Working in a similar fashion to the safety blade in a GLOCK trigger (and so many others, now), Dillon Rifle Company‘s OPAR — On Patrol AR — Trigger will not move rearward unless the safety blade is depressed first. This reduces the likelihood of a foreign object or accidental contact successfully firing the weapon.

When I visited the booth I was amazed by the massive amount of gear and apparel — really nice looking stuff across the board — from a company I had never heard of with, by all appearances, a single firearm product. Turns out they’re a wing of Dillon Aero, manufacturers most famous for their M134 Minigun, and a couple of rifles will be released soon under the Dillon Rifle Co. brand.

The OPAR definitely works as advertised. Its blade safety is not meant to replace the traditional AR-15 safety, but to function as an automatic backup. I realize it likely seems superfluous, and for most of us it is, but those who have bounced around in troop transports and rucked rifles overseas have told me stories of the AR thumb safety getting flicked to “fire” by bumping against the wrong thing the wrong way.

If the OPAR’s blade proves unobtrusive, I’d certainly consider employing it on a gun that sees bumps and brush and generally hard use that may affect the thumb safety.

Okay, yes, I admit these are the Dillon products I’d really like to own:

 

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16 COMMENTS

    • Yeah!!!

      Ten second burst loaded with 1 in 5 tracer…and a camera.

      (roughly a $1,000 burst)

      EDIT: checked prices at TargetsportsUSA…waaay cheaper than I thought. 100 rnd can ball for $275…and In Stock.

    • It’d be cool but more expensive to feed than the Chicago Bears. I love watching the empties flow out like water. That old Dillon Areo black Tahoe video was also cool.

  3. My AR safety cannot be bumped into fire(pun intended). It has to be deliberately turned. But hey if this is yer thing go for it. It might keep an Adam Lanza type from firing…

  6. “This reduces the likelihood of a foreign object or accidental contact successfully firing the weapon.”

    Not really. Its a 5.0 to 5.5 lbs trigger pull – any “foreign object or accidental contact” that would exert 5.0 to 5.5 lbs trigger pull would still fire the rifle with the blade being depressed with that pressure. If you were in a situation where it was likely to have “foreign object or accidental contact” with 5.0 to 5.5 lbs trigger pull pressure the “ikelihood of a foreign object or accidental contact successfully firing the weapon” is not reduced at all.

    • Yeah it’s useless for accidental trigger pull. If it accidentally pulls a 5.5lb trigger it’s also going to accidentally disengage the 1lb (or whatever) safety that works by pulling on the trigger. What it might protect against is a jolt. Maybe.

  7. Maybe if the added safety benefit were paired with an adjustable precision trigger for target work, but 5-5½ pounds? Wouldn’t be of benefit to me.

  8. Gotta say I think this would be of more interest to people who want a lighter pull than a standard to lightly worked AR trigger.

    I’d be about owning the technical though. What can I say, I have a soft spot for such things.

    • It is a nice looking trigger and I get what they are trying to offer with it, but it needs a lighter trigger weight and a lower price. But it overall is no better than any of the other drop in triggers on the market many for less and with a lighter trigger pull.

  9. I can’t have a 503D. It doesn’t have microstamping. So its unsafe. My attorneyless general and French Laundry devotee doesn’t want me to have unsafe firearms.

  10. So… Wonderful invention…. A trigger than cannot move back unless the trigger is pressed from the front. Golly, why didn’t anyone think of that before?

    Oh wait! EVERYONE thought of that before! Every trigger ever made works that way. You press the front of the trigger to make the trigger move back. That’s exactly how every trigger works. The “Safety Blade” is a total nonsense concept — just like the so-called “Safe Action” that made it popular.

    “Safe Action” was a marketing term invented to avoid admitting that a gun was simply a single action at a time when many of the desired customers (police departments) had policies that specifically prohibited any single action pistols. Just change the name and magically it’s safe to use.

    So now we have another marketing department pushing yet another useless device that will undoubtedly become popular with people who get to make decisions about equipment that they have never used, never will use, and don’t know enough about.

  11. But my AR has a traditional safety where as my Glock does not. But don’t let me discourage anyone from adding unnecessary complexity to the system.

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