Thanks to a tutorial generously e-mailed to me by m1sniper, my XM177E2 upper now sports a field expedient vertical foregrip.







I used a power miter saw instead of a hand saw and belt sander, then touched up the edges of the cuts with a hand file.  I cut the top "ears" of the pistol grip off first, along a line even with the inner top surface of the grip, then beveled the edges at 30 degrees until the top of the grip fit into the rib along the bottom of the handguard.  Getting the angle of the first cut right is not hard; if you lay the grip front-down on a surface, then cut vertically, it works out just right.  Then I dropped a standard grip screw with a 1/4" washer on it down through the hole in the handguard, and put a nut (1/4"-28) on from the bottom together with the standard pistol grip lock washer.

ETA: Cutting at a 30 degree angle, the bottom edge of the beveled area reached the top of the checkering just slightly before the top of the grip was narrow enough to fit into the handguard rib.  I then took just a tiny bit off the corners at a 45 degree angle to make it fit, rather than continuing the 30 degree bevel down into the checking.  The most important thing to pay attention to if you want to do this with a miter saw is to always be very careful about holding the thing straight, so as to produce consistent cuts.  The pistol grip is kind of irregularly shaped so keeping it straight requires more attention than you might think.

For the benefit of anyone else who wants to make one, here are m1sniper's original instructions and pictures.  I'm sure he won't mind me reproducing these here:



















And from the "real deal" picture thread:



Compared to mine again:

Nice work

Holy Crap,I gotta copy and paste,right click and save all that info!!!! Yours came out great!!! Nice shiny HGs,and PG to match.I'm luvin it Bro.

Right now I have the grip in the second hole in the handguards, but I'm thinking I may move it back one.  When handling it, I notice that sometimes my fingers and the front sling swivel don't get along.  I invite replies from others who have done these: which hole did you put yours in?

ETA: Looking through the pics in the real deal thread again, I see five that are definitely in the second hole, two that I think are in the third hole, and one that I'm not positive of but I think it's the 2nd.  The problem is that in the 2nd hole, when the sling swivel flops to the rearward limit of its travel, it gets in the way of my fingers.  I'll think about it.

Mine's in the 2nd,but I also am not using the sling swivel as I have one of my "field expediant" GP slings on it,so swivel is removed.Shhhhh,very very quite.....No rattling

I was thinking of doing the GP sling thing too.  In some period photos I see the swivel left on, in others removed.  One more detail to consider.

I had over 100 of them and with Docs permission posted his link in my add,I made them up and they sold in about 2 maybe 3 months.Think I still have one left out of the batch.All were NOS 1950 and 51 dated.I like it,and it's easy to do,,I did add a twist on my tying tho,I actually used a sewing needle and would stitch thru the lapped para cord every 3 to 4 wraps.If you do one and want tips,let me know...I would venture to say that the para cord would snap BEFORE my lapped ends would.

Looking good flat. How do those things handle? Never tried a foregrip. Guess they are getting popular. Kinda reminds me of the Thompson without the rise maybe. Think I may have found a home for a couple of A-2 PG's. Great idea. Only in retroland. Gunnyssurplus had the GP straps for $5 supposedly un-issued, don't know the dates.

I already have a GP strap, and I know I have some paracord in my closet somewhere, I just have to decide to actually do it at some point.  Any tips you feel would help would be greatly appreciated.


Seems like all the cool kids were doing it circa 1969.

In its current position, it definitely puts the "submachine gun" feel into the Submachine Gun, 5.56mm, XM177E2.  If it were mounted a bit further back, it would be usable with the sort of thumb-forward grip that the Magpul AFG is supposed to make ergonomically correct.

I don't know that there's really any practical advantage to it, I just did it because I was inspired by the period photos to add a distinctive touch to my carbine.  Same thing inclines me toward the field expedient GP strap sling, and some gaffer's tape camo, cleaning rod, and a tape-wrapped main pistol grip.

Pretty sure his straps were nylon

Details of the grip showing the beveled area.

In the first pic you can see the edge of the transition from the 30 degree to the 45 degree bevel.  The cutting brought out some mottling that was not previously apparent in the grip.  Wiping the upper down with CLP to clean it after assembly darkened the exposed area again, but you can see a little bit of lighter mottling along the upper edge where my rag didn't get any CLP.







Bonus points:  What's historically inaccurate in the above picture?

Rivet.

Ding!

Oh, for what it's worth, Liberty Tree Collectors is where I bought my GP sling strap a while back.  The one I received was cotton canvas.