Weapon mounted lights, whats good?
- Thread starter Celt
- Start date
Also this.. not all 18650s or 18350s are the same..
Cloud and Modlite both have and sell their recommended 18x50 batteries. Snag up a few and a charger and good to go
Celt
.450/400 Nitro Ex
Great stuff guys, and i appreciate everyone taking the time to give info. Ive spent alot lately getting things that may be harder to get in the near future so i dont have a big budget now. Something like the streamlight is more in the range I can work with for now.
This is a bit more than the standard HLX package. You get a way better mounting option with it..
LCS And Streamlight® HLX Kit - Cloud Defensive
The Streamlight Rail-Mount HLX and Light Control System (LCS) combination is a fantastic option at a very low price. 1000 Lumens of very useable light from the HLX along with the robust design of the LCS. It’s hard to beat. The LCS provides the industries only hard mount for the Streamlight...
www.clouddefensive.com
Robin
.577 Tyrannosaur.
Gimme back my gun!
Robin
While I like my Surefire X300's, I think the Streamlights are a better value. Streamlight has a lot of new models out there right now, just got one of their new 1k lumen lights for wifey's MP15-22, she loves it! Bright as hell, easy activation. Good Luck scouting one out.
Fightingfish
.40 S&W
This is a great thread. Thanks to OP for starting it, and thanks to the members for sharing their knowledge and experience. I hit a brick wall shopping for lights (due to an over abundance of options/criteria), one for a PCC, the other for an AR, and this is a needed kick in the pants to get it going again.
Haha, you jest and it’s all in good fun but let me tell ya, way back before some of you guys were even out of diapers or born, me and some friends were running around the woods at night shooting coons for extra money with flashlights taped to our rifles. This was well before weapons lights were even thought of. Ingenuity out of necessity brothers.
Last edited:
Delta forces in the late 80s were using SCUBA flashlights (painted/wrapped in electrical tape) that they connected to their CAR-15 with hose clamps
Also side note @Will555 the aimpoint they used (random but it had to do with our conversation about the mp5 with aimpoint in a different thread) was the Aimpoint 2000
Oh yeah! It’s not the first time I’ve seen it done before, it absolutely used to be a thing. If it’s not invented yet, you gotta do something. So taping lights or accessories was the only way. Now with the advancement of mounting options, there’s really no reason to do it now. Unless in some kind of weird weapon choice with no mounting options.
I don’t think so my man. The Aimpoint 2000 has a much more “scope” like appearance. The 2000 is much longer than the one that was on the MP5 in that video. The Aimpoint 2000 also has the obscure angled battery pack on the side. Whichever red dot was on that MP5 was definitely a more modern Comp style Aimpoint of some sort, which was not correct for the time period of the alleged scenario. The one in the video even has a rubber 3-point battery and turret strap on it, which wasn’t offered on the 2000 or even the 5000.
Oh yea no I was talking about somehow the conversation of what Larry was using in the mid 80s
Ohhh gotcha. Yeah, that’s about the only Aimpoint that was out at the time that he would have been able to use.
Celt
.450/400 Nitro Ex
So, i have a Fenix Pd35 Tac Fenix PD35 TAC Tactical LED - 1000 Lumen Flashlight PD35 TAC
I was thinking of ordering this Fenix AER-02 V2.0 Remote Switch - Fenix Lighting
Then I would only need a mount for the light. I use the flashlight often as a handheld so i know its reliable, any thoughts? And what about a mount for the light itself?
@GOPerfect , i know you said you like Fenix.
I was thinking of ordering this Fenix AER-02 V2.0 Remote Switch - Fenix Lighting
Then I would only need a mount for the light. I use the flashlight often as a handheld so i know its reliable, any thoughts? And what about a mount for the light itself?
@GOPerfect , i know you said you like Fenix.
