FAB Defense UK

Most folding foregrips fold one way. Down out of the way, or up into your hand. Useful, but it's a single decision made for you at the factory.

The TFS folds side to side instead, through seven locking positions. That sounds like a small distinction until you've tried shooting around a barricade from your weak side, or found that a vertical grip sits fine standing and gets in the way completely when you go prone.

It mounts to any 1913 Picatinny rail with a quick-release lever, so it comes on and off without tools and without losing your position. Fibreglass-reinforced polymer body, textured for grip with or without gloves. There's a water-resistant storage compartment inside, which is either a place for spare batteries or a place for things you'll forget about for two years.

Available at fabdefense.co.uk. Black only, and we're down to the last couple.

Three camps, and every one of them is quietly certain the other two are wrong.

The magwell hold. Hand cupped around the magazine well, elbow tucked in tight. Compact, stable, very quick onto anything close. Critics say you give up leverage.

The mid forend hold. Hand roughly under the balance point. Comfortable over longer strings, kind to the shoulder, and it lets the rifle sit rather than being wrestled into position.

The extended hold. Hand as far forward as the handguard allows, thumb over the top. More effort involved, but the recovery between shots is hard to argue with once it's second nature.

None of this is settled, and the right answer shifts with the discipline. A gallery rifle shooter and a practical shotgun shooter will give you completely different responses and both will be correct.

So which are you? And did you arrive there deliberately, or by copying whoever first showed you how to hold the thing?

There's an accessory on your rifle you already own. You just aren't holding it.

The FAB Defense MWG clamps around the magazine well of an AR-platform rifle and turns it into an actual hand hold. Two halves, a couple of screws, no gunsmith required. What was a flat-sided box becomes a contoured grip you can pull back into the shoulder.

Two things come out of that. You get a tight, close hold that keeps the rifle settled through transitions, which suits mini rifle shooters running a short forend. And the bottom edge is flared into a funnel, so magazines find the well rather than the corner of it. Reloads speed up mostly because you stop looking down to line things up.

Fibreglass-reinforced polymer underneath, so it takes knocks without cracking, and there's a cut-out that leaves the serial number visible.

One compatibility note worth reading twice: it fits standard lower receivers that don't already have a flared magwell, and it will not work with PMAG GEN3 magazines.

In black, tan, or green at fabdefense.co.uk.

Magwell or forend, where does your support hand live?

A quick one for anyone who has ordered an accessory that turned out not to fit.

There are two mounting standards you'll meet on a modern handguard, and they do different jobs.

Picatinny (MIL-STD-1913) is the ladder of raised rails with slots between them. Accessories clamp onto it from the outside. Universal, well proven, and it adds bulk and weight because the rail is always there whether you're using it or not.

M-LOK is the row of oblong slots cut straight into the handguard. Accessories bolt through from the inside using a T-nut that rotates and locks. Lighter, slimmer, and you only add material where you actually need it.

They are not interchangeable. An M-LOK accessory will not clamp to a Picatinny rail, and vice versa. What you can do is bolt a short Picatinny rail section into M-LOK slots, which is how most people run a Picatinny bipod on an M-LOK forend.

Plenty of FAB Defense accessories come in both patterns. The Versatile Tactical Support hand stop, for example, is available Picatinny or M-LOK, so check which one before ordering.

Which are you running?

Most vertical foregrips are a plastic tube with some checkering on it. They work, in the sense that a doorstop works as a hammer.

The REG is FAB Defense's rubberised ergonomic foregrip, and the difference is in the contour rather than the marketing. Finger grooves are moulded into the front face so your hand lands the same way every time, and the rubber over-mould gives you purchase whether you're bare-handed in July or in gloves in January. The core underneath is reinforced polymer, so it takes a knock without flexing.

There's a waterproof storage compartment in the base too. Spare batteries for your optic, a bore snake, whatever you'd otherwise lose in the bottom of the range bag.

Fits any 1913 Picatinny or Weaver rail, so it's at home on an AR platform, a straight-pull, or a practical shotgun with a railed forend.

In black, tan or green at fabdefense.co.uk.

Vertical grip or straight to the handguard, what do you run?

Precision stock or carbine stock. Normally you pick one and live with the compromise.

The RAPS-C is FAB Defense having a go at both. It's the collapsible version of the Rapid Adjustment Precision Stock, so instead of clamping in one fixed position it rides the buffer tube like an ordinary carbine stock, while keeping the adjustment range you'd want for precision work.

Two details do the heavy lifting. Length of pull and cheek height lock with a single lever rather than two separate adjusters, and that lever can be configured for right or left-handed shooters. The butt is also spring-loaded with a memory of sorts, so when you collapse it and deploy it again it returns to the length of pull you had already set. No re-measuring every time you change position.

Fibreglass-reinforced polymer throughout, as you'd expect at this end of the range. In black, green, grey, or tan, all four in stock at fabdefense.co.uk.

Do you set length of pull once and leave it, or adjust between prone and standing?

End of July, which means the practical season is well into its busy stretch and most people's calendars are looking fuller than their spare time.

So a straightforward one. What's still to come for you this year?

Whether that's a UKPSA match, a club level shoot, gallery rifle, a clay ground you've been meaning to get back to, or simply more range time than you managed last summer. We're curious what the rest of the season looks like across the UK.

And if there's a stage or a discipline you're building a rifle around at the moment, say so. There's usually someone in the comments who has already made the same mistakes and can save you the trouble.

Did you know reinforced polymer needs less looking after than most people assume, and a different kind of looking after than metal?

The furniture FAB Defense produce is fibreglass-reinforced polyamide rather than moulded ABS. It takes knocks, handles cold down to around -30°C, and doesn't mind the oils and solvents that live in every cleaning kit. Which is precisely why people get complacent with it.

Three things worth knowing. Warm soapy water and a soft brush will handle almost everything, and it won't polish the texture off. Solvents are fine for a wipe but shouldn't be left sitting, so clear the overspray off your grip and stock rather than letting it soak. And go steady with the screwdriver, because polymer holds a fastener perfectly well but doesn't forgive over-torquing the way steel does.

That's the lot. No oiling, no rust, no seasonal routine.

Anyone still running the same furniture they fitted a decade ago?

There's a decent argument that the best foregrip is the one you can take off.

The AG-44S is FAB Defense's quick-release ergonomic foregrip, and the quick-release part does more work than it sounds like. It clamps to any 1913 Picatinny rail, comes off without tools, and goes back on in the same spot. Useful if your rifle lives in a slip, or if you want the grip for practical stages and gone again for bench work.

It's slightly angled rather than straight vertical, which encourages a more natural wrist position and helps keep the muzzle settled under recoil. At around 113g it adds very little to the front end. That matters more than people expect once you've held a rifle up for a full stage.

Reinforced polymer composite, storage compartment in the base, no gunsmith required. In black at fabdefense.co.uk.

Vertical, angled, or nothing at all? What's on the front of yours at the moment?