Rail gun for AR uppers?

D

dbooksta

New member
Has anyone seen any machine rests or rail gun receivers for precision testing AR-10/15 uppers? I.e., something like a rail base with an AR lower receiver machined to it?

Hyskore has a commercial offering but overall reviews seem to be that it is kludgy and poorly made.

I don't have any direct experience with rail guns, so can anyone help orient me? E.g.,

  1. What does a "real" rail-gun base cost?
  2. Is the base and reset mechanism considered a critical/competitive part of a rail gun, or is that standard and the competitive art is still mostly in the barrelling?
  3. Are there any sources that would be good for a project like this?
 
dbooksta said:
Has anyone seen any machine rests or rail gun receivers for precision testing AR-10/15 uppers? I.e., something like a rail base with an AR lower receiver machined to it?

Hyskore has a commercial offering but overall reviews seem to be that it is kludgy and poorly made.

I don't have any direct experience with rail guns, so can anyone help orient me? E.g.,

  1. What does a "real" rail-gun base cost?
  2. Is the base and reset mechanism considered a critical/competitive part of a rail gun, or is that standard and the competitive art is still mostly in the barrelling?
  3. Are there any sources that would be good for a project like this?
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Just my observation as someone who has made, owned, and shot several different types of railguns for competitive BR............almost any barrel blocked railgun can be made to accept an AR by clamping to its barrel. About the only unusual alteration that would have to be made would be to have a verticle split barrel block with enough split spacing in the block to accomodate the gas tube, if one wishes to maintain the gas cycling capability.

I have not done this with an AR platform but have modified some of my own rails to accept autoloaders like BAR's.

1. used/new= $1,500 to $3,000

2. every component is critical in competitive winning railgun accuracy.

3. railgunning is a very specialized following in the gun world therefore few resources, your best information source is right here and only a very few will probably respond.
 
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My objective is to make it easy to test a variety of AR uppers for "absolute precision" with particular ammo -- i.e., to quickly produce a 10-20 round group where there is no doubt whether shooter error affected the precision. I.e., I want a precise piece of measurement equipment; I'd never look to compete with it.

Since I want to test whole uppers, not just barrels, I'd want to clamp or machine a lower receiver to the rail base to accept each upper with room to feed at least a 10-round magazine.

Of course since I'm testing semi-auto uppers, and not competing for millimeters against other unlimited guns, I'm not concerned with nuances that may get me hundredths of an inch. But I do want to take advantage of the specialized knowledge that Don notes has been acquired by this niche of the sport, so thank you for the responses so far and I hope to learn more!
 
What we use is a mount that grabs the picatinny rail on the upper and float tube. This takes the lower completely out of play. Both the AMU and USMC rifle teams use similar mounts to test their rifles. Another mount for NM rifles grips around the float tube only with the handguards removed.
 
That sounds clever, and useful for even a broader range of rifles. Can you share pictures? Designs? Who builds those?
 
Built a few for the Army they seem to work fine....J
 

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AR Mounts

Here is pictures of what we use at work. Hopefully they upload this time. One is the Young Rail that grips float tube. The other is something we fabricated that grabs the picatinny rails on upper and front tube/handguard. We started using it for SCAR and have shot everything upto M107 on it.
 

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Very cool!

Does that one that grips the picatinny rail even have a damper or return spring on it, or is that not necessary given the total sliding mass? And what does it use for bushings on the rails?
 
Jay Young said:
Built a few for the Army they seem to work fine....J
Click to expand...

Jay, obviously you're an authority on these. Other than the beautiful finish of your rails could you offer a sort of "sales pitch" for outsiders like me? I.e., do your builds incorporate features that improve performance or precision over what the uninitiated might cobble together using stock materials and a mill?

For example, I can see that all adjustments can be done with more ease and precision on your bases. Although never having had the chance to operate a rail gun I don't know if that's a luxury or necessity.
 
dbooksta said:
You mean they use recirculating ball bearings as the damper for the rearward impulse?

Is that a typical damper mechanism?
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No. That wouldn't be a very good "damper" at all. I quoted the portion that I was responding to. (Highlighted in red below)

dbooksta said:
Very cool!

Does that one that grips the picatinny rail even have a damper or return spring on it, or is that not necessary given the total sliding mass? And what does it use for bushings on the rails?
Click to expand...
My take is that he part highlighted in green is that you are correct.
 
It uses Thompson bearings on ground shafting. There is enough mass that it needs no dampener,even with .50cal. The ammo companies have gone to something similar for testing toreplace the Mann V block and slide.
 
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