I bet this caught you by surprise, didn’t it? I know it did for me. Bo Chen (no relation) is Leaper’s Director of Sales & Marketing. He reached out to announce they are making a UTG MP5 rail handguard that is coming out in September.

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Let’s get this out of the way. Leapers UTG has an online reputation that is not exactly positive. A lot of the reactions I got when I mentioned this new MP5 rail were met with interest until I told them who makes it. Now Leapers has their UTG Pro Line of products and to be honest, I have not paid much attention to it but this new Leapers UTG MP5 rail handguard will fall under that product line. According to Bo, their Pro Line of products is made in Michigan. They have complete in-house concept design, prototyping, testing, production, distribution and service.

The UTG MP5 rail handguard has a single solid top rail with an MLOK bottom section that appears to be bolted on.

I am not sure why the top rail has those tapered rear side walls. But it looks like the top rail is placed on top of your MP5. You need to route the charging handle through the slot on the left side. Then you bolt the four screws to hold on to the receiver tabs that Claw mounts grab onto. At the front of the handguard appears to be a set screw possibly for pressing down on the cocking tube. I saw something similar on the Midwest Industries top rail. Then you bolt the bottom half of the UTG MP5 rail handguard with the four screws provided.

The top rail appears to be cut the entire length but they went with M-LOK slots instead of Picatinny. I would like to see Picatinny slots rather than MLOK. I do not like adding height just to mount accessories. Or have an interchangeable top section like an integrated tape switch cover plate so you can nest a SureFire tape switch under the rail. But that would add a considerable amount of machining and added complexity which would invariably increase the price. As of now, it has 8 rows of M-LOK They even managed to put a single MLOK slot in front of the charging handle. Curious to see what you can mount there and if it clears the charging handle.

The UTG MP5 rail handguard will have an MSRP of $239 and is planned to be released in September. Bo said he will send a sample in for review so look forward to that. I am eager to see how this handguard turns out and from the few people who have told me their USA-made products are solid, I hope the same for this rail system. Check out their website for updates.

All Photos Provided By Leapers UTG