Video Transcript
When it comes down to selecting a handguard or rail or whatever you want to call it for your AR-15, it can be a little bit overwhelming because there are just so many different options out there. And there are so many different options when it comes to price tiers even. There's even a lot of different options when it comes down to the type of rail it is, whether it's Picatinny, M-LOK, whether it's completely slick, or a hybrid of Picatinny and M-LOK. There's just a lot going on out there. And honestly, there are a ton of really good rail options out there.
We select products for our website, we like to offer the products that offer the best value to the customer. And we try to bring that same philosophy over to the rail offerings that we are now offering on the website. And that is the BCM handguard's. So as we get into this product video, we're going to go over the different types of BCM handguard's we're going to be selling, the different lengths, go over what comes in the box. And then we're also going to show you guys how to install one of these rails onto an upper receiver group. So let's get into it.
Now, when you buy one of these hand guards and it ships to your house, it's going to come in packaging that looks like this or it looks like this. It's kind of random on which handguard comes in which packaging. As of right now, I believe BCM is transitioning over to their packaging to all look like this. But just note, if you get something that looks like this, it's the same thing. They're just probably updating their packaging right now. Now, inside of this little black sleeve, when you pull out the inside, you're going to pull out a box that looks like this.
And inside this box are going to be all of the goodies. Now, we've obviously opened these packaging, so you're not going to get a packaging with blue masking tape on it. But you guys get the idea. In the box, you're going to pull out your rail. This rail will be captured in some plastic with a little bit of oil on it just to prevent any sort of rust or anything, although it's aluminum. It's not going to rust.
Like I said, these are already open. So here's our rail. This is the MCMR-9 rail. Also, what comes in the box, you're going to get instructions for exactly how to install this rail. These are very good instructions. These are also on the website of BCM. So if you lose this paperwork, just go to the website. All this information is there as well. Or just continue watching this product video, and hopefully we answer all those questions that this document also will answer. But if you're unable to watch this video, can't go to the website, there are step-by-steps instructions with 24 different steps on how to install everything that comes in this box.
Additionally, what comes in the box, you're going to get a couple plastic vacuum-sealed bags, one of which is going to have your barrel nut right here. You're going to have your barrel nut tool. You're going to have the hardware that's required to install the rail to the barrel nut. And you're also going to get some hardware for your rail if you buy an M-LOK rail. Now, if you buy a RAIDER Rail or the QRF Picatinny rail, you're not going to get the QD point or the Picatinny adapter piece, because all the other rails have Picatinny, so you don't need that.
Now that we know what comes in the box, let's go over the different options that we're selling on the website. So we're going to be selling the MCMR rails in the 9 inch and 13 inch configuration, the 9 inch is technically 10 inches. The tip of the rail kind of sticks out a little bit. It's more close to 10 inch than this 9 inch, and the same thing applies for the 13 inch rail. It's going to just be a little bit longer than that 13 inch rail. That's important to note, because if you buy a 13 inch barrel and you buy the 13 inch M-LOK BCM rail, it's going to be a little bit too long for that barrel length if you have a suppressor.
The next rail that we're selling on the website is the QRF handguard. This is the Picatinny option, so it's going to be like your standard MK18 style rail when it comes down to mounting solutions. We're going to offer this in 10 inch and 12 inch. The 10 inch is exactly 10 inches. It's ideal for 11.5 inch barrels, but the 12 inch is more like a 12.5 inch length. Now, we are offering this rail and the MCMR in RAIDER, both in black and tan.
And the final rail option we have from BCM is the Raider Rail. So this is the newest option for handguards from BCM. And this happens to be my favorite of the three between the MCMR M-LOK, the QRF Picatinny. The RAIDER is my favorite because this is a hybrid between M-LOK and Picatinny. So on the front of the rail, we have Picatinny mounting solutions for your lights, lasers, and even your bipods or whatever else you want to mount to your rifle. I find that this Picatinny is just really convenient. Picatinny is obviously stronger than M-LOK or Keymod when it comes down to mounting solutions. So the fact that I have Picatinny where I mount my accessories and then I have M-LOK for where my hand goes for so it's not as thick and as bulky as Picatinny is quite nice. Now behind the Picatinny, like I said, is M-LOK.
What's interesting about this rail, it kind of has like two layers of material going on. So if you have long screws on whatever you're mounting to the M-LOK sections, the screws won't go through and actually touch the barrel or the gas tube or anything else that you don't want it to. They actually fit into little slots underneath the actual material of the rail, which is pretty nice.
