#Innovation

Good evening everyone and welcome back to TFB’s Silencer Saturday brought to you by Yankee Hill Machine, manufacturers of the brand new YHM 338 Bad Larry Suppressor. Last week we reviewed our suppressor coverage from the 2024 SHOT Show. As we wait for the new review cans from the show to start arriving, I thought we could spend some time discussing suppressor innovation and what can we expect to see develop in the years ahead. Let’s get in to it.

Longthorne is a shotgun manufacturing company located in Northampton, UK. They make high-end over and under and side by side shotguns. This company is a relatively new one. It was established in 2010. What sets them apart from other companies is that they widely use modern technologies and unique design solutions. Particularly, they machine both barrels of double-barreled shotguns from the same solid block of steel!

Working under contract from the Army’s Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM), AimLock, a subsidiary of Rocky Mountain Scientific Laboratory, developed an actively stabilized weapons chassis for AR-15 rifles. AimLock has been in the news before for their stabilized rifle platform, which was shown off in a presentation at the 2016 National Defense Industry Association conference and subsequently reported on in Futurism and Popular Mechanics, and, of course, here at TFB.

Kevin Brittingham started Advanced Armament Corporation when he was 19 years old. In the more than two decades that have passed, he has helped to influence the silencer, ammunition and firearms industries in dramatic fashion. If you are looking for proof, take a walk down the ammo aisles at your local gun shop or outdoors store and count the varieties of 300 Blackout rounds on the shelf. Or any subsonic ammunition for that matter. Those same shops now carry several brands of silencers, whereas a decade ago it would be a rare event to see a single NFA item for sale. It was Brittingham’s vision that helped push silencers into the mainstream firearms world.

Russian Ministry of Defence has launched a website dedicated to defense industry innovations. It must become a single platform for receiving new ideas and suggestions, analyzing them and introducing to the military.

Occam Power Solutions, as the name implies, is a typical small company. Offering battery management systems, they have been expanding into the defense market with two products – one fitting their MO (a remote ballistic fuse detonator) and the other product being nearly the complete opposite, in fact lacking any power at all: the Rear Sight Tower for the AK-47

Much of the time spent at the range can often be waiting on a weapon to cool. With semi-auto triggers able to take weapons to near cyclic speeds or bolt-action barrels needing to keep cool to protect the barrel, heat is a major problem on weapons. Its why we have handguards.

While gunpowder more than gets the job done in most cases, its often possible that simple compressed gas can as well. Being fortunate to have reviewed multiple air rifles, I can attest that for certain circumstances (like anything one might shoot with a .22 LR), that they are excellent options for hunting, training, or legal compliance. Many cities do not allow firearms discharges within city limits, so air rifles are great to get around the rule.

Having worn it before and knowing many who have lived because of it, body armor – specifically hard plates – have become indispensable life-saving tools for police and military. Designed specifically to defeat high velocity ballistic threats such as the AK and RPK, hard plates acre credited with 1’000s of stopped bullets. But, this protection comes at a high price. By adding armor, the wearer has decreased mobility and stamina due to the added weight and bulk.

Almost anyone who spends significant time outdoors or served in the military within the last decade is keen on the various LED headlamps out on the market. Inexpensive and versatile, they quickly become indispensable tools for the camper or warfighter at night. Unfortunately, they do have the limits in their utility, where carrying objects or getting on a gun greatly reduces their lighted area.

Hot off the heels of their recent (and welcome) expansion into Glock 43 magazines, ETS otherwise known as Elite Tactical Systems has yet another trick up their sleeve – tritium-infused followers for their AR-15 magazines. Partnered with Advanced Combat Solutions, the new magazines feature the same radioactive inserts as popular night sights.

In the world of modern optics and the plethora of options available to the shooter, it’s understandable that iron sights have lost design and manufacturing momentum. With Magpul’s and other fully usable, though perhaps a bit flimsy, polymer sight options few companies have put work into creating beautiful and usable irons. I mean, it seems like the industry stopped innovating afters A.R.M.S.’ folding FSB.

Necessity is the mother of invention, but I will contend that the common-sense with necessity is the father of innovation. Examples are replete across the industry with various non-firearms materials being pressed into service. Perhaps the most common is the usage of paracord across handguards, grips, stocks, etc. etc.

With 10x binoculars able to take care of most spotting work at the 100 yard line, I constantly found myself questioning why higher magnification spotting scopes have not kept the two-eyes open option. While yes, I understand that under previous thought it may have taken two separate and well-aligned tubes to get an excellent image, along has come Swarovski to shatter the paradigm.

In inexorable march of unneeded innovation continues to push on due to various “gun control” laws. While I disagree with them fully, there is a sizeable population of our dear TFB readers that live within their jurisdictions, so we still cover these technologies to help those get the most out of their laws.