AR continuous upper reciever

[FNBROWNING]

See Colt Canada is introducing the following continuous upper reciever ie no sperate handguard to work loose and mess up optics mounting http://www.coltcanada.com/iur.html

And either this or a version thereof is being adapted by the Canadian Army.

I am guessing that this uses a variation of the design of the 6940 which whilst the rail is a bit blocky is a very nice rifle.

Willing to bet that with the adoption by a military we may well see this as the future direction of the AR.

[Kayback]

I'm certain the future of the AR is more modular like the keyhole mod.

There is a lot of extra weight which is unuseable rail space. Possibly an 8 sided system.

[FNBROWNING]

I'm certain the future of the AR is more modular like the keyhole mod.

There is a lot of extra weight which is unuseable rail space. Possibly an 8 sided system.

Interestingly weight doesnt seem to be much of an issue
Possibly given that save on rail mounting hardware and the colt I felt seemed relatively light as supported by the specs. Keymod makes a lot of sense but most rails have a potentialweakness in the mounting system and cannot or certainly should not mount optics because of flex. There is however some potential for some modification of the width of the rail system.

[Craig]

These systems have been around for a long time, I first remember seeing Vltor with one of these, but they may not have been the first.

I quite like the look of it, but, it can be limiting. The rail on that Colt might be considered too short by some.

I don't think it's that much of a benefit for mounting optics, you get mounts that sort that out.

I think keymod is a really good thing as it saved unecessary weight, but expect M-Lok to do well too.

[longranger]

Like that a lot, the Barett MRAD has a similar looking design

[Grail]

Basically it's called a Monolithic system. I stand to be corrected but I think KAC ( Knights Armament ) brought them out a while back.