will mlok work on keymod?

Some users do find that these attachments come with an added weight. However, there is always a balance between the benefits and drawbacks, which is why there are quite a few options for handguards and rails.

In this post, we will discuss two options; M-LOK vs. KeyMod. The post will also discuss what is better, M-LOK vs. KeyMod.

M-LOK, also known as Modular Lock, is a patent of Magpul Industries. It was introduced to the market in 2014. The M-LOK allows for direct attachment of accessories, similar to the KeyMod.

However, Magpul Industries worked on a design that functioned well with non-metal mount surfaces. It is because their polymer accessories did not go well with the KeyMod’s conical nut, which made them create the M-LOK system.

The M-LOK is free-licensed and not open-sourced like the KeyMod. Therefore, manufacturers must use M-LOK handguards and related products using the M-LOK standard once they acquire a license from Magpul Industries.

M-LOK’s origins come from the Masada, the concept rifle that Magpul helped design in 2007. It’s very popular in video games and movies and is known as the Bushmaster ACR.

The initial design of the Masada consists of a handgun with three slots on either side. These slots are what helped refine Magpul’s line of MOE rail-compatible accessories. The M-LOK was a result of this.

Mounting both the M-LOK and KeyMod follows a similar process. In both mechanisms, you need to lock a nut into a slot on the rail. The M-LOK uses a rectangular slot with a rectangular T-Nut.

Here is how to mount an M-LOK accessory:

The M-LOK comes in an attractive package and looks amazing on a gun. It uses unique slots specifically designed to attach accessories with great success. These are meant for accessories made by Magpul.

One of the significant drawbacks of Magpul products was that they were not compatible with KeyMod rails. However, the M-LOK is different and uses a similar mechanism to KeyMod in locking down accessories.

The M-LOK can reliably mount accessories on its rail and keep them steady. However, the more accessories you attach, the more challenging it becomes to access the locking lugs within the rail.

It’s easier to mount accessories than to remove them. So you would find it challenging to change the placement of a hand stop or rail panel.

KeyMod came about in a collaboration between Noveske Rifleworks and VLTOR Weapon Systems. The KeyMod system was introduced in 2012 to standardize universal attachment systems.

The KeyMod design enables accessories to be mounted directly onto the rail instead of having a Picatinny rail attached hand guard. Therefore, you can mount Picatinny rails onto the handguard whenever you require.

KeyMod paved the way for all rifle and firearm manufacturers to make rails based on the same design without paying extra. It introduced the KeyMod Tech Data Package, which is open source, and thus accessible to the public.

The main objective of introducing KeyMod was to create standardized modularity, similar to the Picatinny rail, which is freely available. Therefore, KeyMod became a popular option among many firearm users.

The KeyMod system follows a modular structure with mounting slots with a keyhole profile. It consists of two components; The KeyMod slot and the KeyMod nut.

Here is how to mount KeyMod accessories:

The first thing you should do is orient the KeyMod nut correctly. The backer nut should go into the KeyMod slot and protrude from the side at the bottom. It should face in the same direction as the gun’s muzzle.

The arrow in many accessories indicates the correct direction in which you should attach them.s

One of the significant advantages of KeyMod is that it is very lightweight. Many people like this feature in KeyMod rails. The slim and light rail offers a good grip on the handguard.

KeyMod rails are also compatible with a wide array of accessories without compromising on desired optics, sights, or ergonomic grips.

KeyMod provides a fast and secure locking method. It is also very popular among users as it is open-sourced.

The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) put the two types of rails to test to compare them against each other. The test compared the two in terms of endurance, repeatability, rough handling, drop testing, and failure load.

Both systems successfully passed the rough handling and endurance tests. However, the repeatability test showed significant variation.

M-LOK requires the least amount of MOA shift when removing and putting back an accessory rail with a laser sight.

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M-LOK accessories also showed success in the drop test by remaining attached 100% of the time. KeyMod accessories remained attached only 33% of the time.

Therefore, M-LOK was determined to be more suitable for use in military operations such as Advanced Sniper Rifle programs.

However, that doesn’t mean that KeyMod is not feasible outside of military applications. Both mounting systems have pros and cons, but the M-LOK remains more popular due to the above reasons.

The M-LOK mounting system is more popular, especially in military use. The KeyMod is an open-source mounting system that is available for free.

Both these systems have benefits and drawbacks, but the M-LOK is a clear winner in use in advanced and military applications.

Although M-LOK is more popular, millions worldwide use the KeyMod mounting system. It is open source and is freely available to everyone.

The M-LOK is more popular and beats the KeyMod mounting system, especially in military applications.

M-LOK is the most commonly-used mounting system by the military.s

M-LOK rails have better functionality and form compared to KeyMod.

That being said, M-lok attachments do not work with KeyMod and KeyMod attachments do not work with M-Lok. Choosing the right mounting system from the get go is important so you don't have the re-purchase accessories in the future.

Nowadays there are three main AR-15 mounting systems: Picatinny rails, KeyMods, and M-LOKs.

The Picatinny rail is the geezer of the bunch, having been in widespread use since its invention in the early 1990s. The MIL-STD-1913 rail, as it is often called, was designed by the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey at the request of the U.S. Army, who was looking for a superior rail interface system for mounting scopes on the receivers of large-caliber rifles. Picatinny rails can now be used for mounting all kinds of accessories, including foregrips, bipods, flashlights and the rest.

While Picatinny rails offer significant improvements over earlier mounting systems, they are not without their faults, the most obvious of which is that they add a good deal of unnecessary weight toward a rifle’s front end. With this shortcoming in mind, a couple of young-buck mounting systems have emerged in recent years that offer similar mounting capabilities with lower profiles and less weight. These, of course, are KeyMod and M-LOK.

