Considering weapon lights final update

Buccaneer12 · Aug 25, 2023

I don't always carry a weapon light, and understand why some people choose not to. That said, I think with the right training they are great tools that help us leverage our capabilities and manipulate our environment. In part 2 (post #7) I'll address a couple tactics considerations when using them. A huge portion of handgun uses happen in reduced light, so it is something we need to plan for as part of our EDC or duty.

We often question how much light we will need, how much is enough, how much is too much, and is there "blinding" of the threat or "blinding" of us as the user from back splash of too many lumens. To look at this, I've taken some pictures that fit within common use parameters people will find in training or in the real world. We'll look at pitch black outdoors/rural, indoors, blinding effect, cutting through vehicle tint, lit late night streets, and dark alleys.

We have:
Surefire X300U
Surefire X300T (new)
ModLite PLH V2 (new)
Streamlight TLR-1HL
Streamlight TLR7A
Inforce Wild1 (new)
SigSauer Foxtrot 2R
Surefire XC-1C

Of note, I do no currently have any modern pistol mounting Inforce lights. I have a generally favorable opinion of them from my usage of them, as they have spectacular flood, fill, and spill. I also did not include an Olight. The Olight beam performance is pretty decent, and similar to the TLR1, but I don't consider them a viable brand from durability standpoints.

some baselines:
-All lights had fresh 123's applied except the XC1-C which got a 1.5v 1200MaH aaa battery.
-11pm at night(+/-)
-15% window tint on the vehicle

In post 7 I'll talk about what I like to find in a light and why, and why some others may want to consider a different approach to mine. the good news? Any of these are viable lights for general CCW and you can get by with a lot less light than some might think. Capturing light accurately is a bit difficult on basic camera equipment. I've done my best to review pictures for the ones that "seem" closest to what I was perceiving with my naked eye, and will call out a couple things as we go.

Baseline for rural shots:

Buccaneer12 · Aug 25, 2023

X300

First up is the X300. This is by far the light I have used the most over my time, and it is hard to find fault with it. Durable, reliable, good attachments (especially B variant), and good switches.

Rural, range of ~20m. What is hard to capture in this is how much more usable periphery to the light there is on either side that looks black. As you can see, the subject and the contents of their hands and body position are clearly observable.

Cutting through 15% vehicle window tint. Hands clearly visible. Note that the glass causes considerable back reflection. Not as bad as what we will see from others, but noticeable. The cabin is well illuminated.

Indoors, black out conditions, range of ~15m down a hallway. Notice that all door frames are clearly visible in the splash, as is the subject and their hands. The picture doesnt do full justice for how visible the subject is in person.

Taking a 15' x 15' room from 2 steps just outside the doorway. Notice the entire room is illuminated with splash, flood, and fill.

Eating the light straight on from ~15m

Illuminating night time city street

Illuminating ally way. Back wall approx ~25m away. Total coverage, all possible doorways and contour features are illuminated

In the end, the X300 performs well no matter what. It. has a warm, easy to view light beam and has tremendous flood and fill that the pictures struggle to give justice to. It lacks some of the center candela of the TLR1-HL, but it is my #1 choice for a pistol mounted light.

Buccaneer12 · Aug 25, 2023

Tlr1

Streamlight's answer to the X300. It is a very powerful weapon light, with more candela and brighter hot spot, and slightly longer throw than the X300. Slightly shorter body, has wide acceptance as durable and reliable. I personally dock it points because I don't like the switches, but that is a personal preference. I also similarly don't weigh candela with the same importance as flood and fill, so the advantage there is moot to me and creates another minor disadvantage. This and the Foxtrot 2R are the 2 lights that Mrs. Bucc said were "most blinding" when in her face, on account of the afore mentioned center hot spot.

Rural, range of ~20m. Notice the increased center performance over even the X300, most apparent at the tree line which is at ~50m.

