Best Pistol Brace Alternatives: Guns, Gear, & Techniques

Braces have changed the game, and large-format pistols have become eponymous with the world of gun owners. They make big guns easier and safer to shoot by adding a level of stabilization to these weapons.

But if you are a gun owner by now, you most certainly know the ATF has once again changed its mind on pistol braces.

So it never hurts to think of other options, and that’s what we’re doing today. We’re going to run through pistol brace alternatives — from guns and gadgets to shooting techniques you can use.

Keep reading!

Why You Should Trust Us

Before becoming an NRA-certified instructor and concealed carry trainer out of Florida, I was a Marine infantryman. So, I know my way around guns.

I’m also interested in making sure that I’m legal, and with the ATF cracking down on braces, I’ve tried my hand at a few options in the hopes they will scratch that itch.

What’s the Deal with Braces?

This time, they came with fire and issued some confusing, nonsensical rules that have resulted in what appears to be a defacto brace ban. Or not, since the ATF can’t technically write legislation.

We are currently seeing it play out in the courts, and it seems that gun owners will be the victors. An injunction has been issued protecting various people, and the 5th Circuit recently ruled against the ATF in their attempt to block the injunction.

(You can learn more in our article dedicated to unraveling the brace situation.)

It’s looking good for pistol braces, legally. However, even since this popped off, I’ve been thinking about what would happen if we lost. What could we do to replicate the benefits of braces and large-format pistols?

With that in mind, I found a few techniques, guns, and pieces of gear that could act as brace alternatives.

Best Brace Alternatives

1. Meta Tactical APEX Kit

The benefit of large-format pistols is that they are compact but tend to be easier to fire at longer ranges, handle more powerful calibers, and accept bigger and better accessories.

With that in mind, you can get some of the same benefits from some rifle platforms.

For example, the Meta Tactical APEX can take your Glock, Smith & Wesson, or Polymer 80 Pistol into a bullpup rifle platform.

The platform includes a polymer body and 16-inch barrel, making it a legal rifle with a stock. Shoulder it all you want!

It’s not some hodge-podge kit, either. It’s very well thought out and constructed. The APEX accommodates your weapon quite well and incorporates its controls and features without a problem.

We get an adjustable stock, a long optics rail, plenty of room for accessories, an adjustable stock, and a very lightweight design. I love mine. Recoil is nil; it’s plenty accurate and pairs well with a red dot and magnifier or even a fixed power prism sight.

With the APEX, we get a super short and lightweight platform, not much larger than a large format pistol. Bullpup platforms can be notoriously finicky for left-handed shooters, but the APEX is left-hand friendly.

This makes it a great platform to fill the same role as a brace large format pistol without the hoopla of the brace debacle.

Although, remember, it’s legally a rifle and might be the focus of different laws when it comes to transportation.

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2. Pistol Storage Device

If you look at the back of your AR pistol and can’t stand to see that bare buffer tube, there is something you can do about it. It’s called the Pistol Storage Device, and it attaches to the rear of your buffer tube much like a brace.

With that said, it’s not a brace, and it’s not a stock. It’s a storage device, as the name implies. What does it store?

Primarily magazines. It is user-configurable to fit a wide variety of magazines, including P-MAGs, aluminum mags, AK mags, Glock mags, Colt SMG mags, and likely many more.

Additionally, you can store a tourniquet, tools, and other goodies.

It’s a pretty neat setup all around. The PSD is made from DuPont Polymer construction and can be tensioned down to ensure it doesn’t rotate or slip. This makes it easy to reload when necessary and keeps the magazine in one place at all times.

The downside is that it requires a smooth AR tube to mount. A lot of guns don’t use AR buffer tubes; CZ Scorpion, Sig MPX, and the like typically use a different method.

Luckily, the AR buffer is so eponymous that numerous adapters exist to mount AR buffer tubes to numerous platforms.

3. KelTec KS7

Original pistol braces were aimed at large-format pistols, but when Remington and Mossberg took 12-gauge firearms to the mainstream, a new opportunity opened up.

The brace industry moved quickly to make these a braced platform.

They tended to be a lot easier to wield when fitted with a brace and can be quite unwieldy without a brace. With a brace, they were very compact and easily carried weapons that seemed perfect for home defense. 

The KelTec KS7 offers a bullpup 12-gauge shotgun roughly the same size as a Shockwave without a brace. It’s a mere 26.1 inches long, which is as short as a stock shotgun can be. Yet, it still has an 18-inch barrel.

You don’t get a brace, but you do get a stock that’s easier to shoot with that’s even better than a stabilizing brace. We also get seven rounds instead of five or four. It’s not stuck in a gray area of design and is legal anywhere your normal shotgun is legal.

