Every time I open a gun magazine I am amazed at the amount of stuff you can hang on a rifle. When I was issued my first combat rifle, I had no idea what a "Picatinny rail" was. My rifle had iron sights and that was it. My first issued bolt rifle was the same way. There wasn't a rail anywhere on it. A few years later someone decided it was a good idea for Snipers to have the capability to locate and engage targets in less than ideal lighting conditions. This became my first experience with bolt on night vision mounts. At that time the highest quality night vision we had access to was the SIMRAD. This device required that the armorer replace the front scope ring cap with a proprietary rail mount. The night vision device sat very high on the system and since the rifles we were issued did not have bipods they wanted to flip oven on you.

Fast forward over a decade and night observation devices have become more compact and offer high resolution. Most "clip-on" night vision devices now include some type of Picatinny mount. Military semi-auto rifle systems often have some type of Picatinny rail equipped handguard. This makes mounting a night vision device, laser designator, flash light, can opener, coffee maker, etc. fairly simple. In fact mounting accessories on M16/M4/M110 platforms has become so easy that it takes no time at all to double the weight of your rifle.

What does all this have to do with the item we are reviewing today?

That is all there is to it. The hardest part of the installation is removing the steel inserts in the skins. They are in there pretty tight and getting them out without gouging the skins can be fun.

Once the CADEX AI Fore-End Rail is installed the rifle handles just like before. There is no change in the way it tracks on the bipod since the 'pod remains in the same space. The only drawback is it makes an already heavy system heavier. This is unavoidable. The CADEX Rail comes in at 18.5 oz. Although that may seem like a lot, it did not hinder my ability to shoot the system offhand with the help of a good sling.

The CADEX Rail located our AN/PVS-22 perfectly in relation to the day-optic mounted on a American Defense Manufacturing RECON mount. There should not be any issues when using AR height mounting systems or AI branded mounts. If you are using a long optic and short rings then you may have clearance issues. Our Vortex Razor HD would not clear when mounted in Vortex "Low" rings. Of course low rings are rarely the appropriate choice for an AI chassis.

The Picatinny rails on the CADEX unit appear to be in-spec and accepted any Picatinny spec mount that we tried.

If you need to mount a night vision device in front of your day optic on an AI Chassis, the CADEX Rail system will work well for you. If you need to be able to install and remove the mount at the unit or individual level, then the CADEX Rail is the perfect solution.