Cutting 15% vehicle tint. Note that while the subject's hands are still readily visible, there is less overall illumination inside the vehicle as the window glass bounces the concentrated candela back when compared against the X300. still very usable, and effective at cutting tint.

Indoors, black out conditions, hallway at a range of ~15m. As before, note the subject is clearly visible, hands visible, and door ways easily in view. Also see how the tighter beam/hot spot is marking the wall.

2 steps outside a 15' x 15' room. Notice the slightly reduced fill when compared to the x300, and notice the splash back coming from the far corner on account of the beams hot spot. This was very noticeable to the eye in person.

Eating the light straight on from ~15m

Illuminating city street

Illuminating ally way

In the end, the TLR-1HL is a great light at a great price. It comes in quite a bit cheaper than the X300, so if longer, concentrated throw is of value to you and you don't mind the switches, it may take the lead over the X300. I have reasons for why these benefits are of no value to me I'll discuss later, but in short: the flood and fill is much more valuable to me as I paint with the light, the bounce back from the candela indoors and on vehicle windows is noticeable, and searching for an armed assailant or threat at distance with a light is a dangerous game. Again, this is a great light, and different opinions may put it in the lead over the X300 for some.

Buccaneer12 · Aug 25, 2023

Tlr7a

A 1 cell powerhouse. This light is probably one of the more common CCW lights, especially with the Sub variants like what is on my Hellcat, and others' 365's and 43etc's. It has ok switches, great flood and fill, and is affordable. I've read the off hand complaint about its durability, but I've never had any of the 4 I own go down or fail. My complaints with this light is that the switches are a bit too easy to inadvertently trip during draw or if you bump them.

Rural, ~20m range. As before, the subject's figure and hands are easily observable. It has great flood and a useable hot spot. The balance of lumen and candela is superb, and it has no problems reaching back to the 50m tree line. For a 1 cell, small reflector light, this is terrific. It lacks the lateral spill of the 2 cell X300 and the hot spot of the TLR1-HL, but it is hitting well above its weight. I was surprised to see how "warm" the TRL7A light beam was compared to the almost blue cool hue of the TLR1-HL

Easily cuts 15% window tight

Indoors, 15M hallway. In this picture, the subject does not appear as clearly illuminated as she was in person. In person, the hands are easily seen as being empty, and posture/physical demeanor easily observed. Not as lit as the 2 cells, but perfectly adequate to positively identify and make a sound decision.

Taking a 15' x 15' room from 2 steps outside the doorway. Notice here we start to see the degradation of the flood, fill, and spill from the other 2 cell lights. It is still giving us what we need to see the majority of the room reasonably well, but not like a 2 cell can.

Eating the light straight on at 15m. Notice the subject's arms are easily seen around the beam, as is her feet.

Night time city street, no issues of note. Balanced performance.

Ally way, back wall at ~25m. again, over all balanced performance but we can see the flood, fill, and spill lacking compared the 2 cell lights. Still usable and mostly adequate.

The verdict: imo the TLR7A is a great CCW light over all. It has a balanced performance that only seems to be lacking when directly compared to a 2 cell light. If form factor, aesthetic, and carry comfort are things the TLR7A meets for a user, it is a great choice. No surprise here. It's common and popular for a reason.

Buccaneer12 · Aug 25, 2023

Sig Foxtrot2r

this is the latest update to the Sig Foxtrot light. I'm not convinced Sig is making these in house, and my first guess is that it is being made by Streamlight. It is a single cell light of similar form factor to the TLR7A, and I picked it up to put on a German Sig. This updated version is claiming 750 lumen and a focused center candela spot to try and bump the performance over and above the TLR7A. I was surprised by this little light, and Mrs. Bucc said this was as functionally blinding at the eye as the TLR1-HL on account of its hot spot. Over all performance was pretty good, and while it does favor a center hot, I found the flood, fill, and spill to be on par the TLR7A. The switches are easy to use: down for momentary, up for constant. That said, they are a little larger than I think they need to be, and protrude reward more than necessary.

