For years, I fought the urge to put a foregrip of any type on my AR. I’d only seen vertical grips on the guns of dudes with beards who killed terrorists daily and mall ninjas who wanted to emulate bearded dudes who killed terrorists daily. But then, while nobody was looking, I tried one out. And sure enough, once properly positioned, I found myself with better control over my gun. The fine folks at Bravo Company Manufacturing were nice enough to send over a grab bag of grips for me to try out to see which one tickled me most . . .
If you’ll remember, BCM also makes the uber wonderful, and stupid lightweight KMR handguard that I love so much. Given their love of the KeyMod system, they offer several foregrips that mate directly to KeyMod rather than a Picatinny rail. But don’t worry, traditionalists. They make Picatinny-compliant versions, too.
First out of the bag was the KAG grip which was created in partnership with noted instructor and high-speed-low-drag operator, Travis Haley. I tested the KeyMod version, and found it to be very lightweight and easy to attach to the KMR rail.
On the range, the forward hook, naturally grips the hand, and provides a firm purchase for your support hand. So firm in fact that you can keep your gun in the pocket of your shoulder without the usage of your trigger hand, which can be freed up to adjust your scope, grab your pistol, knife a Tango, or scratch your ass should the need arise.
The KAG grip also makes for an effective barrier stop should you need to shoot off a wall or other similarly constructed obstacle. I laughed at that sort of thing until I had to shoot off a barrier at the Run ‘n Gun last year. Being able to load up the front of the gun against a barrier made for much steadier shooting and faster transitions between targets. I like the KAG grip a lot and will be running it for this year’s Run ‘n Gun.
Next in the bag was a trio of vertical grips. The two on the left from the Mod 3 collection with the on the right from the KeyMod collection. The two left hand version attach to either KeyMod or Picatinny with a directly-threaded type system that screws in from the bottom. The KeyMod specific one is a quick detach model that attached by twisting the grip until it locks.
Much like the KAG grip, I found all three to very easy to install and extremely functional. They allow for that forward rotated support hand grip that Chris Costa made so popular, and damnit if it isn’t a bit easier to control the rifle that way. The big difference between the KAG grip and the stubby vertical grips is how much of your hand will be wrapped around the handguard. Using the stubby grips, you’ll get a full three fingers of grip on the vertical surface instead of just one finger with the KAG.
The stubby grips are also effective barrier stops and as much as I jabbed them into things, I was unable to knock them loose.
Ratings (out of five stars):
Overall Rating * * * * *
Sticking a foregrip on your AR of choice might not be for everyone, but if you fancy such a thing, the offerings from BCM will give you a great deal of flexibility in mounting type, style, and color. $20 will get you the KAG and Mod3 grips. $40 will snag a QD KeyMod grip or Picatinny-attached short vertical grip. They work as advertised and look cool doing it.