And also the M-LOK rail covers from BCM fit perfectly on this gun. Now the reason why I like the RAIDER rail is because it's kind of in between the dimensions when it comes to width from the M-LOK rail to the Picatinny. So when I am shouldering the rifle, I just have a really nice grip on the gun. I can pull it directly down. I'm not having to pull the gun sideways when I'm trying to mitigate recoil. It's just a very comfortable rail. Now I will say this type of rail is my preference for shorter guns. If I'm going to use something like a 16 inch or a 14.5.
I'm gonna go with the MCMR M-LOK type rail because I don't mount things this far out on my longer guns. I have things kind of mounted towards the back of the gun. So the Picatinny towards the end of the rail is not gonna benefit me. I'm just gonna go ahead and go with the glider and thinner rail when it comes down to 14.5s and 16 inch. But like I said, short guns like this 11.5 BCM RAIDER rail is definitely my favorite.
We know what comes in the box when you purchase one of these rails and what rail options we're selling on the website, let's head over to the workbench and I'm going to show you guys how to install one of these BCM rails onto an upper receiver group. Now, as we do this, I'm actually going to take off a BCM rail, just so you guys can see how nice and secure these guys are when they are attached and you guys will get to see basically in reverse and normal sequence of operations of the installation process of one of these rails. Now, just to reiterate one more time, just in case I kind of confuse things about what comes in the box of these rails, every rail, whether it's the MCMR, the QRF, or the radar rail is going to get this vacuum-sealed package right here that has your barrel nut tool, the barrel nut, the hardware needed to install the rail, but only the M-LOK version, so the MCMRs are going to come a QD Point for the rail in a little section of Picatinny.
Now that it's cleared up, let's head over to the workbench and show you guys how to install one of these rails. So one of the cool things about the BCM rails is whether it's the MCMR, the KRF, or the RAIDER rail, all of the hardware is the same. So the barrel nut's the same.
The hardware to attach the rail to the barrel nut is the same. So I actually don't need the hardware that came with this rail, I can just reuse what came with the Picatinny rail. Now, if you don't have multiple BCM rails, that's not all that beneficial to you, but I just think that's kind of cool that they're able to keep that across the line of their different rails. So the first thing we're gonna do when we take this rail off is we're going to take the hardware off. So this hardware is actually attached in a very unique way. So on, make sure I'll show you guys, so on this side, you see it's just a screw that goes through, but you're gonna see some threads from a different screw coming through. Now on this side, you're gonna see that the screw actually locks into place on this side. So what that means is once I torque all this down and I get both these screws in there, they're not coming loose. It's literally impossible or it's gonna be very tight.
That way you got that off. It is just going to come off, but it's gonna take a little bit of force. So if I even just tap this guy, it's not gonna come off. So if you are taking off a BCM rail, it's okay. You're not gonna hurt the gun, just slam it. You know, come on, it's a gun. Don't worry, it'll be fine. It's made of steel and it shoots bullets. So moving on to the next component that we're gonna take off, the muzzle device, that's just an A2, so it's gonna come off nice and easy. And then we're gonna need to take off the gas block. All right. So as you guys can see, BCM really likes to make sure their stuff's on there nice and good.
So next thing we're gonna do is we're going to pop this guy off. So this is actually the anti-rotation tab for your hand guard. Now, this is really snug and stuck on there because it's installed from the factory and there was already a little bit of torque applied there. So we're just gonna kind of bump this guy off. Give it a couple taps with something soft and it should come off.
So the way this little anti-rotation tab works, if you look at your rail here with these little tabs sticking out, this guy just kind of slides over these guys just like that and it'll be nice and stuck. So this guy's actually, this is actually a pretty tight anti-rotation tab. So we just have to be a little more diligent with it as we reinstall it. So to take the barrel nut off, we're just gonna use the barrel nut tool that we got and recommend if you're taking off a barrel nut, just use a breaker bar. It's a little bit easier than using a torque wrench. There. There we have it. All right.
So you guys got to see the rail getting taken off. So let's go ahead and just put everything back on. So first thing we're gonna do when we're installing one of these rails is make sure our barrel is into our upper receiver and then we're going to put our barrel nut on. So before you put your barrel nut on, if this is a brand new build that you guys have, make sure you use some Anise's grease on the threads of the upper receiver. You can put them on the threads of the barrel nut or directly on the upper receiver itself. It doesn't really matter. So once those are on there, we're going to go ahead and thread this guy on finger tight, as tight as we can.
