I just picked up my third and forth "expensive" tac lights. #1 & 2 were the light on the left. I got these for about $55-60 on a group buy on the Candlepower forum. Incredible lights. Rechargeable lithium. Very bright and good color. Makes it easy to find the dog poo in the early morning daily yard cleanup.:rofl:
Sorry about the ugly gun. It was out and I wanted to show the light size.
Nightstand = Surefire P2X Fury Tactical
EDC = HDS Clicky
I love my HDS Clicky! I also have a Streamlight TLR-1 HL/Glock 17 combo that sometimes does nightstand duty and I keep a big Maglite with a 1000 lumen LED conversion handy as well.
Lots of tactical lights out there ... if available buy the one that uses the rechargeable 18650 batteries. I compared one that uses a single Lion 18650 or 3 AAA's and the 18650 was a tad brighter. Considering you can buy 3400 mAh 18650's that's gonna provide a good run time
^ +1
My two lights shown in the first post are 18650 powered. I wanted an additional feature, USB charge port, so I could charge without removing the battery. All 4 of my Klarus lights are USB port equipped for charging.
I will roil the pot and give my position that I absolutely, positively believe that lights on guns is the stupidest idea to come down the pike that I have ever seen. Admittedly I come from another generation of law enforcement and shooters when my opinion was the accepted one, and apparently things have changed. I still have not figured out why. But I do not have a favorite "night light" for my gun or to carry with it to turn on in my hand. I am not giving up my night vision, or providing a beautiful target for anyone. For the life of me I can not understand why anyone would want to. I have taken this position before in here and have been bombarded with all of the "great reasons". I have yet to see one that makes this a good idea. But bombard me if you wish.
As a side note, I have seen people who disagree with me on this also chastise the notion that wracking a pump on a shotgun to scare away an intruder is a bad idea because it "gives away your position" but see no problem going after the guy with the same shotgun with a headlight attached.
i will roil the pot and give my position that i absolutely, positively believe that lights on guns is the stupidest idea to come down the pike that i have ever seen. Admittedly i come from another generation of law enforcement and shooters when my opinion was the accepted one, and apparently things have changed. I still have not figured out why. But i do not have a favorite "night light" for my gun or to carry with it to turn on in my hand. I am not giving up my night vision, or providing a beautiful target for anyone. For the life of me i can not understand why anyone would want to. I have taken this position before in here and have been bombarded with all of the "great reasons". I have yet to see one that makes this a good idea. But bombard me if you wish.
As a side note, i have seen people who disagree with me on this also chastise the notion that wracking a pump on a shotgun to scare away an intruder is a bad idea because it "gives away your position" but see no problem going after the guy with the same shotgun with a headlight attached.
I have a Fenix something or other. You press the button and it turns on. Most importantly I have light switches. Those switches can be turned on! There is nothing magical or uber tactical about running around with a flashlight when you can flip a switch and see.
I see no reason to spend $50 to $150 for a flashlight today when you can get a 200 lumen Cree LED light for $15 that uses standard, inexpensive and easy to find AAA batteries and will run for ten hours straight on those batteries.
Just as a Wilson in a hand crafted custom leather rig is more interesting and stylish than a Filipino 1911 in a black plastic holster on a nylon belt .... and Cappi's beautiful hand made cradles are more interesting than a plastic holster screwed to the back of the nightstand. A bottle of Thunderbird will get a person as drunk as a 2010 Georges De Latour
A Gladius and a couple of cheap but *bright* convertibles (takes either cheap AAA or expensive batteries). Gladius set to strobe. My teenage son has caught some photons from them.
So, you don't shoot that one? ;- j That blue is a nice colour.
A Gladius and a couple of cheap but *bright* convertibles (takes either cheap AAA or expensive batteries). Gladius set to strobe. My teenage son has caught some photons from them.
So, you don't shoot that one? ;- j That blue is a nice colour.
