Picatinny rail

The Picatinny rail on the Nexus Pro.

This article is under construction. It may not be fully accurate and/or complete. You can help Nerf Wiki by expanding it.

For the Nerf accessory rail, see Tactical rail.

A Picatinny rail (also known as a MIL-STD-1913 rail or 1913 rail) is a type of accessory rail used to mount rail accessories to blasters.

Commonly used with 3D-printed and modded blasters, it is also used with Dart Zone Dart Zone Pro, Dart Zone Max, X-Shot, and Adventure Force Tactical Strike blasters.

Details

Similar to other accessory rails found on various blasters, Picatinny rails allow the user to attach a variety of accessories to a blaster, including scopes, sights, grips, and more. Similar to RIVAL Tactical rails, Picatinny rails feature evenly spaced segments (known as "recoil grooves") which allow an accessory to be mounted anywhere on the rail. Unlike other toy blaster accessory rails, Picatinny rails originate from firearms. As such their accessories are very secure, making them a suitable choice for attaching grips and bipods; in fact, they are so secure that some blasters use them to attach grips to priming mechanisms, such as the Nexus Pro.

Picatinny rails allow for certain airsoft, paintball, and even real-steel accessories to be mounted to blasters. They are not compatible with Nerf tactical rail accessories, and require an adapter in order to attach them on.

It is important to note that while blaster Picatinny accessories like the MK-1 iron sights might be compatible with firearm accessory rails, they are not designed for use with firearms, and may be hazardous as they will likely break off from the force of the recoil.

KeyMod

The KeyMod rail on a cosmetic handguard for the Prophecy-R.

KeyMod is a real-steel accessory rail interface created by VLTOR. It takes the appearance of slots that look like key holes, hence its name. It allows certain accessories to be screwed on, such as segments of Picatinny rail, or purpose-built grips, bipods and tactical lights. The benefit of KeyMod over a Picatinny rail is that KeyMod is lighter than having Picatinny rails (allowing the rail to only be added when needed), and is also more comfortable to hold. Some third-party blasters (namely, Worker cosmetic kits) feature KeyMod slots.

M-LOK

The M-LOK rail on the Prime.

M-LOK (Modular Lock) is a real-steel accessory rail interface created by Magpul. It takes the form of standardized slots that accessories can be bolted onto, such as rail segments and purpose-built accessories. Similar to KeyMod, M-LOK by itself has the benefit of being lighter than having a full-length Picatinny rail, and ensures that the rail is only added where needed. M-LOK is becoming somewhat popular in the Nerfing hobbyspace, with companies such as Game Face Blasters and Worker adding M-LOK rails to their blaster. However, like KeyMod, they are still a very niche accessory rail, as their accessories aren't as ubiquitous as Picatinny rail accessories.

Trivia

• As a firearm component, Picatinny rails predate all blaster tactical rails and likely served as the inspiration for them.
• The RIVAL tactical rail looks very similar to the Picatinny rail, but they are dimensionally different.
• While most Picatinny accessories were not designed for blaster tactical rails, many of them can be tightened and adjusted enough to be compatible with them.
• Sometimes the Picatinny rail is known as a "Weaver rail" in many hobby circles, although this is incorrect; the Weaver rail was the precursor to the Picatinny rail, and while the two are similar in appearance and somewhat cross-compatible with each other's accessories, they are distinct rail systems.

This article is a stub. You can help Nerf Wiki by expanding it.