In my experience, the KS7 is a great gun. It’s not perfect and does feature some tricky reloading ergonomics, but it’s no trickier than a 12-gauge firearm.

The fact it’s affordable and looks like a retro space-age shotgun is just a plus.

4. Thordsen Cheek Rest

The Thordsen Cheek Rest predates the brace movement by a good bit. These are designed for AR pistols and are designed to fit on a specialized Thordsen buffer tube. The entire kit and kaboodle come together and are ready to mount.

This cheek rest can be mounted to any weapon that can accept an AR-15 buffer tube. As the name implies, it’s not stock or brace, but a cheek rest. An ambidextrous cheek rest that makes it a little easier to rest your cheek and use your sights.

These are quite comfortable and offer the same degree of cheek rest as a stock. This makes it easy to use various optics accurately and to place accurate shots on target. It also takes all the sting out of resting your face on a bare buffer tube.

There are several models available that offer sling points, different textures, and hell. There are even different colors to keep your theme going. The downside? They seem awfully expensive.

The Thordsen Cheek Rest costs upwards of $100, which is much more than a Magpul stock for much less material. Why Thordsen doesn’t make one for a carbine stock is beyond me.

5. Black Collar Arms APS

Black Collar Arms is a small company producing pretty neat accessories for large-format pistols.

The APS is a monopod essentially that attaches to the rear of your chosen platform. It was a ring that clamps down onto AR buffer tubes and various other configurations.

Black Collar Arms designed the APS to work with GHW Tailhook MOD 1 platforms. This opens it up for various platforms, ranging from ARs to Scorpions.

It’s designed to be adjustable and to provide a second point of stabilization to your platform. As we all know, the more stable the platform, the more accurate it can become.

The Black Collar Arms APS offers an adjustable monopod that can quickly adjust to work with a variety of magazine lengths. It’s very well made but also expensive.

Its all-aluminum design and seemingly overengineered concept will run around $150. That’s a bit more than your average brace, but it’s no brace, either.

Techniques

SAS Sling Method

I’m not sure if the SAS devised this shooting method, but they are widely credited with it. With the SAS sling method, we use sling tension to stabilize the platform.

Essentially, the shooter uses a single-point sling and attaches it to the rear of the weapon.

The shooter then pushes the gun outward and creates tension on the weapon. The tension stabilizes the platform and makes it much easier to shoot. This technique is fairly intuitive and well-proven.

Shooters get relieved from a lot of the weight of these large-format pistols, and they are easy to aim with. Press the gun outward as much as you can and fire away. Your sighting system limits this technique.

It really works well with red dots and not much else. It can be very quick to use and even works well in close quarters. You can relieve tension and have a very short platform when taking cover and corners, then stretch and fire when needed.

You might ask why it’s called the SAS method. It gained its name from the SAS raid during the Iranian embassy siege.

They wore these massive gas masks and could use the flimsy stocks on their MP5s. Instead, they used their HK-produced 3-point slings and sling tension to make it work.

Push/Pull

Let’s get back to another technique. The push-pull has the shooter pulling rearward with their dominant hand and pressing forward with their support hand. This creates tension, stabilizing the gun and making it easier to control, aim, and wield.

The Push/Pull was originally a shotgun technique. With plenty of practice, the technique could be used with those 12-gauge firearms. Creating tension makes these guns much easier to shoot and even aim.

With some practice, I’ve hit targets at 50 yards with slugs using the push/pull and a TAC-14. An uncreative person might only think this technique applies to shotgun-style weapons, but that’s lame.

I’ve been throwing 230-grain pills with an Extar EP45 and found that the push/pull also stabilizes the platform and controls it under recoil. Enough to keep 13 rounds of .45 ACP into the black of a B8 at 25 yards in under ten seconds.

A hand stop of some kind is certainly suggested. This will prevent your hand from sliding in front of the barrel and getting a hole where you don’t want one.

It takes a little practice, but once you master that tension, it’s quite useful.

Final Thoughts

I’m pretty confident the ATF will lose its legal challenge, but I’m also confident they won’t stop trying to be a pain in the side of gun owners. Having a backup plan is never a bad idea.

On the flip side, we could win all day, but that doesn’t mean none of the above techniques and gear are useless.

In fact, maybe you like braces but want to explore a different world and check out a few alternatives. Well, you now have some new products to consider.  

What is your favorite brace alternative? Be it a gun, technique, or piece of gear. Let us know below. Looking for a regular, ole AR? Check out our list of the Best AR-15s!