Category Archives: Industry News

Industry News

SMSLaser 3-in-1 MFAL announced

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You’re tired of hearing me talk about SMSLaser, I know. But let’s face it: I love these guys, I love the HFXC, and I definitely love that they’ve just announced a follow-on device.

No name for this device yet, but let’s talk about the high points:

  • It’s a 3-in-1 MFAL ala the PEQ-15, NGAL, IRIS, etc., with an IR illuminator, IR laser, and visible laser. It omits the white light that was on the HFXC.
  • It uses a center mount. The lasers looks like they will be slightly off-bore, but not a ton.
  • There is, supposedly, a built-in defuser cap.
  • The mode selector, battery compartment, and crane port are all on the sides of the device. This is reminiscent of the BE Meyers DAGIR.
  • It keeps the power level buttons, and centerlines the fire button, but now has a top-mounted slider to control the illuminator focus. Also on top: much bigger zeroing turrets.
  • It is supposedly going to CR123s. In a perfect world, I’d rather have 18350s, but it’s certainly workable.
  • It is still a somewhat sizable device compared to the IRIS or NGAL.
  • It is supposedly more waterproof than the HFXC.
  • They have implied it is coming out next month (July).

All in all, it looks pretty good, and will probably dominate the budget market just like the HFXC did. I’ll certainly be grabbing one as soon as they come out.

Industry News

RovyVon GL4 Pro Refresh, GS4, and GL5 Pro News (plus GL8 Pro teaser)

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Got a few new releases from RovyVon, and they’re pretty cool. An updated GL4 Pro, and even more exciting: the GL5 Pro with the GS4 tapswitch!

This one is going to take some explaining, so hang on tight and click that read more button.

Continue reading RovyVon GL4 Pro Refresh, GS4, and GL5 Pro News (plus GL8 Pro teaser) →
Industry News

RovyVon GL4 Pro Lever Change

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If you’re having problems with your RovyVon GL4 Pro not locking as tight to a Picatinny (1913) rail as tightly as it probably should, it’s not just you (assuming you’re using the right lug “key”). The first run of GL4 Pros appears to have had their rail grabber based on the (proprietary) Glock rail. This version of the grabber works really well with Glocks, but is just a teensy bit loose on Picatinny rails. You can sometimes shim it, which is what I did, but this winds up introducing some alignment issues, and is otherwise not a very satisfying solution.

But, good news: RovyVon has a new version of the lever that’s on newer GL4 Pros!

As you can see, the new lever has cut-outs that allow it to clamp MUCH harder. If you own an original GL4 Pro, you can email them for a warranty replacement if it’s causing you demonstrable problems.

As a reminder, the GL4 Pro is my budget go-to recommendation if you need “active IR” capabilities on a pistol. It’s under $300, it has very usable functionality across all its capabilities, and it’s more-or-less compatible with XVL2 holsters (sometimes with minor fitting).

It would also be my recommendation for shorty CCs… but I may have something else you should look at. Stay tuned.

Industry News

External Focus Lens for the RovyVon GL4 Pro Available

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If you’re like me, and in love with the RovyVon GL4 Pro, but think the IR illuminator just doesn’t throw far enough, Villain Weapon Systems and Cold Harbour Supply have just what you’re looking for: an External Focus Lens for the RovyVon GL4 Pro/XL/FP.

As you can see, it clamps on to the illuminator head, which means that it’s probably not going to be compatible with holsters (and thus not much of a pistol solution). However, if you’re running a GL4 Pro/XL/FP on a PCC or similar, this is going to be a game changer for the IR illuminator. The photos on the CHS website show a marked reduction in flood and increase in throw, much like the EFL for the VIR II has. It’s not necessarily a super clean IR illuminator spotlight, but it’ll do the trick.

The price is $132 USD, which is not cheap, but for a 4-in-1 solution, a GL4 Pro+EFL is still cheaper than any other option. Remember that you can use the XVL2’s remote switch with the GL4 Pro to improve the control scheme with rifles/PCCs.

Industry News

RovyVon Releasing New Versions of the GL4 Pro

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Did you see my review of the GL4 Pro and go “yes, but only if it could perform Lasik surgery, too?” Well, RovyVon has you covered now.

The GL4 Pro XL is out for $500 right now. The GL4 Pro FP is out in May for $800. I won’t comment on the legality of these solutions, but will note that the GL4 Pro is more than adequate for most pistol range tasks, especially at night or indoors.

Industry News

Gemtech GVAC Uppers Available

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I got an email from Brownells that they Gemtech GVAC uppers are now available.

I know most of you won’t care, BUT these are extremely exciting because they incorporate Gemtech’s bore evacuator technology. This makes gas much less likely to come back into your face, which is a common issue with suppressed shooting (especially if you are using a higher blowback pressure suppressor). Gemtech’s Integra uppers featured this technology prominently; unfortunately, the reflex-style suppressor made the handguards far too hot to hold in short order. If you are making a rifle that is going to spend most of its time suppressed, this upper seems like a really great idea.

Industry News

New “Stage Builder” tool by Target Barn

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A contact of mine at Target Barn hit me up about a new Stage Builder tool that they have recently released. Stage Builder is a web-based tool for building competitive shooting stages for sports like IDPA, USPSA, and so on.

I’m not a stage designer, but I have to admit I had been giving it some thought recently, so I did play around with it.

Forgive the lack of fault lines in this screenshot

The good news is, it’s easy and intuitive to use. The stage above was put together in about five minutes. You can create simple stages without a lot of hassle. If I was building IDPA or multigun stages, this tool would work quite well. The stage description feature is also appreciated, not to mention that you can save your stages.

