NRA's Annual Meetings & Exhibits is typically a time when firearms manufacturers announce or launch new products, because they know that NRA Families will have a chance to see those guns in person at the show. Here's one booth we can't wait to visit: the FightLite booth (#11331), where the HERRING Model 2024 lever-action rifle will be on display. What's truly unique about this family of high performance, extremely accurate and modular lever-action firearms is that they allow the shooter to reconfigure the caliber and magazine yourself without tools. First announced in 2022, these rifles are now being shipped to customers.
FightLite may seem like a somewhat counterintuitive innovator of the 150-year-old lever-action, given that the company's history is rooted in providing America's military and LEO organizations with full-auto firearms, but it isn't. FightLite and its CEO Geoffrey Herring is alla bout innovation, and that's what they've done to create this remarkable "new" platform. The Model 2024 significantly raises the bar for lever action guns by incorporating the latest materials, heat treating options and finishes into a modern, robust, lightweight and accurate firearm family.
Additionally, The HERRING Model 2024 leverages the vast AR accessory industry to provide for different calibers, barrel lengths, optical sights, silencers and accessory mounting needs. And 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 product support.
Mechanically, the HERRING Model 2024 family uses a rotating bolt like an AR-pattern semiautomatic, 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 is designed to accommodate high pressure, high velocity ammunition including 5.56 NATO and Hornady 6mm ARC, as well as great hunting loads like 350 Legend and .450 Bushmaster.
Says Geoffrey Herring, founder & CEO of ARES Defense & FightLite Industries, “We are very well versed in technical details such as material selection, preventing, or overcoming failure points caused by water intrusion or dirt, sand, mud, salt water, ice, etc., and understand that designing guns to meet requirements of MIL-STD-810H for things like corrosion resistance or drop-testing is just something that we do every day regardless of the project. An example would be the 6:1 mechanical advantage that’s designed into the HERRING Model 2024’s primary extraction mechanism; because when clean or muddy brass obturates against the chamber wall and breech system at 55,000 - 70,000 PSI, you’d better have figured out a reliable way to extract it.” MSRP $1,699; FightLite.com.
