Lets start with a little backstory.
I love ar's. particularly the m16/m203 with the perforated heatshield. I had an m16, the perforated heatshield, but no m203. i searched high and low, many ris mounted short launchers, but none to fit the bill for the longest time. one day i sold my 16, got an xm8 conversion kit for a sweet price, then got a g36. pieced together the xm8 and we were very happy together, except at night as we lay in bed making woopie i would be thinking of my lost true love, the m16 m203.
Now i tried to forget about it, constantly tweeking my xm8 (adding rails, longer inner barrel, spring bushings, lead wieghts, adjusting body pins ect) although i had tried to move one (i was planning to mount a smokeys ag36 to get the m8 m320 look) but i couldnt forget it. Then the kicker.... one day I aquired an M203 long barrel mount (the launcher iv always wanted - the launcher standing between me and my lover) O what a stab to the heart. i tried finding a moderatley priced 16 to no avail.... the m203 sat mocking me for some time, a constant reminder to the love that would never be.
i became evident that i prolly wouldnt be getting an ag36 (rangers had it listed for $720!!!) atleast for some time, and the very fact that i had a rail on the underside of the m8 wich would make mounting any of the m203 ris i turned down rediculously easy, it seemed as though history was destine to repeat itself. why was i cursed!? then.... i toiled and boiled, fumbled and foiled, then... and idea! Why not mount the m203 on the xm8!? no that wouldnt look right.... too late, the seed was planted! I conversed with a team mate and the blind date was arranged. we brought them together, sat them on the ground in provocative positions and we took lewd pictures... now im not proud of that, but i needed blackmail to get these two to work together.
so fast forward, we did so rd and got busy brainstorming and fabricating. We (swattmedic and myself) cut and moulded two pieces of angle iron inplace of the barrel mount. we tapped and drilled the angle iron to mount atop the 203, drilled 4 holes to mount the mounting plate to the fore grip. drilled 4 holes in the fore grip and attached the 203 via the 4 screws and mounting plates inside the foregrip. this worked, but as expected the m203 sat at a slight upward angle (following the xm8 forgip design) which wasnt a big deal untill we tried to bring it all together. the plates when screwed down force the fore grip to flex outward, this was undeniabley noticable when attatched to the rest of the gun. it looked like shit to say the least.
so swattmedic being a man of good heart, aggreed to take a second undertaking. he drew up some blue prints and stencils, i mocked up some pics on the computer in memory of my lost true love, kind of a commemorative neuvo rendition of the m16m203; taking my favorite aspects of the 16203 (heatshield) and blending them with the new life of the m8. Again we set out to make beauty. We cut the two side plates out of aluminum (which was the easy part), ground them down to desired fit, cut the perforation holes, spent countless hours tweeking and sandblasting (raw aluminum can be a bitch to work with). drilled the neccissary holes in the fore grip and plates, mounted the m203/ mounting plate system to the side plates. And this was what we ended up with.
there were a few thing that needed to be addressed after the fact, new locking screw type body pins were fabed up, reinforcment pins were installed, a new sling loop was added; i use a single sling attatchment point. previousley it was the sling pin at the rear of the stock, but the increased fore wieght caused the rear stock to flex and split when slung. oh and the plates were painted. this is the finished product in the field;
