When the L2A1 first got issued, it came with a birdcage flash hider to mount the B&T Rotex III suppressor. Which is a great thing, if you’re into retro builds because all the HK417 replicas on the market have it out of the box.
Yet this isn’t the most prominent flash hider used on the L2A1. As the Complete Equipment Schedule (CES) evolved, the Rotex suppressor was ditched in favor of the Surefire FA762.
This, of course, meant a new flash hider had to be brought in. The FH762-213S was then selected and fielded with the corresponding suppressor.
The majority of publicly available media show the L2A1 sporting the 213S.
While it’s nice to identify parts, it’s nicer to be able to acquire them and get them to fit on a replica.
To this day, there is no direct clone of the FH762-213S. End of the hunt. Have a nice day.
Or was it ?
After some more research, I finally found a decent stand-in replica. Made by King Arms, the “Tactical Flash Hider Type 2”, or KA-FH-45 in their own reference system, is what’s closest to the 213S.
I suppose these are repacked from SHS, just without any markings. SHS Airsoft also sells them on their website with and without the markings. The King Arms while supposedly discontinued is still availlable here and there but in limited quantities, and is the cheaper option. The SHS appears to be availlable on their website but is more expensive and bears the wrong markings (FH556-215A or FH556-216A) despite calling it a FH762-213S. The last option and most expensive one is to go for the Zparts FH556-215A.
There are two downsides to all these though :
- There’s either no markings or wrong ones ;
- None of these are 7.62 sized flash hiders.
Which is why I consider these “stand in replicas”, because they’re sized from the FH556-215A. Look wise, it’s OK, but feature wise it doesn’t attach to the available 7.62 SF replica silencers on the market. But I’m pretty sure this can be solved by modifying the locking collar on the flash hider itself.
Since none of these seems to have the right external diameter, so I went with the cheaper one as the lack of markings doesn’t hassle me, and if it eventually does these can still be laser etched later on.
2 thoughts on “Project – L2A1 : The flash hider”