Currently, firearms, particularly, rifles can be utilized for a vast number of situations. From the average civilian shooter to Special Forces, users choose to fit their rifles with a variety of attachments such as flashlights, laser sights, telescopic sights and bipods. For this purpose, a few mounting platforms have been developed. One such platform is the picatinny rail, which has become a standard mounting platform. The rail has a number of evenly spaced transverse slots on its top spanning across the rail. Such rails are typically placed on the weapons receiver. This rail allows a user to mount attachments directly onto the rifle. This mounting platform is not without fault as attachments cannot lie flat on the rifle, and can impede other accessories due to the height of the transverse slots. Therefore, a few different mounting platforms were designed to retain strength, but also allow attachments to lie flat on the rail system. One issue with these platforms is that they must be secured with a screw and nut in order to be attached. One such platform is the Modular Locking System, M-LOK, which is a system suitable for attachment of polymer products. Polymer products are durable, cheap, and easily manufactured, hence it is a good alternative to non-plastic firearm attachments. The M-LOK mounting system is a mounting platform that utilizes a screw and nut method of attachment. This is frustrating to users when they want to quickly attach and detach accessories from the rail. Therefore, the modular locking system slot cover disclosed and claimed herein is intended to provide a modular hand guard slot cover that requires no screws or nuts for attachment. Through the provided modular slots on a hand guard, a user can attach an accessory onto the mounting platform.
The present invention relates generally to firearms, and more specifically, to an attachable slot cover for a modular hand guard mounting platform.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a slot cover as an accessory to a firearm equipped with a modular hand guard mounting platform. Another object of the present invention is to provide a slot cover having a top portion forming a top surface, and tabs protruding from the bottom surface of the top portion. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a slot cover wherein said tabs are flexible and lock in the slot via a groove situated between the underside of the top portion and the tabs. The present invention overcomes the issues of prior modular mountable slot covers by providing a slot cover comprising a top portion having a top surface with vertically extending exterior walls to a bottom surface with said bottom surface transitioned into a groove extending horizontally along the bottom surface and formed into two flexible tabs situated to engage the slot of a modular mounting platform.
The present invention, Slot Cover for a Modular Firearm Hand Guard, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which reference numbers designate the parts throughout the figures to enable the reader to understand the reasoning behind and the application of the present invention and wherein;