Haley Strategic Thorntail2 SBR Mount

[alamo5000]

I have wanted to mount a light on my 300 Blackout SBR for a really long time. The problem is the hand guard for my 9" barrel is too short for almost all solutions that I looked at so far. It's been at least a few years that I have been hunting around.

When some people mount lights, for whatever reason they like them on the opposite side from their forward hand. Typically doing that requires a remote switch or button to activate the light. Likewise with longer hand guards a remote switch is also preferred by a lot of people simply because your hand isn't riding all the way at the end of the hand guard. Unless you have orangutan arms a remote switch is generally the most popular option.

With my 10.5" rifle it has grown on me a lot. By nature I am a minimalist. If I can avoid wires I will do so at all cost. On that rifle I have an Arisaka light with a 45 degree m lok scout mount on the left side of the gun. The light itself has an Arisaka momentary tail cap so I can activate the light with my left hand or if I need a constant on I can just twist the tail cap. For this discussion though with that specific hand guard the light is placed in the PERFECT SPOT at the 11 o'clock position for how I have everything set up. It's not just at 11 o'clock, but the distance forward is optimal for me.

Now on my 9" 300 BLK I've discovered a way to get the same light position, same activation method (same manual of arms so to speak), and I can do it without compromising my hand placement on the rail. The solution is the Haley Strategic mount I mentioned in the title.

The mount is actually two pieces and it can be configured for either side of the rifle. They offer MLok and pic rail mounts. Even though my hand guard is mlok I didn't go that route. If you look at one of the photos attached below, if I were to use mlok on the left side, that piece that is sticking out in the photo would be right in the palm of my hand. That is less than ideal. I might have been able to push it forward enough to avoid this, but maybe not.



That said the pic rail version is also configurable. Long story short I put the mount on the very last spot on my top rail with it dropping the light down at 45 degrees on the left side. This mount pushes the light forward a bit so my grip is not compromised at all and I don't have anything jabbing me in the hand. I can basically continue to use the light exactly the same on both rifles.



I got the mount and mocked it up and it seems like a fantastic solution for what I have been wanting. In other words I'm pretty happy.

I've only mocked it up on the 300BLK, but I got an in stock notice for another 300 series light from Arisaka. My order was placed earlier today.

The mount itself is quite a genius idea. It seems like a great idea and a quality part. I am pretty happy that I found it. Once the 2nd light gets here both of those will be permanently in place (at least until I learn more and decide to change up for whatever reason).

That said if you are looking for solutions for a short barrel/short hand guard to get better light placement it might be worth a look.

Another slight bonus is with this setup (for my 300BLK) there should be a bit less suppressor shadow. It pushes the end of the light out a slight bit more towards the middle of the suppressor. Shadowing is a thing but nothing absolutely major, but with a much larger 30 cal can it had the potential to cause a problem (maybe), but with this setup it's actually less than my 10.5.