The man behind the Mad Duo has launched a pretty awesome blog that caters to the LE world called Bolo Report. Call it a Kit Up! for Johnny Law and in the latest dispatch, Bolo highlights an innovative device that should be part of any military armory.
The so-called BlankSafe adapter is a spacer and follower that can be inserted into any standard M4/M16 magazine that prevents live rounds from being inserted into the mag during blank fire training.
A weapon that is configured for blank-fire is still capable of firing live ammunition. Thus, during training operations, there is a real chance that live ammunition will be introduced, resulting in the death or injury of a friendly operator. This scenario can occur when rounds of live ammunition are inadvertently mixed in with blanks or when a magazine has not been fully downloaded after a live shoot, leaving live ammunition at the bottom. These mistakes are difficult to catch, especially at night and in situations of duress and fatigue, the very situations in which military forces train.
The military has made an effort to prevent these mistakes through increased inspections, by keeping live and blank ammunition separated and by requiring that all live rounds be turned in after every live- fire event. Yet despite these precautions, serious incidents still occur every year.
So true. I remember covering a story back on 2002 where some Marine FAST guys were wounded during training because a live round was loaded amongst the blanks. That was a while ago, but it’s still a risk and the BlankSafe device could mean the difference between one stray round and a safe training environment.
BlakSafe also offers a simple inspection device than can be used to make sure there are no live rounds loaded into a magazine that’s not equipped with the full on adapter.
Be sure to bookmark the Bolo Report for more LE-related gear news.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
I feel like a better solution would be to make a blatently labeled blank only magazine, all you have to do to have another accident is forget to put in the adapter
This is a great idea!!!! the only downside is i didn't think of it first.I hope to see this go a long ways.
If you use a live round in a rifle with a blank adapter attached, the casualty will be YOU…with the bolt sticking out where your eye once was! Safety would dictate you look at the ammo you're loading into your magazine…I learned that in Basic. Guess they don't hammer that notion home anymore…
So, Mike, can i take your comment to mean that some dumb, under-trained, tired, possibly ill or other wise disabled recruit deserves to die or be injured if he/she has a live round in their magazine and it is fired when their weapon is equipped with a blank adapter?
The brits have been using a similar system for years in their HK mags. That, and they paint their magazines yellow as to not confuse them.
Looks like a good device if your into using blanks for training.
Chris! STOP YOURSELF!!! Gadget goofiness. Maybe I'm just missing your attempt at s sly joke by taking this item seriously. What next mickey mouse gloves so soldiers/marines don't get bit by the slide when they fire and hold an auto pistol improperly?
Ball and blank ammo have HUGE visual and tactile differences. Do we REALLY need a gadget to tell the difference? I think attention to detail and some NCO supervision would go much father. Can already see the new policy requiring the use of this gadget before training guaranteeing demand for the company and another item the Chain of Command has to ensure is on hand before any training with blanks. C'mon! Do we REALLY need to babysit troops this badly? If LE wants to use this, fine but our military really doesn't need this foolishness (and I bet a bunch of LE guys are rolling their eyes also).
I love that you bring us the latest and greatest but you have to exercise some defference as what may be a genuine help and what's GOOFY!
Since incidents do occur involving live ammo, I think that no matter how GOOFY, there is a genuine need for something to help prevent incidents. Sure it would be nice if this was not needed, but especially if the draft is reinstated, we DO need to babysit the troops this closely. Cannon fodder does not need to be intelligent. Or is the value of human life and well-being (not to mention training costs of the individual up to this point) that cheap these days?
And sorry, but can this device detect a ‘short round’(one where the actual bullet is inserted too deep into the casing). Right, that doesn’t happen too often but…..
The UK has been issuing and using a magazine specifically for Blank firing exercises, everybody uses them they are coloured Yellow and come with a stripper block.
The BFA we use can also take 3 live rounds before it comes off!
Training and before loading the magazines inspection of the rounds etc
This thing DOES have value: It aligns the blanks to the rear of the magazine. Since blanks are shorter they can shift forward and have feed jams easily. It's one of the two biggest causes of the constant jamming in training, the other being the crimp point catching below the feed ramp.
This is awesome, we have incidents like this at fort irwin all the time. 3 dudes get wounded when a guy puts live rounds into a rifle thinking they're blanks.
And the blank discriminator for helping stop double feeds, awesome!
Why make a spacer when you can just make a magazine with a permanent insert to prevent anything but blanks being inserted. And make it with an identifying color or letters. You wouldn't ned a lot of training mags compared to combat mags.
Most units have at least 10-15 mags per rifle on hand, so retrofitting a couple hundred for blanks and wrapping blue tape/spray painting them is cheaper than buying new ones.
According to the website, the spacer and follower kits cost $17 per magazine. For that price you could have a purpose-built plastic magazine made, you wouldn't have to use any of the military's armorers time to retrofit several hundred magazines per unit, and you wouldn't have to cannibalize the units functioning regular magazines, the price of which you also have to consider.
Standard magazine ~$10
Retrofitting parts and paint ~$17
Labor $~20 (if it takes an E5 half an hour to paint and retrofit one magazine, if you include benefit costs)
That's a $47 magazine. Versus $10 you could pay MAGPUL or some other contractor to make for you.
"if it takes an E5 half an hour to paint and retrofit one magazine" BULLSHIT
It takes a couple seconds to pop the baseplate off and pull out the spring and follower. Get 5 privates running an assembly line and you can get the 200-300 done and the paint drying in an hour or two.
WebFlis data for a P-Mag is $17 each.
You don't need to coat each mag, so maybe two cans of paint.
And at army-level bulk purchase that $17 figure will probably be more like 10 each kit.
Yeah, I kind of figured I overestimated the time required.
But either way the total cost of labor is going to be much higher than the $10 an hour (given a 40-hour week, although that's not likely) a Private makes. Probably double or triple that.
It would still cost less to buy a purpose-built blank magazine if you factor in the cost of the original magazines. And purpose built is always better than retrofitted.
There's nothing that the government can do for less money than a private manufacturer.
THIS IS OUT OF THIS WORLD!! SIMPLE AND EFFECTINE AND NEEDED FOR A LONG TIME. I HOPE THIS GUY MAKES A MILLION AND RETIRES CAUSE HE JUST SAVED A WHOLE LOTTA LIVES IN THE PROCESS. AWESOME!!!
AND "PAT" STOP BEING A HATER CAUSE YOU'D BE RICH TOO IF YOU'D THOUGHT OF IT FIRST SO GIVE CREDIT TO THOSE WHO DESERVE IT.
All this concern with money. I’d like to see the patent rights go to the military free of charge. Maybe the saving of a few lives would be worthwhile. Oops, sorry what was I thinking. That wouldn’t be Capitalism and that’s the reason we have a military in the first place in this day and age. I’ll bet the actual piece could be manufactured for less than $0.05 each and issued during initial training. Pertinent training guidelines, regs, orders, etc. are updated all the time so that cost can be minimal if change is initiated along with the next needed update. I apologize again, I was once again using common sense.
Soldiers are salaried, not hourly. Nobody cares about what their time costs as long as, ideally, they are doing something productive or training on something.