NRA’s Golden Bullseye Awards were created 23 years ago as a way for the American Rifleman editors to publicly acknowledge those recent firearm and shooting product introductions that offered our readers exceptional innovation, performance and value. It is always a difficult process for our staff to determine which new guns, optics, ammunition and accessories are most worthy of accolade, and this year was no different—as each year there are numerous contenders worthy of recognition—but we eventually achieved consensus with the below slate of quality offerings.
“The Golden Bullseye Awards are our way of honoring those companies that introduced products of remarkable utility, innovation and simple excellence to shooters and hunters during the past year,“ said Mike Sanford, deputy executive director of NRA Media. “We congratulate the winners, and we are confident that shooters and hunters will receive this year‘s winning products with enthusiasm.”
In addition to annual Golden Bullseye Awards, which acknowledge the best new products across seven categories, a Pioneer Award is also presented each year to honor the exemplary achievement and cumulative body of work of an individual, or members of a family, team or partnership, who made a lasting, beneficial impact on the firearm community.
2025 Tactical Product Of The Year: FightLite Herring Model 2024
The traditional lever-action rifle occupies a fond place in the hearts of many American riflemen, but it has also always been plagued with a number of architectural limitations that have hindered its accuracy, capacity and the ballistic potential of its ammunition while rendering the platform slow to load. So, when Senior Executive Editor Kelly Young learned that FightLite Industries had sidestepped these shortcomings by creating the Herring Model 2024, a rifle that merged the venerable lever gun with the AR-15 platform, he knew he had to check it out.
In “FightLite’s Evolutionary Inevitability”, Young explained why such a gun represents the much-needed next big step in lever gun development. “The new FightLite pairs the modularity, prodigious firepower and mission-customizable versatility of its gas-powered parent with the intrinsic reliability and suppressor-friendliness of its muscle-powered forebear to create something novel,” Young said. “Something eminently useful both inside and outside the home, relatively quiet and safely off the radars of the hoplophobiacs—for now at least.”
For greatly updating a beloved rifle platform, in a way that makes it far more compatible with modern accessories such as weapon lights and silencers, the FightLite Herring Model 2024 is our Tactical Product Of The Year. fightlite.com
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