Why We Designed The EFG

Today we will look at one of our best-selling products, specifically why and how it came to be. We at Edgar Sherman Design do not believe in just creating products for the sake of creating them. Once a deficiency is identified we go through a rigorous process to figure out how to fix the deficiency. We also love to share our passions for how we get from a rough concept to a finished product since it is not always as simple as A to B.

THE PROBLEM

In this industry, there are a million different grips for your handguard in every configuration imaginable. You have traditional Vertical foregrips (VFG) such as the KAC Broomstick, Magpul VFG, and this writer’s favorite; the Grip-Pod. These grips are great but they leave a lot to be desired as far as ergonomics and control.

In this industry, there are a million different grips for your handguard in every configuration imaginable. You have traditional Vertical foregrips (VFG) such as the KAC Broomstick, Magpul VFG, and the Grip-Pod. These grips are great but they leave a lot to be desired as far as ergonomics and control. When holding a vertical foregrip your control of the rifle is weaker as you’re holding the rifle further away from the weight of the gun. It’s also harder to control the rifle’s side-to-side movement as your wrists in that position aren’t as strong as that of a c clamp thus allowing for left and right motion overall reducing the stability of the weapon and compromising accuracy.

Another category of grips is Angled ForGrips (AFG) also known as handstops. These were pioneered by Magpul back in the late 2000s (that hurt to write). These grips featured an angled surface for the shooter to grab onto allowing for a C-Clamp grip to be used which provided better recoil control. As the years went on the AFGs became even more popular with companies like BCM creating their spin on the concept. At their core, however, they were still just bulky grips that don’t always allow for correct alignment of the wrist and arms and often mash your fingers into one another. You’d often find them to be great barricade stops but bad for holding or great for holding but bad at barricade stops often leading many end users to leave their rail plain.

THE SOLUTION

So we set out with the goal to develop a lightweight minimal grip that focused on human factors addressing wrist angle, and finger spacing, and functioned as a barricade stop while staying low profile. Well obviously, we needed to figure out how a human being grabs onto a handguard. Simply gripping the rail causes a significant amount of hyperextension which over time causes faster fatiguing and joint damage. The angle of the EFG is specifically designed to bring the hand and arm into a natural alignment, reducing fatigue and increasing arm strength on the rifle to counter recoil and such. This feeling can also be described as ”feeling like you’re giving your girlfriend’s dad a firm handshake”.
We also implemented a hook to build a consistent and reliable grip where your hand would go to the same place every time. This hook also allows you to pull the rifle into you or allow you to use it as a barricade stop to provide stability. The width of the EFG was designed to fit the average end user’s proximal phalanges (meat between your knuckles) to optimize grip control. This overall width of the M-Lok EFG also avoids unnecessary bulk or poor aesthetics as our grip doesn’t protrude over the edge of M-Lok handguards.

Be sure to head over to the EFG product page and pick one up for yourself. Stay tuned for part two where we dive into how we designed the EFG.