ARCA Rails and Their Benefits - How to Install

Precision rifles have come a long way since the 1970s, especially with accessories and other performance enhancers on the rifle. One of these enhancements is ARCA rails. But what is it and what benefits does it have?

We will answer these questions and cover how to install one on your rifle so you can fully 

understand why an ARCA rail should be on your precision rifle.

What are ARCA Rails?

ARCA rails are a type of mounting system that uses a 45 degree dovetail cut out as the interface for an ARCA clamp. The ARCA clamp uses a set of jaws that allow you to attach and detach accessories on the rail quickly and easily. This method was originally used for camera equipment but eventually made its way over to the shooting world. 

Benefits of ARCA Rails

The ARCA rails’ benefits are relatively simple in concept but provide much more utility than you would think. Let’s go through some of them.

Stability

Precision rifles need to be stable. Any little wobble in the gun can throw off a shot at long distance. The ARCA rail allows you to have a rigid and stable platform for attaching your rifle to a tripod, bipod, or other stabilizing device. This results in better performance since you are limiting some of the variables involved in shooting.

Adjustment

Things like Picatinny rails have rigid locations where you have to mount your optics and accessories. You have to mount the appropriate clamp in line with the appropriate cross section and sometimes it’s not in the ideal place for you.

ARCA rails on the other hand allow you to place your accessories along the entire rail. All you have to do is slide the clamp on and adjust it to where you want it to be. Adjustments can be easily made without removing the clamp, just by loosening it. This allows you to finely tune the placement of your accessories.

This is even more important when you use the ARCA rail  to mount your rifle on a tripod. Every rifle is different and the balance point might be a few millimeters off when compared to other rifles. The ARCA rail allows you to easily and carefully slide that rifle into position and lock it down for your shooting.

Customizability

ARCA rails come in a wide variety of formats. They can be long, short, integral, filled with features, or even have a different profile. This variety allows you to find the perfect rail for your application.

Versatility

ARCA rails are found on a wide variety of items. This can be rifles, spotting scopes, or binoculars. If you have anm ARCA compatible tripod, etc. it will work with almost every ARCA mountable item you have, barring physical logistics like mounting a bipod on a set of binoculars.

How to Install ARCA Rails

Now that we know what you get from ARCA rails, let’s find out how to install them on your rifle. If you need a visual demonstration you can watch our video on it here.

Step 1: Remove the action

Our first step is removing the action, we will be using an AG Composites stock, and the action does not need to be in the stock while we do this.

Step 2: Orient your rail

Having something to go off of makes things easier, in our example we aligned a slim stud screw with the mounting hole in the rail. This means we have one less hole to drill and an easier time centering the rail.

Step 3: Mark and drill mounting holes 

Going off the sling stud hole, we marked along the forend of the stock where the mounting bolts needed to go. Then we drilled into the forend, using masking tape to control the depth. We then used a 10/32 tap to tap into the stock (and the aluminum block in our examplestock), keeping the same thread pitch as the sling bolts.

Once the tapped holes are finished, align the ARCA rail and torque down your screws and re-install the action. Congratulations, you have successfully installed an ARCA rail on your composite stock.

Conclusion

When it comes to improving your rifle, the addition of an ARCA rail is a simple improvement that can drastically improve your rifle’s performance. Combined with a good tripod, you will get many more years of performance out of your rifle with better accuracy and stability when using the ARCA rail system.

If you are interested in adding an ARCA rail to your rifle or are wondering what other ARCA compatible options there are, you can check out our wide variety of ARCA related products.