Not too long ago, my friend Zach asked me about an accessory rail for his new 1911. I dismissively asked him why he’d want to do that. In the interest of full disclosure, the reader should know that the author has a distinct preference for the pure lines of a 1911 without a rail. Ah, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and Zach, a new handgun owner, looked at me with a gleam in his eye and responded “for the sheer coolness of it!” Zach, who has visions of a full-on arsenal in his head at Christmas far more often than sugar plums dancing, seems to be drawn to all things tacticool, and who can blame him?
I then said something to this effect: “if you wanted a rail, we should have looked for a gun with an integral rail.” He pointed out that he had found a “deal,” had been functioning with a limited budget, and kind of assumed that it could be added on later. I then made a somewhat snarky comment that he might be better off trading for a gun with a rail built in. He made it clear that he wasn’t letting go of his first handgun any time soon and just wanted to try a rail out. My search began. Apparently, there are a few really inexpensive options on the market that, to my eye, looked like trinkets, and a solid looking option from SureFire that runs $120ish. I didn’t think my buddy was going to like $100+ options, so I kept searching for some middle ground solution. Enter the EZ Rail from TRG.
I ordered an EZ rail, and Zach and I began testing. Some offerings on the market require drilling, welding, or soldering—we didn’t want to consider these options and the EZ rail doesn’t require them. Our requirement of no permanent change was perfectly met by the TRG offering. This weaver/picatinny rail adds very little weight, has structural integrity, evident durability, and fit my M3 just fine.
The EZ rail is available for the Beretta M9, Sig P226, and the venerable 1911 previously mentioned. The rail’s design allows the user to simply mount it to the dustcover portion of his or her pistol’s receiver. Included with the rail is a custom slide stop that is a wee bit longer than your standard stop. This new stop corresponds with a hole on your new accessory rail and snaps in nicely. Since not all 1911s are built to the exact same specs or dimensions, some mechanism for customization was required. TRG met this issue by incorporating a small nylon set screw on the front of the rail that allows the user to adjust tension per his or her trigger guard.
I have used the EZ rail for three or four months now on various 1911s. Most of my use has been with my Kimber Super Carry Pro Hd and on my Para Expert. I haven’t experienced a hiccup with either of these guns. I think that you’ll run into issues in the holster market if you’d like to carry with this on your weapon, but I’m not sure that’s what the average user will be thinking of for this tool. If I wanted to do that, I’d call up one of my preferred custom kydex companies and give them a little business. However, I think most folks will carry without a rail and a flashlight in their pocket and use a rail like this for the proverbial “nightstand duty.”
Overall, I think it’s a worthy solution for those who want a rail but don’t want a permanent one. Actually, I may be in that camp. If my 1911 was going to wear a rail I think this would be the one.
