POTD: The ARA Mag-2C – The Flashlight That Isn’t

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a .22 silencer wearing a disguise. This is the ARA Mag-2C, built by Applied Research Associates around an aluminum tube that’s basically a Maglite flashlight body. The name gives it away: “Mag” for Maglite, “2C” for a two-cell C-size light. Inside that innocent-looking tube sits an expansion chamber and a stack of steel baffles.

There’s a whole tradition behind this. The aluminum Maglite tube turns out to be close to perfect raw material for a rimfire can. It’s a sturdy cylinder, it’s cheap, and the body already looks like something you’d toss in a junk drawer rather than register with the government. Home builders have used the same trick for decades, threading a flashlight tube and using drilled-out automotive freeze plugs as baffles.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Two Class III/NFA Silencers.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/5032/748/two-class-iiinfa-silencers. Accessed 3 July 2026.

The post POTD: The ARA Mag-2C – The Flashlight That Isn’t appeared first on AllOutdoor.com.