You'd need something that would fit your light specifically. Fenix makes this. Fenix ALG-00 Rail Mount - Fenix Lighting
Reliable as a handheld doesn't necessarily mean it will be reliable as a WML (not saying this wouldn't be just saying its not the same type of use and abuse)
Rail Mounts - Fenix Lighting
Buy a rail mount to quickly attach/detach your light to your gun’s rail. With a matte black finish to blend in, use a rail mount on your next hunting trip.
www.fenixlighting.com
To stay relatively inexpensive but get the best bang for your buck option, go with Streamlight HL-X Railmount option. Comes with a switch and a mount but you can upgrade to a better lower profile mount. The HL-X shares the same mounting pattern as the Surefire Scout, so you have a lot of aftermarket mounting options.
Also the Streamlight outperforms the Fenix PD35 Tac. They both have 1,000 lumens but the HL-X has 27,600 candela to the PD35 Tac’s 10,000 candela. They are both the same length and diameter bodies as well. PD35 Tac boasts a 200 meter beam distance to the HL-X’s 332 meters.
holdover
.475 A&M Magnum
Do any of them have strobe?
Strobe is dumb
holdover
.475 A&M Magnum
Ok why? Honest question.
It doesn't serve any real purpose, makes using a light complicated by having an extra mode that you now have to actively try not to engage if you want a solid light but don't remember the button sequence and now you accidentally have a strobe, or adds additional buttons to try and remember where they are to activate if it's all separate
Well, here it goes...
Strobe features aren’t as useful as they seem. They aren’t utilized very much at all in real world usage. Most of the time you end up accidentally putting it into strobe mode when you don’t want it to. The better light manufacturers have realized this and have started to not incorporate a strobe function in their lights at all, like the Surefire X300U and the soon to be Modlite PL350. You can also turn the strobe feature off on Streamlight’s with the Ten-Tap Programing like TLR-1’s (HL) as well as their handhelds with that same Ten-Tap programming. All of my Streamlights have the strobe feature turned off. The usage of strobe is usually unneeded. Your light is either on or off, no benefit to worry about getting it into strobe mode. Most lights have some weird order of button presses to activate the strobe mode. Some require you to press buttons on each side of the weapon light...whoever thought of that is a jackass. You want me to worry about activating not just one button but now two on opposite sides of the light when in a stressful situation when faced with a possible deadly encounter?! Because you have absolutely zero reason to use strobe while searching. Other lights require you to press the bottom twice in fast succession to activate strobe. Another annoying thing to work with because now you’re light is going through different modes over and over. Let’s say you’ve now pressed it twice to get into strobe. After being in strobe mode you decide you want to now go to constant high so you let go of the switch and press it fast again...you’ve now just reactivated strobe again. You have to actually completely let go of the button for a predetermined set of time by the light manufacturer to allow it to default back to high mode. NOW...let’s say you are in constant high and want to go to strobe. So you think you’ve pressed it twice but you actually pressed it three on accident and now you’ve entered low mode on accident. All those modes are annoying to work around while searching. If you do it long enough I think you’ll realize that you wish you had a high mode only light. Not to mention how long do you plan on having a gun pointed at someone in strobe mode to disorient them? A light on high mode allows you to gain as much information as you need to make a decision based on the situation. I’d rather have a subject illuminated constantly and be able to keep constant visual on the subject instead of having a flashing light where I only see approximately half of the visual information since the light is literally turning itself off over and over, which could put you behind the power curve since trying to track a moving person under a strobing light is not optimal. Another view on the subject is if the surrounding atmosphere is dark enough to where you believe a strobing light would disorient a subject, a constant bright light will disturb their light sensitive receptors (rhodopsin) in their eyes just as much. I used to believe in the whole strobe fad but after trying to utilize it in real world scenarios, it just doesn’t hold up to the hype. You have to think to yourself, how long do you honestly plan on holding someone at gun point with a light strobing hoping that it disorients them enough to just give up? If a gun pointed at someone isn’t enough to change someone’s behavior, a strobing light isn’t going to do jack but complicate the situation for the user of the light.
Lithium Ion batteries are simple to figure out, just go with the manufacturer recommendation or any reputable manufacturer. Mod Light recommends the Keep Power brand, Samsung and Nitecore are two other reputable brands. Li-on cells are cheap enough that the good stuff is quite affordable.
dwa12479
.338 Win Mag
Bullshit. I use strobe all the time, targets are MUCH easier to hit when they're moving in slow motion.
But none of them where incapacitated by the strobe?