And the torque spec for this, according to BCM, is 40 to 50 foot pounds. So I'm just going to set it at 45 right in the middle and we're gonna go ahead and torque it on. Now, if you want to do this the correct way, what you're gonna do is you're going to torque this down to spec, take it off, torque it down to spec, take it off, torque it down to spec. So you're gonna do it three times. And as you take it off in between each of those torques, you're going to take it all the way off. This is called prepping the threads for the upper receiver.
This barrel nut and this upper receiver have already been put together, so I don't need to worry about it in this case. So that's nice and torqued to spec. So we're gonna go ahead and put our gas block back on. These, it's pretty simple. There is a torque spec for these. I believe it's 15 inch pounds. But you're just gonna make sure the gas block is lined up. You can do it this way, just to make sure it's lined up with the upper receiver. I like to install them upside down.
These barrels are dimpled, so it's pretty easy not to screw it up. You just start to thread in the screw that's closest to the upper receiver. It catches in the nipple and then it's kind of impossible to get it crooked. It can be a little bit crooked and that's totally okay. But obviously for visual aesthetic reasons, we don't want it to be crooked. So we're just gonna get this one started. So as you see, it can rotate right now. Once I get it just a little bit tighter.
It can no longer rotate. So at this point, I'm going to flip this guy over and I'm just going to make sure this stays straight to the upper receiver as I tighten everything down. Looks good. This point, we're gonna go ahead and put our muzzle device back on. You can put it on after you install the rail, it's fine. I just find that depending on the length of the rail and the type of muzzle device you have, it's generally just easier to install it without a rail on the way.
Now we get into actually installing the rail onto the gun here. So first thing I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna start to slide this guy on, basically get it started on the barrel nut. But what I don't wanna do is leave too little space here for my anti-rotation tab. So this is something that I have often made the mistake of. I'll get this rail basically too tight on there and then I have to take everything back off like I did just there.
So we just wanna make sure there's a little bit of room here. You can either put the anti-rotation tab onto the upper receiver itself or you can attach it to the rail and then bump the rail on, it doesn't really matter. They just both gotta be on there. So this guy is nice and tight. So once we got this started, now what I'm gonna do is I'm going to use something just to tap this rail into place because I can't physically do that with my hands. So I'm just going to take this off and hold it like this and I'm gonna take a bench block and a hammer and just kind of tap it on there.
I'm just gonna use a soft mallet here. Give it a couple taps and she's good to go. Now, one thing I don't wanna do is I don't want this rail to go all the way up to the upper receiver because the screws that actually attach this rail to the barrel nut won't be able to go through. They have to kind of line up with the barrel nut. So the barrel nut has some ridges here. If you bump this rail too far to the upper receiver, the screw that's closest to the upper receiver will end up hitting this ridge here. So I just give it a little bit of space and once you get the screw started, you can then tap it on a little bit tighter.
This is the way the hardware looks and it's gonna look the same on both sides. So there's only one way this can go. So you can't really screw this up. It's gonna sit just like that. We're just gonna make sure that both sides are lined up. I'm able to get the screw through. So if you're trying to install this and the screw just won't go through or it feels like it's going through crooked, it's probably because your rail is too close to the upper receiver. So we're going to actually start with the screw that has the little locking lugs, as I'm gonna call them. We need this screw to be secure first.
Now this kit does come with some blue Loctite and you can add blue Loctite to these if you so desire. But we just took these off and there's still some Loctite on there. So I'm not gonna worry about it. Now on this side, as you install these, you're going to need this little part here to line up with the threads. And there's not necessarily a torque spec that needs to be followed here. You're just going to go to one that is very snug like this one. Then I'm just gonna go to the next little lug there that lines up, so just like and then, just make sure this hardware's all lined up.
Sometimes when you tighten the hardware down, it'll rise up. So just give it a little tap with something on this side. If it does, at this point, I can make sure that this is nice and snug to the upper receiver. Just make sure that the rail is actually lined up. The any rotation tab prevents this rail from rotating a lot, but it can be off by a hair. So I just like to give it a good feel on each side to make sure you can use something like a carry handle to lock these two together. I have found that that's not very consistent. Honestly, the most consistent way to make sure your rail and your upper receiver are lined up is do it by eyeball and just give it a feel, make sure that it kind of feels the same on both sides. To me, it feels pretty good. So I'm gonna go ahead and tighten everything up.
And there we have it. We have our new FDE MCMR rail on our 11.5 BCM Mark II upper receiver. If you guys have any questions regarding this rail, the MCMR, the QRF, the RAIDER rail, honestly, questions about any rail that's on the market. If you guys need help with installing this on your upper receiver, again, really just questions about anything at all. Shoot us an email at [email protected] and we'll be happy to help.