Patent Protected! FightLite Herring Lever-Action Coming Soon?

Are you still waiting for your FightLite Herring tactical lever-action? That wait may be coming to an end soon, with news that FightLite has just nailed down a second patent on this rifle design.

FightLite @ TFB:

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FightLite® Industries, a division of ARES Defense Systems® Inc. is pleased to announce that the second US Patent for their HERRING® Model 2024™ – Modern Lever Action Rifle has been granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. “LEVER ACTION FIREARM AND KIT FOR CONSTRUCTING THE SAME” has been granted US Patent Number US 12,152,844 B2 today and joins a previous, related patent “BOLT CARRIER MOVEMENT MECHANISM PROVIDING PRIMARY EXTRACTION FORCE MULTIPLICATION, FIREARMS COMPRISING SAME, KITS FOR CONSTRUCTING FIREARMS COMPRISING SAME, AND BOLT CARRIER GROUPS FOR ENABLING SAME” granted in May , 2024 under US Patent Number US 11,988,479 B1.

Although we have more lever-action rifles on the market than ever, it is still a tricky action to get just right, and that’s probably why FightLite is taking its time to get this design right—and protecting their IP while they do so.

Waiting on a rifle

We first saw the FightLite Herring Model 2024 back in 2022, when we shared their description of the action:

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. 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.

Sounds like fun, and if you look at the YouTube video below, it looks fun, too.

They’ve even teased a belt-fed version of this rifle—see here.

FightLite has the Herring listed on its website as “Coming Soon,” although it’s almost 2025 now and we’re still waiting for the rifle to hit the public market. With an MSRP of $1,699.99, it will be a pricey piece of firepower when it arrives, but the ability to swap out calibers and also attach many tactical rifle parts will no doubt make it desirable to many shooters, particularly in states where semi-auto rifles are restricted. See more details on the rifle at FightLite’s website here.