When you get rid of the old-school front sight that doubled as the gas block, the first perk of a free-floating rail comes into play. However, an AR15 free float handguard takes care of this problem and more. Again, the original drop-in plastic handguard does work. However, without a handguard of some sort, you would look pretty silly.

Of course, you could fire your AR that way. Even with a semi-auto rate of fire, it doesn't take long for the heat to build up.Īdditionally, you need to have something more substantial than just a naked barrel to hang onto. It gives your support hand protection from the heat caused by firing the weapon. The barrel is considered to be free-floating.Īt its most basic purpose, an AR15 free float handguard fills the same need as the weapon’s original two-piece drop-in handguard. A free-floating handguard is in fact rigidly mounted to the gun’s upper receiver. The term free-floating handguard brings to mind something magically surrounding your AR-15 barrel and is suspended in thin air.

Budget free float rail ar15