Not much. My wife put 1100-1200 rounds thru one of the 226s last year and 400 thru the 239. I put some thru them. I spent most of my shooting with a Gold Cup or a Wilson I picked up near the end of the year. The blue is a trick of the camera and lighting.
As my instructor said, turn on the lights in your house. I'm not going outside to "investigate" anything at night anytime I feel the need to be armed. Let em come and get me.
In situations like camping where there's no/not enough ambient light to ID someone and I have no indication they intend harm yet and I'm already there and armed, a powerful flashlight would be my choice over "lighting up" an unidentifiable person with a 230 grain bullet.
With luck, the only duty my lights will see are for finding a recoil spring plug under a bed , car repair, poo patrol and the like.
I have an alarm system that tells me that, but yes, Godzilla could be attacking the neighborhood or Aliens could have just landed and they might be friendly and not know about knocking.
I know that you need to be right, so I will end this circular discussion by allowing you to think that you are.
My power went out during Sandy for 10 days. During that time I seen people looting generators, drilling holes in gas tanks and fighting over who was first in line for gas.
I keep a light on my shotgun and a fenix TK16 on the nightstand. You don't HAVE to use a light just because you have one. If it's freezing outside and someone comes to steal my generator late at night in my back yard, they are gonna get lit up.
Nightstand light is primarily a Fenix PD32UE. EDC currently is a Streamlight PT1L-1AA. I have a bunch of lights I like so things do change.
I'm a big fan of weapon-mounted lights. Special Forces have different needs than regular military than law enforcement than self defense but were I in charge every single law enforcement officer in the United States would be required to use a WML with a pressure switch and meet a standard of training. Positive identification of a lethal threat is a big part of what separates good people from murderers and there are a number of innocent people who have been shot and sometimes killed who are shot by otherwise good people in the dark... Show me one time where someone was killed because they had a light attached to their gun. The numbers are clear. Add to that the innumerable people who could have or would have been shot but for the positive identification offered by a WML and the tactical advantage and reduced hesitation afforded by the use of a WML. I'm personally aware of multiple law enforcement shootings where the use of a WML was instrumental in the officer's winning the fight.
That said, nothing is true 100% of the time and each person's needs vary based on their situation. To say that WMLs are stupid is pure ignorance.
On a side note, I have no problem racking the slide of a shotgun if one understands why they are doing it. It is very common to store shotguns without a round in the chamber and thus it is somewhat necessary to rack a round into the chamber if one anticipates a potential need to shoot it. Further, the sound and the message that a person is home and awake may be enough to scare away an intruder. There are a dozen things that can and probably will "give away your position", so I don't really buy that point of view. I think the biggest issue with the "rack the slide" argument are those individuals who depend on that act alone to scare away even the most dedicated bad guy with no other thought towards home security and home defense.
In an earlier post "... my son caught some photons ...": one such occasion was when he *jumped* into the kitchen 01:00 - 02:00 wielding a la Crosse stick where I was making a midnight snack. He's taller than I and significantly heavier, so man- sized; only 15YO at the time. Said photons dazzled him; gave me positive ID on the "attacker" without unholstering.
Following the above, I took advantage of the "teachable moment". A case, I expect, of a picture being worth a thousand words: the picture being the spots in front of his eyes; and the thousand words (or thereabouts) my ... explanation ... that I - prefer- he alert *me* to a potential intrusion than to go after unknown invader(s) with a stick that's not even sharp.
:- j
A 14.5 pinned 6920 with RDS and Surefire, Glock 21 with TLR-1, Gen2 Glock 19 and my Les Baer in the bedroom.
I have reinforced all door-knobs and dead-bolts; windows are doweled so the first floor is difficult to force entry. I strive to keep the "Bad" outside and protect the people inside. A SWAT team will need extra swings to breach my doors.
And a TLR-1 (or a TLR-3, depending on what happens to be tucked nearby).
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