Free floats that are more cosmetic than "tactical"

[Aggressive Perfector]

What I mean is, I'm finding a lot of free floating hand guards with rails that really don't have very much rail on them at all. A lot of what I'm seeing have some cool ventilation design, and just a little picatiny rail space on the fore end of the guard and the top. What is the purpose for this? Not knocking anyone for getting one, but I can't really see why anyone who wants their rifle for practical use would. I personally prefer to have all the rail space I can have just to keep my options open and be abled to mount my attachments where they are most comfortable for my use, rather than having a small section to mount it to that may not be as comfortable as it could be. The rails I'm speaking of are like these:
http://troyind.com/%20/rail-systemsa...lta-mid-length
https://danieldefense.com/rail-syste...rail-12-0.html

[FunkyPertwee]

I don't really care for the two you posted, but most of the modular rail systems are superior to old quad rail designs because you save weight by only putting a rail segment where you need it. Also, they are free floated and therefore increase your potential accuracy.

I like the the Troy Alpha rail and midwest industries similar hand guard.

To recap, advantages of modular free float hand guards are decreased weight and increased accuracy.

[deth502]

free floating a barrel is far from only a cosmetic thing.

if all you want is everything including the kitchen sink hanging off your rifle and dont care if you can hit what you aim at, you can get a non-floated quad rail much cheaper.

[Schuetzenman]

My answer is a hybrid of the first two. Those are designed to save weight as pointed out. Free floating is about accuracy, the free float tubes came first. People putting Pic rails into the designs came along almost a decade later. Some people don't like to use forward vertical grips and prefer to grasp the forearm FF tube handguards. This is also part of why they've made rail systems that are not festooned in rails on all 4 quadrants front to back. As pointed out many of these models come with bolt on rail sections so you can put in rails where you need them vs. full coverage. Lastly, I'm sure some people think 100% rail FF tube handguards look bad, so there's the cosmetics of it in play as well. Taste is a diverse thing, it varies widely person to person so part of this is also to have an offering that appeals to a "market segment" that has otherwise shunned the railed handguards.

Having DD Omega rail and YHM rail ff tube handguards I can say holding them on the rails is not that comfortable so I can relate to those that would rather have rails where they want them vs. everywhere.

[Aggressive Perfector]

Ok, that makes more sense. I didn't realise you could move add and remove rail space as desired. I still prefer having the additional space to adjust attatchmens as needed quickly and as i said before, keep my options open. But I don't like or intend to have more attatchments than I can practically use. I currently only use a foregrip to control muzzle climb, bipod at the very front of the rail and a flash light. simple, practical.

[Dr. Gonzo GED]

Yup. The point is the free float itself.

I had a free floated bolt action that drove tacks with monotonous reliability. It felt like cheating at 100 yards or less.