Best Flashlight?

bigride

bigride

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Of today's offerings, what's the best value for a flashlight to go in the nightstand beside the trusty .357? I don't necessarily mean cheap. I believe in quality. I want a good value and prefer American made if possible. Thanks.
 
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My choice was Surefire 6P. Not sure it is the "best", but it works for me...
 
To see with, to blind with or to bonk someone over the head?
Mag Light to see with, Surefire for blinding, biggy-sized Mag Light for bonking.

Great, now I need to begin gathering a "Flashlight Arsenal".

Without IL, please...:D
 
Every time I tried to add the G3 to my cart at the sale price, it would always be full price so I gave up.


There are lots of LED lights, I can come up with some suggestions in a few days. My play for the G3 was to dump the stock lamp (which was bright ten years ago, now it's behind the times) and stick a high power LED in there. You can spend the bucks and use a Malkoff or use any of the several $20 drop ins that work very well.

If you choose a drop in with the proper voltage, you can convert the G3 to well over 250 lumins and run it off of two AA batteries (I have a bunch of Eneloops).


If you really need lots of light, I have a Blaster NG I might put up for sale shortly. It'll do 1750 lumins :D

Blaster, the Next Generation: Luminus Phlatlight SSR-90, 1,750 lumens, 13,000 lux
 
Grog said:
Every time I tried to add the G3 to my cart at the sale price, it would always be full price so I gave up.
Click to expand...

Seems to be working now. I just put one in the cart to see and it came up at the sale price of $29.95.
 
While I do have a few of the new , small high power lithium/LED wonder-lights , I still have a 5-D cell (w/LED conversion) aluminum Streamlight in my truck and by the bed. Makes for a good club if needed.
 
flashlight

SureFire "BACKUP". Not inexpensive but fantastic quality. Brighter than a 5 D-cell and only 4'' long. Also has a dim setting.
 
I used to be a die-hard Surefire guy. I still am to some extent...I mean, my EDC light is still my good ol' Surefire L4 "Digital Lumamax" with 100 lumens of bright LED light.

However...

For duty use, I recently dumped my Surefire G3 for a Streamlight Polytac LED. This thing throws like crazy! It's the first LED light that I ever liked and you can pick 'em up for around 40 bucks.
 
For an all around flashlight, I use a Maglite. I like that the big one can double as a club, they are durable, and made in USA. Surefire's are great if blinding light is needed/desired.
 
I'm partial to Streamlite products. The Stinger and Strion LED models are excellent products for good handlights. Also check Insight Technologies. I have a model HX150r that I carry on duty daily.
 
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I would avoid club size lights if you are grabbing your .357...if you have a gun in your hand I highly doubt you will be clubbing an intruder. And they make it much harder to shoot...I run the mobile range for our dept. and we have to shoot with flashlights. Most cops carry the Streamlight 20x and although it makes a great club, it's lousy for shooting accurately. Get your self something small that takes 2 123 batteries...recharegeables may save you money, but as I see every month in the range, they go dead at the worst time. 123s last ten years and temperature extremes don't seem to bother them. I have an eagletac p20c2 but there are a multitude of good LED lights out there. I went with the egletac because they are highly recommended on the flashlight forums, aren't very expensive, and has 3 power outputs, including a strobe... which is very handy in a home defense situation... also the strike bezel screws on and off so I can remove it when I pass through airport security in case they deem it a weapon and confiscate it.

1m.jpg


A good technique for shooting with these size lights is to put it between the fingers of your off hand so you can still get a solid 2 hand grip on the gun...:)

jsw_hb_9-286x184.jpg
 
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six250 said:
SureFire "BACKUP". Not inexpensive but fantastic quality. Brighter than a 5 D-cell and only 4'' long. Also has a dim setting.
Click to expand...

I've been a fan of Surefire for quite some time. I still have a 6P that I bought back around '93 or '94. It was 11 years before I had to replace the lamp assembly. I keep it in my backpack. I also have a E2E that I keep next to my bed.

My current EDC light is the E1B Back-Up. I think it's an excellent light. However, I don't like the way it switches between low and high output. High output is the default, but if you hit the switch again in less than 2 seconds it changes to low output. Doing some practice drills with the light and the gun showed this to be a potential weakness.

I've been looking at getting the Fenix PD 20 R5. Fenix has been getting some decent reviews from what I've seen. It seems to be about the size of the E1B, which I like. It also puts out 180 lumens at max output. It has 6 different settings including a low output and strobe. I particularly like that the settings are based on twisting the head rather than the on/off switch. It's also about 1/3 the price of the E1B. I'll probably get one to try and see if it works any better for me.
 
Man, these lights have sure come a long way since I came on the job.
Here's my first duty light. It was great on building searches as long as there was no breeze.
 

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River's Edge LED light, metal body, from any Maxxway or similar store. Costs the whopping sum of three dollars. I have four of them. There is even a knurled rubber piece around the body that glows in the dark. Plent bright, lasts a claimed 25 hours off a single alkaline AA battery. Push button activation. I've got four of them. Dropped them, ran them under the sink, and my kids have thrown them about. All still work. They even have the trendy CQB crenulated bezel.

Though you'll likely be deafened and blind from muzzle flash if you set off full power .357 mag loads indoors anyway.
 
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