(Melbourne, Florida USA) October 10, 2022 – FightLite® Industries, a division of ARES Defense Systems® Inc. located in Melbourne, Florida formally announces its new patent-pending, HERRING® Model 2024 Multi-Caliber Lever Action!
The HERRING® Model 2024 is a family of high performance, extremely accurate and modular lever-action firearms that provide for flexible caliber and magazine reconfiguration at the user-level, without tools to support virtually any shooting profile. HERRING® is a clean-sheet revival of the lever-action concept and significantly advances the state-of-the-art for lever-action rifles and pistols bringing them fully into the 21st Century.
Invented and designed by notable small arms designer and company CEO Geoffrey Herring and his team at FightLite Industries; HERRING® raises the bar for the lever-action repeating gun by incorporating the latest materials, techniques, and practices into a modern, lightweight, accurate and user-configurable, caliber and magazine convertible lever-action firearm family.
The HERRING® Model 2024 is designed with performance, configurability, ergonomics, ease-of-use, optical compatibility, and hard-working utility in mind. It leverages the vast MSR accessory industry in an identical way to a standard AR-15 for different calibers, barrel lengths, optical sights, silencers and accessory mounting needs. Also like an AR-15, the HERRING® Model 2024 utilizes off-the-shelf AR-15 bolts and barrel extensions, which gives it even greater flexibility and allows it to access the huge catalog of calibers and commercially available barrel units for that rifle.
“Lever-action rifles are iconic. As far back as I can remember while watching Cowboys and Indians on the tube, they were the guns that first sparked my interest in firearms!” says Geoffrey Herring, founder and CEO of ARES Defense & FightLite Industries. “Most of our products are the result of something that I personally want but am unable to find in the marketplace, and our new HERRING Model 2024 is no different. I have a variety of lever-action rifles from as far back as the late 1800’s through current product offerings, but I was unable to find one that was multi-caliber, i.e.: permitting caliber conversion to a variety of cartridges using modern, high velocity spitzer pointed bullets while using detachable magazines. I also noticed an emerging market trend toward the “modern lever action” with folks customizing legacy platforms by adding rail handguards, silencers, etc. Anyone who’s followed our company knows that our products straddle both ends of the AR spectrum, with our belt-fed MCR on one end and our 50-state legal SCR on the other, and I am confident that our new HERRING® Model 2024 is going to be a smashing success for lever-gun enthusiasts with everything that it brings to the table.”
Mechanically, the HERRING® Model 2024 family uses a rotating bolt like an AR-pattern semiautomatic, but the bolt carrier is cycled by a manually actuated articulating lever. FightLite’s HERRING® Model 2024’s lower receiver has lineage to the highly successful ARES/FightLite® SCR® Sport-Configurable Rifle which was also invented and designed by Geoffrey Herring. A great deal of commonality has been retained between the SCR’s lower components, and those used by the Herring® Model 2024; and it also accepts all AR-15 (STANAG) pattern magazines, including 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 60 and 100 round AR magazines.
Due to its modern, magazine-fed design the HERRING® Model 2024 doesn’t suffer from center-of-gravity shift as a tube-fed rifle does when loading or firing, nor is it limited to round-nosed projectiles. It can be easily unloaded, via simple removal of the magazine and a single cycling of the action to remove any chambered round. Because it can be quickly and easily loaded and unloaded, it’s also possible to easily swap between two different types of ammunition within one caliber as specific shooting conditions dictate. An example might be when shooting .300 Blackout: -choosing between supersonic 110gr expanding copper hollow points for increased velocity and subsonic 220gr BTHP when adding a silencer.
While HERRING® Model 2024 rifles will be primarily chambered in 5.56 NATO and 300 BLK, they can be reconfigured for virtually any AR caliber from long range wonders like Hornady’s 6mm ARC, to short-range bruisers like .450 Bushmaster. Target or small game shooting with .22 LR rimfire via convenient caliber conversion kits will also be possible and HERRING® Model 2024 can also be chambered in pistol rounds like 9mm, 10mm, .45 ACP, and 5.7×28 with potentially great benefits in reduced lever-stroke length.
The patent-pending HERRING® Model 2024 is a thorough modernization of the lever-action rifle concept itself. HERRING® Model 2024 marries the proven accuracy, adaptability, and high performance of the AR platform with the established power and all-American rugged dependability of the lever-action repeating rifle.
Sales and Distribution
The HERRING® Model 2024 will be offered in both complete rifles and complete lower receiver assemblies; the latter for consumers who prefer to build or customize their HERRING® lever-action rifle in a caliber, barrel, upper or handguard configuration of their choice. A Federal Firearms License (FFL) or completion of an over-the-counter ATF Form 4473 is required to purchase this product.
The HERRING® Model 2024 will be on display in the FightLite® Booth #623 at NASGW Expo October 26-28 in Kansas City, MO. and will be principally offered through 2-step distribution. FFL Dealers are encouraged to contact their favorite Distributor for pricing, availability and ordering details.
Very cool. I don’t need it, but I got to have it.
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
-Dr. Ian Malcolm
Word has it that General Ursus was seen at the show and was very interested in this for his cavalry and security forces.