Words: Rich Norman

Pics: Tan Rifle, VFC and Rich Norman

I was looking through Tan Rifle’s pics of his excellent real steel CAG HK416D build; ostensibly to gauge how good a DDC Geissele Aimpoint Micro would look with a black T2 or H2.

However, what caught my eye was the RAL8000 polymer H&K ejection port cover.

I already knew that in the RS the little hole in the cover houses a roll pin – to keep the cover on its axle.

What hadn’t registered was how clean this enhancement made the right hand axle end. On an M4, the axle end protrudes from the right hand hinge and is kept in place with a clip. This stops the axle sliding backwards, but the limiter in the other direction is normally the rail.

On the HK416, the roll pin keeps the axle captive in both directions and eschews the external clip.

Here’s an RS factory A5:

Clever.

However, that makes this M4-style installation of a VFC replica polymer cover wrong:

Note the clip on the axle’s right hand side overhang, and the pin detail moulded into the cover.

Pics of the VFC A5 with its M4-style dust cover installation:

So, I ask these rhetorical questions:

Do you take the hit on using a replica of the correct polymer cover – knowing that the installation method is wrong?

Or, do you take the hit on using a correctly installed M4 steel cover – knowing that the HK416 hasn’t shipped from the factory with a steel cover since 2007?

My advice? Use whatever you feel comfortable with as a placeholder, or mod the polymer replica. Then buy the four RS components you need when you see them.