Well, I went ahead and ordered an 11" 5.56 and found an HBI handguard in stock this morning so I ordered that as well. Now I need to decide between the tailhook mod 2 and sba3 or 4. If anyone has any information or guidance on the brace I would appreciate the advice.
I went with the 5.56 as it complements the rest of my collection better than the 7.62. I have a lot of 5.56 target ammo to burn and very little 7.62 right now. If I like the 5.56 odds are good there will be a 7.62 version in my future as well.
Thanks for helping me get to a place where I could pull the proverbial trigger and place the orders.
Congrats man. You're going to love the gun. Its an absolutely fantastic platform.
As far as the braces go here are my impressions as I own all of them.
SBA3 is fantastic in every way. Especially once you add a split fix. Its light weight, shoots well and feels like its durable enough for relatively hard use.
The SBA4 is essentially a sopmod stock if you've ever used one. Its got a fantastic cheek weld, feels extremely solid and when you incidentally shoulder it, it feels more solid than the SBA3. The downside is that its larger and heavier.
The Tail hook is extremely well built but is my least favorite of the bunch. Given that its rigid, and straight up and down, it does not incidentally shoulder well. I find the toe of the hook sticking into my shoulder and its not as comfortable to shoot as the rest of the products out there. IF it were canted on a negative angle like a CTR stock from Magpul, it would be a much better product.
Just my two cents.