As soon as the new Magpul MLOK Cantilever Mount was up for sale, I immediately bought one as I was curious to see how much better it was compared to previous mount setups.

Lately I have been trying out different ways to mount a Scoutlight to my MP5 MLOK handguard from Midwest Industries. Often I found adding a rail and then mounting the light puts the light further away from the handguard than I would like. I tried the old cantilever mount and the offset mount but the problem still persists. It positions the body of the light away from the handguard. Well the new MLOK Cantilever mount is aluminum and sinks the body of the light into the mount.

The new MLOK Cantilever Mount is compatible with Surefire Scout Lights and Streamlight’s Protac series lights. The mount comes with screws to attach either light.

 

How Low Can You Go?

As I surmised from the official photos, the Scoutlight is countersunk into the mount making it even more low profile than before. However when mounted onto typical Magpul handguards, the lowprofile does not seem that obvious.

 

So what’s the point of the new MLOK mount? Put it on an AR15 rail at a 45 degree angle and you will see the magic.

 

Here you can see how it compares to the Unity Tactical Monkey Bar. The Monkey Bar replaces the clamp on the Magpul MBUS Pro, allowing you to mount a Surefire Scoutlight directly onto the backup sight.

 

One small concern is due to how low profile the mount is. Since it positions the light closer to the handguard, you have to be careful with how it interacts with your back up sights. I positioned the mount a little further back otherwise it would touch the MBUS PRO. 

One aspect of the new MLOK Cantilever mount is the fact that it is cantilever and how it does not fully contact the handguard. You can see a gap in the photo at the very top. This positions the light slightly further from the handguard but why didn’t Magpul just have the mount touch the handguard and get the light closer to the rail? Two reasons that I can think of are the dimensions of the head and tail cap. Scoutlights come with two tailcaps. The dual switching tail cap will not work with this mount but the shrouded Scoutlight tailcap and UE tailcap will. The problem arises with the shrouded tailcap. You can see in the photos above, the tail cap shroud is wider than the body of the light. It flares outward. If the body of the light were physically lowered to touch the handguard, that flare in the tailcap would interfere with the mount. Magpul would have had to make a channel just for that tailcap to clear the mount. The other problem is the heads used on Scoutlights. I am using the M600V IR/White head and it is very low profile. However not everyone is using this head. The KX2C is wider and then there is the older IR/White head that is very wide.

Other Low Profile Mounting Options

There are other options besides the Magpul mount.

Arisaka Defense has had an inline low profile Scout Light mount for a while now and it is compatible with Streamlight’s Protac series lights.

Arisaka’s mount has three positions for the Scoutlight allowing you to customize the position and shift the light closer or further away from the rail.

 

Looking at the photo above, you can see how the Scoutlight sits on top of the Arisaka Defense mount Compared to the Magpul mount where it is counter sunk. However I have confirmed that the offset is the same. The body of the Scoutlight on an Arisaka Defense mount is the same distance from the rail as the new MLOK mount.

 

A third option is the Unity Tactical MLOK Compatible FUSION Adapter. This mounts a Surefire Scout Light directly to a handguard. The adapter does not use the QD MLOK hardware. Basically you position the adapter over an MLOK slot, place the Scout Light on the adapter and you install the screws from inside the rail.

 

 

 

 

The Unity Tactical MLOK FUSION adapter is the cheapest at just $20 but the non QD nature is a bit of a compromise. You would have to uninstall you handguard to mount the light. The new Magpul MLOK Cantilever mount is only $34.95 compared to Arisaka Defense’s Inline mount at $39.00.

I am happy with the Magpul mount however the adjustability of the Arisaka Mount is a nice feature. If I ran more accessories like a DBAL or PEQ15 then I may need the adjustability of the Arisaka mount. As it stands, my weapon laser/weaponlight setup is all squared away so the Magpul is just a great accessory if you care about weaponlight feng shui.