When the new forend costs more than the carbine, it's time to change your plans.

The dogs have been alerting to things I can't see in the middle of the night, and I've been thinking I need to add a little bling to my AK. Specifically, I want a shooter with a light on it.

This goes pretty severely against my own notions of how a personal weapon should be set up - I like'em as plainjane and idiotproof as I can make'em, because they've got quite an idiot to deal with. I have repeatedly proven in the field my ability to screw up or misuse any defensive technology more sophisticated than an arquebus. But I do think maybe I can deal with a flashlight.

Unfortunately, before I can add a flashlight to my AK, I have to replace some of the ancient Romy furniture. No problem, I thought: I'll just get me one of those "quad rail" things everybody talks about. My left wrist got screwed up real bad many years back, and for carrying purposes I've found a vertical foregrip much more comfortable. So unless I can screw a rail to the existing foregrip, I've gotta replace the whole thing with a quad and then get me one of those ugly clamp-on things. That's okay, I'm not afraid of ugly.

But Holy High Price, Batman! The lowest price I can find is about $220, which is roughly what I spent to build the rifle, and that's before I buy the expensive light that was the point of the whole exercise!

Forget it. I'm gonna go douse the dogs in fluorescent paint and call it good.