Good Cheap Flashlights, similar to Surefire.

[Rory Amos]

Hey all, I was in Tuesday Morning, which has a no guns sign on the door but they never checked me, anyway. They have several Hummer brand LED flashlights, built similar to the Surefire lights, for $9.99 each. They are about the same length as my e2, yet smaller in diameter, they also have the pocket cip like the Surefire. They use 2 AAA batteries that are included, and at 15 lumens with a 9 hour runtime they seem like a good deal. Just thought some of the rest of you might be interested.


Rory

[jonboy]

www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6090

I use a good ole surefire 6P as many others do no doubt. These days the market is flooded but if you want one that can stand up to being thrown in a weaver ring and run raged on a 16" carbine all night at a night shoot and still have a working lamp on the ride home...well they have arguably the best incandescent lamp assembly on the market for this application and the ONLY good shotgun setup I've ever used (I actually like the older surefire 870 forend setup beter than the new one)

Of course THEN LED technology came up to speed and snuff and is VERY vibration resistant and allows brighter longer running lights with longer run times...of course go all the way to 90 lumens and you start whiting out or "obturating" the target you may need to ID. So there IS such a thing as "too bright" in a tactical light who's purpose is to "shead light" on the situation and allow you to see your target and ID it as a threat or non-threat and also allow you to see around the threat so you can see terrain obstacles to navigate and possible secondary threats or targets.

LED's in a high-quallity lamp get you more light...whiter light and while being very well focused also shed about the ideal amount of periferal light so you can see around you and the threat. I've A/B'd the standard 6P bulb alongside the above LED lamp assembly and have been running it in my 6P every since that night. Good (ideal)light run time runs 90-100 minutes of run time roughly versus maybe 45 in a P60 equiped 6P It is usable to nearly if not 2 hours and at it's worst it's about as good as a halfway used up batt. 6P -It will eventually cut out on you...but it will step down on the lamp assembly to a lower output long before that so you'll know it's coming.

The P60/6P= it gets a little dimmer about halfway through the hour run time...then it gets a little more dim....then it suddenly drops and stays pretty dim with anything more than sporadic intermitent flashes...then it getas REALLY dimmer and then suddenly it's useless...usually just past 50min to an hour of run time the rest happens in 5 to 10 minutes of use.

I've tried it in the woods and outbuildings and barns up on the mountain (country dark) and the LED unit is just plain better....in the pasture out back when something gets into the cows and riles them up it's second only to my million candle spotlight (the right tool for that job...which decidedly does not fit in a pocket nearly as well as a 6P or E2 executive-LOL) In a parkinglot in town it's the same thing...better. LED's just rule!

So if you want an $11 answer to the "how do I upgrade all this expesive surefire stuff I bought 5-15 years ago" question -there you have it. Otherwise streamlight and surefire both have excellent LED lights available now. Some more affordable than others. The streamlight line has REALLY surprised me lately with the TLR series being not only great lights but a great value...even better than surefires plastic series lights in my opinion.

Heck even some of the knock-offs are pretty usable these days and better than what we spent $70-100 on back in the day. I guess that's progress for you. Also Streamlight bundles their LED light with a very good DVD with Clint Smith from Thunder Ranch explaining the basics of implementing a tactical light with a firearm. Not all the top guys like him for some reason but I've always found his non-nonsense aproach refreshingly simple and forthright. Also Ken Hackathorn and Bill Wilson have a great video on the same subject sold throw wilson combat...I can get anyone either or both of the above if interested at the shop. Wilson and hackathorn are really a great couple of guys...Ken is a business partner of an old buddy of mine that runs a school and supply business with him. He's a short round guy that REALLY knows his beans to...I sometimes reffer to him as master Yoda. If you wanna learn how to shoot Ken Hackathorn and anyone he runds with is deffinately hard to beat.

As Forrest Gump would say....that's all I have to say about that

[Rory Amos]

I agree with you on most of the above jonboy, and was not saying that they were better, just similar. some of the guys at work really liked my surefires, of which I have 3 and wouldn't trade for anything, but they didn't like the price or couldn't afford the price. They liked these lights and they have held up well in the mud and grease and rough handling that comes from working at a sawmill. I just thought they were well worth their very reasonable price for someone who doesn't want to shell out the money for a surefire or streamlight.

[jonboy]

Yeah my bud and his wife have a couple $20 walmart (I wana say rayovac?) 3 or 5 watt LED's and they run off 2 AA's...I wouldn't trade my surefires for em (the switch feel aint great and the twist lockout feature feels kinda iffy) but they do work and perform surprisingly similar for $20...and the still outperform a similat light with incand. bulds. There's a TON of look-alikes on Ebay for $10-15 that even fit surefire holsters and carriers. Batteries are pretty cheap if you order enough to. Things have deffinately improved for the low budget consumer (was and sometimes still is me) I'm just old enough I've finally gotten some more expensive tools as well. Truth be told I like the way the scorpions swith feels better than the surefire...but their bulb assembly sucked...the new LED version is cool but a bit too big for CCW ride along...their TLR series with the E2 like clip aint bad though. WAY cheaper than surefires similar lights. I just can't believe how much surefire wants for an LED upgrade head! This $10 one has worked very well so far (2-3 sets of batts...roughly a year of use if that). Once you get used to any hi-output LED light you're soiled for anything else...I bet the guys back in the 60's -80's would have killed for this kind of light at these kind of size and weight ratios!...for under $20 in some cases now to boot!

My only point was the older crowd that already spent the $$$ can play to -for very small cash outlay ($6 cheaper than a standard bulb in fact!) LED's are pretty well here to stay I believe.

[Dwight Pilkilton]

Here to stay , without a doubt. But the next thing in flashlights will be HID flashlights....already some available but very pricey right now....remember LED Luxion Star lights 4 years ago ;D