The good folks at Midwest Industries are always coming up with new, innovative firearm products, and today Brownells Gun Tech™ Caleb shows us MI's Alpha M4 Beam Stock. In itself, the Alpha M4 is not actually a stock. It clamps to any rifle with an M1913 Picatinny stock attachment rail and enables you to install on it any stock that fits an AR-15 carbine receiver extension (buffer tube). So it will NOT work on a standard AR-15. The big impetus behind developing the Alpha M4 was to make it easy to mount AR-15 carbine stocks on AK-47 / AK-74 pattern rifles. It's also perfect for a SIG Sauer Spear, Brownells BRN-180 with the American Defense Mfg. Picatinny lower receiver, or a rifle with the Foxtrot Mike Picatinny stock adapter.
You can get the Alpha M4 in both fixed and folding configurations. Why would you want the fixed model? You may live in a place that prohibits folding stocks (our condolences) OR you already have a folding mechanism on your rifle and just want to mount an AR carbine stock on it. The Alpha M4 is skeletonized, so how does the AR-15 stock fit on it? The contours of the top and bottom of the Alpha match those of an AR-15 carbine buffer tube, right down to the notches on the underside for the length adjustment system.
Bonus: the Alpha M4 boom has QD sling swivel sockets on each side up front, and if your chosen buttstock also has QD sockets, you have a whole LOT of sling attachment options! The Fixed model is lighter because it's all aluminum, while the Folding model weighs more because the folding mechanism is steel, as it should be. You can set up the Alpha M4 to fold either to the left- or the right-hand side of the rifle.
Installation is easy-peasy, as Caleb demos for us. Loosen the hex screw and clamp the Alpha M4 to your rifle's Picatinny stock rail. You have some leeway in how high or low you position the Alpha M4 Beam on the rail. This lets you adjust your cheek position on the stock, depending on how high your optic is mounted.
