the best place for it, then drill.