The remainder of this guide will explore the differences between KeyMod vs M-LOK rail systems and help you to make an informed choice between the two.

(Check Out the List of Our Best AR-15 Handguards)

The first of the two newcomers is KeyMod, named for its keyhole-shaped mounting slots and modular design. The KeyMod rail system was first produced in 2012 by VLTOR Weapon Systems and Noveske Rifleworks in an effort to standardize attachment systems in the firearms accessories market. To that end, KeyMod is open source, meaning any manufacturer can produce accessories using the system without having to get permission from its inventors—and without having to pay them royalties.

The KeyMod system is great for three reasons: it’s lightweight, it supports every kind of attachment, and it makes accessory installation incredibly easy—simply insert a compatible accessory’s lugs into the wide end of the keyhole, slide them to the narrow end, and screw them in.

The biggest downside to the KeyMod design is that it does not have the same level of industry support as other systems, especially M-LOK. It’s true that the KeyMod system supports every kind of attachment, but it doesn’t give you quite as many products to choose from as other platforms.

To be fair though, you could always attach a strip of picatinny rail to the KeyMod, which should allow you to use nearly any accessory you want.

With KeyMod out of the way, let’s take a look at its biggest competitor, M-LOK.

The M-LOK mounting system was released in 2014 by industry giant Magpul, known for their polymer AR-15 magazines and accessories, as an evolution of their MOE mounting system. The system works in essentially the same way as KeyMod, but with a couple of important differences. Namely, M-LOK replaces KeyMod’s keyholes with elongated slots and KeyMod’s circular lugs with T-shaped lugs. While these differences might sound trivial, they give the M-LOK system two significant advantages over their competition.

For one, due to the fact that the M-LOK’s slots are the same shape and width all the way across, you have the option to mount your accessories anywhere along the length of the slot. This is in contrast to the KeyMod system, which requires you to mount accessories on the rear, narrow end of the keyhole. The flexibility afforded by the M-LOK design can be really helpful in getting your accessories just right.

The second, more significant, advantage of the M-LOK design is that it seems to perform better. A recent study conducted by U.S. SOCOM compared M-LOK and KeyMod mounts made by the same manufacturers on five metrics: “repeatability, endurance, rough handling, drop testing, and failure load.”

Without getting bogged down in the details of how these qualities were tested (see the above link if you’re curious), the study showed that M-LOK significantly outperformed KeyMod on three of the five metrics, with the remaining two tests showing no difference between them:

In short, these tests show that M-LOK mounts are better at “maintaining point of aim for mounted accessories during normal mounting and remounting”, do a better job of keeping accessories attached when a rifle is dropped, and make accessories more difficult to pull off—all of which are significant considerations if you’re currently trying to choose between the two systems.

So does that settle the debate? Is KeyMod obsolete?

Not quite.

While the above study certainly doesn’t bode well for KeyMod, there are a few caveats to consider. For one, this is just one study. The results were conclusive enough for SOCOM to confidently move forward with M-LOK over KeyMod, but further studies will be needed to confirm SOCOM’s findings.

Second, M-LOK’s superior performance in the SOCOM study was dependent upon installing attachments correctly, which, as many gun owners will confirm, can be noticeably more difficult for M-LOK mounts than for KeyMod.

These shortfalls brought the next generation of accessory mounting: KeyMod and M-LOK. The KeyMod and M-LOK are based on a slot system rather than the rail system of the Picatinny and Weaver mounts. This means a smoother surface and more mounting options. Both gained popularity since their introduction to the market in the 2010’s — but which system is better? Keep reading to learn a little about the KeyMod vs. M-LOK systems, including how to mount accessories.

Want to skip to which system is better for your needs? Click here.

The KeyMod handguard was developed as a collaboration between VLTOR Weapon Systems and Noveske Rifleworks. They released the KeyMod system to the public in 2012 in hopes of standardizing universal attachment systems. It is an open-source design, meaning the design can be used freely by any company to make rails or accessories.

Instead of having a hand guard with a picatinny rail attached, the KeyMod was designed so that accessories could be mounted directly onto the rail. This also allows for picatinny rails to be mounted onto the handguard wherever needed.

The KeyMod is a modular system with the mounting slots having a key-hole profile. It is composed of two parts, the KeyMod slot and the KeyMod nut.

To mount KeyMod accessories:

The Modular Lock, or M-LOK was patented by Magpul Industries and introduced to the market in 2014. Just like the KeyMod, the M-LOK allows for direct accessory attachment. Magpul sought a design that worked better with non-metal mount surfaces. The polymer accessories Magpul offered didn’t work well with the KeyMod’s conical nut. So, they created the M-LOK system.

Unlike the KeyMod, the M-LOK is not open-sourced, but rather free licensed. This means that manufacturers can only make M-LOK handguards and other products using the M-LOK standard after acquiring a license from Magpul.

The M-LOK is similar to the KeyMod system in that both involve locking a nut into a slot on the rail. The M-LOK system uses a rectangular T-Nut and a rectangular slot.

To mount an M-LOK accessory:

In 2016, the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) put the two to the test to see how they stacked up against each other. The purpose of the testing was to compare which system was superior in regard to repeatability, endurance, rough handling, drop testing, and failure load.

In the Endurance and Rough Handling tests, both systems passed. The most significant variation was in the Repeatability test. M-LOK came out on top with the least amount of MOA shift when removing, then reattaching, an accessory rail with a laser sight. They found that in a drop test, M-LOK accessories remained attached 100% of the time, while KeyMod accessories remained attached only 33% of the time. From this testing, the M-LOK was selected for use on the Suppressed Upper Receiver Group and Advanced Sniper Rifle programs.