By Head Designer Rich Robinson
It started with the spiked breach, the web, the c-cut, we had maybe half a dozen options in place for an upgraded front end so the handguard wouldn’t end flat. There are advantages of course to ending the handguard this way (flat), perfect tac rail alignment, the allowance of our short shield and spiked end cap to be installed; there was no reason to push the envolope. That was until about 3 years ago a customer asked for the end of the handguard to have a wolf head on it.
It was a long shot but I’m still blown away by how well it turned out. It opened up my eyes to a world of new possibilities and I started questioning the way I looked at these custom design projects. I was inspired to work on a stock handguard concept along the lines of the Gadsden Flag; better known as the Don’t Tread On Me snake. The concept was to make the entirety of the handguard look like a snake and the barrel look like its tongue flicking out the end. After a solid year of trial and error it has been borrowed for a handful of custom handguards.
Even though this isn’t a stock item, I feel like my labor was a success. It opened the eyes and minds of doubters to see that this was a possibility and paved the way for our Freedom handguard to come into fruition.
It’s of my professional opinion that the perfect handguard will never be designed, we create works of art and it’s subjective. So when someone wants to take what has been one of my greatest achievements and tweak it I don’t take any offense. Typically when someone wants a custom Freedom they replace the lettering with something else, maybe a name. But just as a wolf can lead to a snake it has become commonplace for a new custom request format. “Similar to the Freedom handguard. Would like a Roaring Lion Head with his paws instead of an eagle.” Easy enough, right? I am so thankful for all of our customers always pushing us onto greater and grander.
Create your Unique-ARs custom designed hand guard with our team by starting with the customs form and let them know your ideas or email our sales@unique-ars.com