Brownells had a new LMT manufactured M203 37mm flare launcher mounted to one of their Retro ARs, and they revealed it’s now up for sale on Brownells website as a stand-alone item, and it’s exclusive to Brownells. The M203 37mm launcher is constructed of aluminum with a MilSpec anodized finish, and mounts and operates just like the 40mm version. The 37mm M203 attaches to standard Government rifle & carbine length barrel assemblies with a .625” front barrel profile, and a GI compatible barrel nut system.
Cool. Not $1599 cool though. For comparison LMT sells the 40mm destructive device version for $1549.
Almost like its the exact same device with a slightly higher retail cost to recuperate the additional cost of a non standard bbl size….
Which is probably why LMT hadn’t already made a 37mm. It’s an incredibly niche item. A few people already made 37mm barrels for title 1 LMT receivers. Assuming the receiver is the same I guess the upside is you already have the 37mm to play with if you plan to form 1 the receiver.
I paid $1300 for my LMT 40mm M203.
Will LMT sell just the barrels? Are they proprietary?
Will the barrel swap out with the 40mm if someone does the paperwork?
We had a brief talk with a rep at LMT’s booth, and this topic came up. Basically, LMT deliberately designed the internals of this launcher in such a way that exchanging the installed 37mm barrel for a 40mm barrel would be excessively difficult.
In short, this isn’t designed to be readily converted, even with the proper paperwork.
Always awesome to hear from you! I can’t figure why they would go that route when Colt just went the opposite direction. Then again, as much as I love Colt, they shot themselves in the foot with the excessive pricetag and their 37mm launchers seem to be sitting on the shelves of the company that bought them.
The primary reason it was done was to assuage any concerns that the launcher could readily be converted into a Destructive Device after purchase. Whether that was a request of Brownells’, or a decision of LMT’s wasn’t discussed.
$1600.00, no thanks.