Guns: Mulliga's Carbine Weight Loss Program

The Daniel Defense M4 carbine I use as a housegun had some tried and true parts on it, but they were all a bit on the heavy side. So, in the spirit of spring cleaning, I cracked open a Brownells catalog and queued up some replacements...

The Stock

For starters, I switched from a Magpul ACS to the BCM Gunfighter Stock. The ACS is a solid unit with tons of storage capacity (two internal battery tubes and a central lidded compartment), but I had forgotten how bulky it was. Switching to the minimalist Gunfighter stock shaved off half a pound from the back of the gun, made the overall package much slimmer and shorter, and didn't sacrifice much in terms of cheekweld or stability.

The Grip

The Magpul MIAD grip I had on the gun functioned fine, but was, again, a bit heavy. I also didn't see much benefit in the adaptable internal storage system (do you really need to carry a spare bolt inside your grip?). I chose the BCM Mod 3 grip - it's a couple ounces lighter and gives a better wrist angle for the modern, non-chicken-wing stance that everyone uses nowadays.

The Barrel

I've never liked heavy-barreled ARs, and while the original barrel on the DDM4 was fairly svelte, it had an unnecessarily thick area out past the front sight base. To remedy that, I ordered a new lightweight barrel direct from Daniel Defense, which stays pencil thin all the way to the muzzle. Since I was changing everything out anyway, I added on a newfangled BCM Gunfighter compensator for testing, too.  Unless the new comp blows my socks off, I'll be switching back to the good old A2 flash hider later on, though.