longitudinally spaced vent holes or openings 502 for venting heat from the barrel 110 and a plurality of longitudinally spaced mounting holes 504 for connecting accessory mounting rails 560 580 to the hand guard 510 in the embodiment shown the vent holes 502 are substantially oval in shape and are positioned along the length of the hand guard 510 in alternating arrangement with the mounting holes 504 however one skilled in the art will understand that other configurations of vent holes and mounting holes are possible as shown in fig1 and 15 the hand guard connector 530 can be formed integrally with or connected to a rear end of the platforms 512 314 516 518 520 522 524 526 and includes a flange 532 for connecting the hand guard 510 to the chassis 10 the flange 532 is formed at a lower portion of the hand guard connector 530 and the hand guard connector 532 can be connected to a lower portion of the front end 12 of the chassis 10 with fasteners such as bolts or screws 534 inserted through the flange 532 as also shown in fig1 and 15 a top accessory mounting rail 540 for mounting accessories to the firearm f is provided on the top platform 512 at the 12 o 39 clock position of the hand guard 510 the top rail 540 can be adjustable and can be a replaceable mil std 1913 rail for example referring to fig2 the top rail 540 includes a top.