Quote History Originally Posted By cccpNyC:Ok so if this guy Geoff held patents on belt fed AR uppers, how did Valkyrie Arms get theirs built?
I wish there was more info out there on it. I would love to get my hands on one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UIyKgSUQSM View Quote
It's an entirely different system. The Shrike system that Ares/Geoff Herring designed and patented is a separate upper that drop on any unmodified lower. It uses all proprietary parts.
The Ciener/Valkyrie/Slidefire beltfed design uses standard AR lower/upper/barrel. The receivers are cut to accept the beltfed mechanism and the bolt carrier is cut to drive the feed mech.
Valkyrie Armament offered to do conversions on customers rifles, I've read the price was $3k ish. The Ciener and VA conversions use a modified link - there's a guide fin in the link ejection chute and the links need to be cut to fit through the ejection chute.
Slidefire improved the design and briefly marketed complete rifles (Colt 6920s) with the beltfed conversions already done for $4k ish. The Slidefire version uses standard unmodified M27 links
Some great pictures and explanation in this article that came out a few months ago.
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2023/10/31/tfb-review-ciener-belt-fed-ar/