Rural, ~20m. Of note, to the eye the hot spot is almost as bright as the TLR1-HL. I do not feel the volume of flood is well represented in the picture. The hotspot is VERY defined, but there is more flood than what is seen here. I was really impressed with the throw for a 1cell light.

Cutting 15% tint. Phenomenal performance here. The balance of the light's reduced over all power but focused candela easily cut the 15% tint for total cab visibility while somehow having minimal back splash into my face. This was very surprising performance.

15m hallway. Mrs. Bucc said this light was as blinding as the TLR1-HL in this condition. The results here speak for themselves, and are representative of what I saw in live.

Taking a 15' x 15' room from 2 steps outside the doorway. Here we can see the center candela overwhelming the center of the room, but the flood, fill, and spill is falling short of the 2 cell lights.

City street again showing good throw

Ally way, as before back wall at ~25m. Similar total performance to the TLR7A

Verdict: behaves very much like a 1 cell TLR1-HL. Really not a bad light, and I was impressed at what it could do running on just one cell. Switches a little more in the way than I would like, but better than the TLR7A

ask1911 · Nov 29, 2023

I'm a fan of light but with weapon mounted lights we have to remember that everything we light up we are pointing a loaded gun at that same thing...it might be something or someone we wouldn't want to point a loaded gun at.

Buccaneer12 · Aug 25, 2023

XC1-C

this is the latest non laser variant of the XC1. The XC1, AA scout weapon lights, and the aim point comp m5 were all made to meet a contract need for systems that did not require lithium batteries. This is, imo, an advantage because these batteries are available absolutely everywhere. For this test, however, I did use a lithium AAA in the light. It is a 1.5v (as opposed to 1.2 commonly found) with a 1200MaH reserve. The 1.5v showed a small bump in performance over the 1.2v. The results from this light will be surprising for some. This little thing has a narrow and thin form factor, and does what it needs to do. The switches are as they should be. Stiff but not difficult, options for momentary or constant on, well placed and easily accessible without being in the way.

Rural, 20m. Notice how entirely visible the subject is with absolute clarity. Posture, demeanor, and hands are all readily and easily observable. The flood patter gives a wide angle of viewing, and while performance at ~50m has fallen off, the initial tree line is still observable.

15% window tint. shreds right through.

15m hallway. this picture disappointed me, because no matter what I tried, I couldn't get the pic to come out looking like what I saw without going into filters/settings and manipulating the image which I did not want to do for any of these. In reality, she is easily observable and empty hands were easily seen. Positive identification was readily made. I just couldn't get it to reflect that in this picture.

15' x 15' room as before. Performance falls short of the 2 cells, but it leaves nothing to be desired nor falls short of the 1 cell lights. Room was over all well lit, with no splash back on the user

Eating the light at 15m. Similar to the TLR7A. Subject can still be seen behind the light at this distance.

City street

Ally way. Again notice this light has no problems filling the area with usable light. Fantastic flood, fill, and spill and very usable performance. Impressive given the power source and the size of the reflector.

This is one of my favorite CCW lights, price not withstanding. The advent of the single cell lights like the TLR7A and the Foxtrot2R make this a harder argument to make, and I recognize that. But again, going back to what I want out of the light: flood, fill, and spill and this little thing generates all of those things in spades. For urban and suburban use in a small package, I really like it.

I really want to try the newest 1 cell inforce light, because they traditionally do a great job of flood, fill, and spill. It may be everything about this I like at a higher performance level.

Buccaneer12 · Aug 25, 2023

Additional:

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtube.com

Understanding lumen, candela, and lux:

The Best Explaination of Lumens, Lux and Candela

Lumens, Lux and Candela are often used to describe brightness of light. But what do they really mean? And how do they relate to each other?

www.torchspot.com

Surefire X300T