KitUp! and their parent, Military.com ran a good report last week on the Army’s fielding of enhanced flash hiders as the first step of a weapons signature management strategy. We only have a couple of things to add to their story. As we understand it, the Army also purchased flash hiders from BE Meyers as well as AAC and SureFire. Additionally, the current M16 Birdcage-style flash hider dates back to the M16A1. The M16 originally had a 3-prong flash hider that was more effective but was prone to breakage. The design was altered in order to close the pointy end of the thing so that it would not get caught in vines. Reportedly, troops also used the flash hider as a lever to open C-ration crates until it was changed. It will interesting to see how these new flash hiders fair under field conditions although some of these early concerns have been taken into account.
Finally a quick plug for KitUp! If you are not checking it regularly, you should be. KitUp! along with Military Morons are two sites that we feel are complimentary to Soldier Systems Daily.
Team SureFire women’s shooting sports captain, Maggie Reese, will be a competing in season two of HISTORY channel’s hit competition series “Top Shot.†Reese was selected out thousands of applicants as one of sixteen marksmen who will compete for the $100,000 prize.
“I’m thrilled to be a part of Top Shot,†said Reese. “As a 3-gun shooter, I’m very comfortable with pistols, rifles and shotguns. However, Top Shot tests your ability to do more than just pull a trigger and it’s going to be fun to get outside of my comfort zone.â€
Reese is no stranger to competition. She is a semi-professional pistol and multi-gun shooter for Team SureFire on a full-time basis. She is a back-to-back USPSA Nationals 3-Gun Champion and has won a variety of other local and regional shooting matches in just over three years of full-time competition.
“My father literally pushed me into shooting,†said Reese. “ He told me to try it once and if I didn’t like it then he’d never make me go again. I loved it and now it’s great to walk into a competition as a female, feel completely underestimated, send the first shots downrange and watch the jaws drop.â€
The 13-week series premieres Tuesday, February 8 at 10pm ET on HISTORY. For more information on Top Shot and to see Maggie Reese’s shooter profile, visit HISTORY.com.
Finally, SureFire has produced a product specifically for the ladies. The new Isis features a chrome plated aluminum body appointed with two rings of Swarovski crystals. It also incorporates SF’s new reactive tailcap which means you just touch the tailcap and it turns on, off, and switches between high ad low beam. Combining an LED lamp and TIR reflector the Isis delivers 10 lumens on low and 100 lumens on high. Plus, it uses SureFire’s new Lithium Ion rechargeable technology providing up to 12 hours on the low setting.
Note: We have updated story from earlier in the week.
I was finally able to get my hands on Surefire’s new High Capacity Magazines yesterday at the Pre-SHOT Show Aimpoint military shoot. I wanted to see how they worked and what the production fit and finish would look like. They seem to be well conceived and produced. They are available in 60 round and 100 round sizes. You will notice that once you get about 20 rounds into the magazine you can begin to feel the spring tighten up as the rounds are separated. Additionally, the design is quite reminiscent of a US GI mag in that it has a removable base plate for maintenance and cleaning. Also, ATS Tactical is working on a magazine pouch for them but Surefire expects many companies to have their versions of pouches available once these begin to proliferate.
Finally, despite numerous articles stating that the new magazines would be a perfect match for the USMC’s new M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle manufactured by H&K, they aren’t. As in most things H&K the engineers overdid it and came up with a better way to build a mousetrap. In this instance, the mag well has a different cant to it and the portion of the magazine that flares to accommodate the increased capacity is too high to seat in a 416-style mag well. This is the same reason you have to use Magpul’s EMAG rather than the PMAG.
Added: Much like the PMAG, the HCM will fit in some 416s. In fact, one of our readers brought to our attention that a 416 was used in a SureFire produced promotional video (see below). Unfortunately, the HCM currently does not work with ALL 416s and their derivatives so, it would not be in anyone’s best interest to pair them with the M27 at this time since there is no way to tell which guns will accept which magazines. H&K reps informed me that they will be doing some testing with the HCMs in the coming weeks. SureFire is going to work through this issue.
Overall, the new magazines will definitely have a place although anti-gunners are taking advantage of the recent tragedy in Arizona to once again introduce legislation to ban high capacity magazines. Unfortunately, we went down this path once before and it hurt the commercial base to the point that issue 15 round magazines for the M9 Beretta were junk because there was no profit-based incentive to produce quality magazines.
If you are at SHOT Show see them at booth #13968 or visit www.surefire.com
Tags: Surefire Posted in SHOT Show, weapons | Comments Off on More on the Surefire High Capacity Magazines – Updated
You read it right, SureFire has developed two high capacity magazines for the M16 family of small arms. In this exclusive sneak peek photo, you can see that they are made of metal, the spot welds visible along the front seam. The top magazine boasts a 100 round capacity and the bottom accommodates 60 rounds of 5.56.
Four SureFire shooters are currently using them at the Ft Benning 3 Gun match. The magazines will officially debut at SHOT and general availability will be sometime in the first part of March.
Tags: Surefire Posted in weapons | Comments Off on SureFire Magazines?
Early this year, Naval Surface Warfare Center – Crane released a solicitation for a new generation of Very Bright Lights. Several companies answered the call and Crane has awarded contracts to SureFire for their HellFighter, M620V Scout Light®, and the M720V RAIDâ„¢ that we wrote about at SHOT Show 2010. Two types of Very bright Lights were selected. The VBL-H (visible bright light heavy) and VBL-III. Both contracts are Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity.
The VBL-H contract is for $16.6 million and will field the HellFighter as a heavy weapons light. The HellFighter is no stranger to SOF troops and models were purchased under a similar contract a few years back. It is designed for use with weapons such as the the M2, illuminating out to over 800 yards. It’s also been used for IED detection. This unit is specific to the needs of the Department of the Navy and is technically the fourth variant. Variants II and III are being tested by other branches of the United States Military.
The VBL-III contract is valued at $14.9 million contract, fielding personal weapon lights for members of USSOCOM. The two light that were chosen feature LED lamps that provide both white and IR light. To choose one or the other the user simply pulls out and twists the head to switch between the modes. The RAID also features additional functionality as you can see on the photo.
SureFire has heard you telling that you like their products but discretionary funding is tight and have answered the call. Available starting in January, SureFire launches two new low cost lights; the G2X and 6PX.
“In spite of the tough times, our mission is to keep quality products in the hands of our customers, and keep jobs in the U.S.A.,†said SureFire CEO/Founder Dr. John Matthews. He continued, “This was a big undertaking for SureFire, and I couldn’t be more pleased with our employees who worked so hard to make this happen.â€
Expect the same Made in USA SureFire quality and same lifetime guarantee. In order to mitigate costs, SureFire has taken a couple of measures. The main differences from the G2 LED and 6P LED flashlights that the series is based on are the adoption of Mil-Spec Type II anodizing instead of Type III, use of a polymer reflector instead of machined aluminum, and the head will not be removable.
Four new models will be offered. Two flashlights will be available in a single output tactical configuration, and two with a dual output for general use. The G2X features a Nitrolon® polymer body and tailcap with an aluminum bezel while the 6PX’s body components are entirely aluminum. Each model comes in either the ‘Tactical’ models which is a single stage, 200 lumen output, and comes with a momentary activation tailcap switch. Twist for constant on. The ‘Pro’ models feature a low output 15-lumen stage that comes on first, then can be clicked over to the 200 lumen high output stage with a clicky style tailcap switch.
