Ergo Foxbat Mods
The Ergo Foxbat is a grip designed for the AR-15/M-16/M-4 type rifles but can be modified by anyone with a few simple tools to work with Air Force Rifles.
They can be purchased from several places, one of them is this site –
http://jtdistributing.net/store/more_f4080.html
First step is to make a channel for the Gun frame to fit in, the front part of the grip already has a wide channel so the rear part just needs filing away. I used a dremel. This picture shows where material needs to be removed, and also were I put a small peice of rod sticking out (I drilled a hole, and cut off the end of a drill bit to make it) this mates with the hole in the talon to stop the grip moving forwards or backwards. (I Painted mine before I took pictures….)
To attach the grip to the gun I found it much easier to just use a longer section of threaded rod instead of the stock allen screw. I totally opened up the inside of the frame and then laid out where the rod would go and glued a washer in the base to position the rod and to give the fastening nut something to press agaisnt.
This gives reasonally secure attachment, but I still found that it didnt feel as solid as the stock grip. I really liked the ergonomics of the grip but I didnt like the flex and twisting from there not being that much of the grip in contact.
Here is the grip on the gun after having parts dremeled away and a hole cut through center for attachment to the gun.
Because the connection didnt feel solid I just went back to using the stock grip… Then yesterday I had the idea of filling in the open area’s and making a well defined channel which should greatly improve the connection. After considering regular epoxy, but being put off by the fact it will run all over I spoke with Walk on King and he mentioned Epoxy Putty… I had some Marine Putty left over from another job years ago and for some reason forgot all about it….
So I sanded the surfaces where I would be applying epoxy, washed with alcohol and then applied painters tape to the gun to stop the grip sticking to it. Then I just mounted the grip back on the gun and applied the epoxy filling in the cut outs and spaces that are there for the original purpose of the grip, but that prevent us from getting a good solid connection.
Once this is dry I’ll remove grip, check to make sure everything has stuck and finish it with a dremel to even up the surface pattern and then fill in more of the grip on the inside, especially behind the trigger. Then will be painted and should look pretty good, but most importantly, give a nice secure connection with no movement.
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The rear nut is too thick to run it on the top so that is why I ran it on the bottom. If I can find the correct black hardware I will mount it with the nut at the top and the screw head on the bottom.
Currently when I grip it, I cannot feel it on the webbing of my hand.
What do you think about my target box? It has duct putty and a 1/4 inch steel plate as a backing so pellet will not penetrate the box.
Jeremiah, I like the grip, but you should mount the rear nut inside the grip. If you dont know what I mean, make it like the trigger shoe. The nut is sunk into the material.
I know you mentioned changing it already, thats how I would do it.
Nice work!
Y; Truly impressive. AKULA
Okay guys I finally did mount the rubber version of the Foxbat.
I knew I could not use the marine putty version because I do not think it would stick to it.
You can see from the pictures that I channeled simliarly to what was shown at th beginning of this tread. The basic 3 things I did different was
instead of adding the nub since I knew it would hold in the rubber.
1. I instead used a zinc bolt on the top (I will replace it with a black bolt and nut later). This would provide front to back stability.
2. I used an aluminum tubing inside of the grip hole with the threads going thru it. This was to pinch the inside seat of the grip to hold it and the tubing would provide side to side stability.
3. I did not drilling out any holes on the bottom because I did not need to. I just added the flat washer on the of the tubing then I added a bolt and tightened it down until it pinched the rubber inside against the top of the tube and it got snug.
After all of this moving the gun around I probaby need it to be sighted in again.
Seems to work thus far. Take a look.
got the same grip.gonna mount it up,ill post the how too when im done.
Well, I guess I will have to explore new territory and I will treat it like rubber and use a sand wheel or grinder. I am just not sure about what type of latex or rubber that is stiff and strong that I can use to reinforce it. I will visit Lowe’s and see what happens.
If I am successful, I will post what I did. I will to use the basic ideas done on the rigid version of the Foxbat mod and work off of that.
I just bought the Ergo Foxbat but I bought the Suregrip version which feels like a eraser or Pachymer grips on a pistol.
The mounting technique discussed here I do not think will work because I did not get the rigid version.
Anybody have any thoughts or suggestions with this version of the Foxbat?
Thanks in advance.
Yeah….. All the taping in the world couldnt protect the gun from me….
I ended up putting putty all over the front grip and in various other places from handling gun right after kneading and applying the putty….
I like the white camo affect on the back of the gun 😯
On the gun –
I just like how he used the word “nubbin”.
That is a nice hack of what appears to be a cozy grip.
Dan
YN,
That black looks great. Do you rub elbows with architects and engineers or something? 🙄
Sorry could not help myself. 😈
Managed to finish of the grip inspite of havinga pretty busy day.
Putty was rock solid and I tested it to make sure it would’nt come loose and require glueing but it stayed put.
I just used a dremel with the small round metal bit and a low speed to make the surface match up the grip finish. Let the bit walk all over and be as random as you can. It hardly took anytime and came out looking way better than I’d hoped.
Had to rush to work so I just used the flash so the pics could be better, tomorrow I’ll put it on the gun and take some naturally lit pics.
Mike – I guess it does look like a lot of work, but it really isnt. Luckily I had all the stuff I needed laying around my shop anyway and I’d guess a lot of guys will too. Even if you dont the extra stuff doesnt cost more than $10. Total time on the grip (not including sitting on my ass waiting to get around to doing things and for paint to dry etc) was about 1 hour MAX. Its not that hard to do either, but if you make a mistake its easily fixed. When I was drilling the hole wider for the threaded rod I went all the way through to the outside of the grip. A bit of card backing and epoxy fixed that.
Thanks to Adam for saving me a LOT of time before I finally woulda figured out to just use the putty.
I really like the shape of that grip but looks like quite a lot extra work before it really sits on Talon 🙁
And thanks for nice workflow description.
What Ninja is doing looks like a lot of work but I am sure most people could do it without much difficulty. If you follow his directions and photos 1/2 the work is done for you since you dont have to figure it out.
The putty he is working with is easy to work with and you will have plenty of time to make sure everything is seated correctly. Just make sure you dont go to slow. Once it is hardened and painted the grip will be set.
I never understood why Airforce simply did not make an adaptor for their gun that fit standard AR15 grips. Instead of putting their money into the molds and manufacture of the own grips they could have simply had an adapter made which allowed AR15 grips to be used.
What ninja has done with the epoxy putty is pretty smart….Glad I gave him the idea 😉
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Finding a relatively shallow round head screw shouldnt be too difficult, ACE hardware has a good selection. You might be able to grind the nut to an angle that matches the frame. This way the nut contacts the frame solidly and would look like its supposed to be there.
If you are feeling adventurous, you might try to fill the slot with epoxy and drill/tap the area. You wouldnt need a nut then. 😉
Your target box looks quite nice. I will probably build one much like it. My wife has large blocks of oil-based modeling clay I could use for putty. Even have some melt-loss molding wax used in bronze sculpting that I might use. All I have to do is melt, pour, seperate the lead and refill. Only problem, Im too lazy, LOL.