The bad news is that it doesn’t necessarily have all the features you may expect. I was a little surprised I couldn’t easily label props/targets (had to make separate labels), or that there wasn’t a simple way to show distance marks for scale. I also felt that walls and shooting areas probably could have had their own native functions instead of being props and squares. A list of total props used would also be good, given the constraints many ranges have on equipment. Perhaps later versions of the tool will have these features?

Overall, I think this is a very convenient alternative to some other stage design software, and if I were designing a match with less complex stages, I’d be using it. The killer app here very well might be sharing stages with friends, perhaps even as some sort of community of stage builders.

Industry News

Parting SHOTs: Best of Show

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Rifles:

The MEAN Arms roller-delayed upper is going to be a big deal for the competitive shooting community, because it will bring another non-direct-blowback option at a reasonable cost. The use of the MEAN magazine conversion will also allow shooters to use their same belt for PCC competition as 3gun competition, which is a nice bonus.

The Desert Tech Quattro 15 (which I didn’t cover) is something that’s gotten me really excited. Big magazines, fully ambi lower, and a surprisingly reasonable price ($300)? Sign me up. I could see converting to these for 3gun.

Shotguns:

Didn’t see a lot that was genuinely new in the shotgun category. I think the influx of cheap and reliable Benelli M4 clones like the SDS S4 and Tac-12 was a real game changer in 2021, and I’m still waiting to see where that trend goes with the second round of those clones. SDS has already promised an improved stock in 2022, and I absolutely think there’s a market for a competition version with a hogged out loading port, larger buttons, short field stock, and so on.

In general, I expect Turkish shotguns to be massive sellers next year when the cheap Turkish lira drives prices down on high quality shotguns to crazy low levels. I can’t be the only one who’s thinking about a pair of VR80s for open shotgun if they drop to below $400.

Pistols:

I didn’t see anything jaw-dropping for pistols. 30 Super Carry was a bit of a meh release for me, and the focus on 5.7×28 continues to be inexplicable. Don’t even get me started on bringing back the Browning High Power… I don’t know what people think these pistols are, but they’re not as great as they think.

The Dasan / Alpha Foxtrot 1911 with the swappable frames was maybe my favorite of SHOT. At least this is a pistol that has a purpose in life, even if it’s niche. Hopefully the parts are not too dissimilar to standard 1911s and 2011s, and that maybe we could get an optics-cut version.

Optics:

The Eotech 1-10x is the winner for me. It has every indication of looking a lot like a Razor Gen3 competitor at a substantially lower price. In fact, it may even be better at 1x if the brightness can keep up (which is a bit of an open question, even though it looked good on the floor).

A close second was the Blackhound Evolve 1-6x, if only because we’re finally starting to see fiber optic reticles migrate to lower price points. Once these get BDC and/or MRAD reticles, it’s going to driving some real innovation across the entire market space.

The Holosun SCS is another one I’m excited about. The MSRP on this is a bit high-ish, but it’s bringing some unique capabilities to the table in terms of being MOS direct mount, being solar-driven, better light sensing, etc.

Honorable Mention:

The Maztech / Magpul X4 collaboration looked amazing. The world is ready for a new rifle-mounted LRF with a heads-up display, and the implementation looked a lot more flexible than others I’ve seen. It’s not cheap, that’s for sure, but it’s within the price range of someone who really wants one. If they implement some sort of support for linking to other LRFs (perhaps the Vortex or Sig?), it’s going to be amazing.

Industry News

Parting SHOTs: Dillon DA3000 Autodrive

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In one of my SHOT show posts, I brought up the Dillon DA3000 autodrive and expressed some disappointment to what was shown. To Dillon’s immense credit, a contact reached out to me with an offer to meet up and discuss the system in some depth, and try to answer some of the questions that I and others have.

First, the elephant in the room: sensors. One of the reasons that Mark7’s autodrive is so popular is the comprehensive sensor suite. The DA3000 launching without them was a disappointment to a lot of Dillon and RL1100 fans who were looking for a fully-competitive same-brand autodrive solution.

Sensors are on the roadmap. They’re being worked on, but were simply not ready for release. I heard swage is planned to be the first out the gate, but as we’ve seen in the past couple years, plans don’t always work out. No timeline was given, but I would not expect the sensors to be out tomorrow. The DA3000 includes the sensor interfaces, so your machine will be upgradable.

And, no, the Immortobot sensors won’t work, or so I was told. This wasn’t a deliberate decision by the Dillon team to destroy third party compatibility, it’s just how it worked out. They know as well as everyone else that third party sensors may become a thing again if people reverse engineer the interface, and they’ll handle that situation when they see what comes out. This is all a bit terra incognita to them.

The second question was “what took so long?” And the answer is pretty simple: the production line had to be moved, the production professionalized further, and the machine itself beefed up a bit. When you factor in extensive testing, it does make sense that there would be a substantial gap where this would not be available even without a lot of obvious changes. Dillon isn’t Ammobot; there are high expectations that come with being Dillon that their products need to meet.

Our discussion after that went in a few different directions. Suffice it to say that Dillon has had their own share of supply issues in the past year due to the huge run on reloading equipment, and is doing their best to keep up. They also have a lot of respect for their competitors and customers alike.

EDIT (1/24/2022): Dillon has informed me that the sensors will be released in 1-2 months (or such is the plan). They will require a separate control unit.