Adding The Blackhawk! Rail Mount Vertical Grip
Moving right along with the Blackhawk! custom AR-15 project…
This time, I’m going to try out a complimentary accessory to the Blackhawk! Rail Mount Thumb Rest I installed last episode. The thumb rest can operate on its own to help grip, control and consistent hand placement. It also works great with a vertical grip.
The Blackhawk! Rail Mount Vertical Grip will work on most any rifle with a standard rail up front. Of course, if you want the grip to be on the bottom of the forend, you must have a rail on the bottom.
But first, why does one need a vertical grip?
- The grip is one layer removed from even the rail, so it’s not gonna heat up with lots of firing. Keeping freshly manicured hands away from that softness-robbing heat has got to be a benefit. Along with a daily soak on Palmolive.
- Control. The vertical grip presents a modified weapon support method. It’s especially handy for short-stock configurations, like indoor use.
- If you want to add a tactical light, it provides a great way to grip the rifle AND easily control a tail cap activated light. We’ll explore that in a future article.
- You have to admit, it looks cool. That counts for something right?
Here the Blackhawk! Rail Mount Vertical Grip is installed with the Blackhawk! Rail Mount Thumb Shelf – they play well together.
Blackhawk! Rail Mount Vertical Grip: Installation and features
| The Blackhawk! Rail Mount Vertical Grip is modular in design, so you can customize the height of the grip. The standard vertical grip measures about 3 inches from the bottom of the rail. You can just fasten the included bottom cap to get a short post vertical grip configuration. This works great if you like to use the vertical grip as a partial hand support as shown in the photo later in this article. The kit also includes a grip extension that screws into the primary grip. This adds about 1 ⅝ inches so the total height of the vertical grip, with extension, is about 4 ⅝ inches. All of the parts are hollow and both the flat cap and extension grip piece include rubber gaskets to help seal the interior. This makes a handy place to safely store spare light batteries, small parts, cleaning supplies or maybe a few pieces of Bazooka Joe’s Bubble Gum. Your choice. |
| Since it’s a rail mount grip, installation is a snap. The grip itself has one half of a rail clamp molded in and a separate clamp for the opposite side. Two included hex bolts are used to fasten the grip to your rail. This provides a little extra flexibility for out of spec rails – you’ll still be able to get a solid mount. |
| The two included hex bolts are spaced to slide through grooves in the rail for forward / backward stability. |
| The flat end cap has a rubber gasket to help keep moisture out of the storage area. Since there is not much surface on the flat one, there’s a large slot on the bottom to make it easier to remove. The extension piece also includes a gasket, but does not need a bottom slot and has a slightly rounded bottom. |
| Here’s the standard 3″ vertical grip installed with a Blackhawk! Rail Mount Thumb rest installed above and just forward of the Blackhawk! Rail Mount Vertical Grip. |
| The combination of the short vertical post and thumb rest works great. The thumb rest allows a little stable forward pressure and the vertical grip post allows a little backward pressure. The overall support-hand grip is rock solid. Of course, if you add the vertical grip extension, you have the additional option of using the vertical grip only with your support hand. In that configuration, you’re grasping the vertical grip more like a hammer. |
One of the reasons I elected to install a vertical grip is that I’ll be trying out the Blackhawk! Offset Flashlight Rail Mount with a Blackhawk! Night-Ops Legacy L-6V tactical light. That one has a maximum output of 570 lumens, so maybe I’ll try it out at the 2013 Crimson Trace Midnight 3 Gun Invitational Match…
| Buy the Blackhawk! Rail Mount Vertical Grip Here |
I remember that well, they had mixed us all up by that time and I was no loengr your Ranger Buddy. I remember one guy from 2nd Batt in my hooch back at the camp. A big spec 4, I can’t remember his name, but he was pretty bummed by it.I remember coming back from that patrol. We had dense fog and if the birds could not get us out we would have to hump 12 miles back through nasty mountains. Thank god for the UH-60. They flew to the coordinates with their inertial nav system (pre GPS days) and hovered down through the fog. The first thing I saw was the crew chief’s head. He was lying on his belly hanging out the door looking for obstacles. That was a nearly zero vis landing. Funny how you remember stuff like that. Like when we did the 200 foot rappel. As we were walking back on the narrow path at the base of the granite cliff it started to pour down rain. I stuck my arm out to balance against the cliff and the rain was sheeting down the cliff and went right in my sleeve and up to my armpit. It was like a warm bath, the hot rock face warmed the water up very nicely.