Confession of flashlight junkie......

by Gunner , St Louis, Friday, December 14, 2012, 09:10 (4364 days ago)

Yes I am a little bit of a flashlight junkie and over the last 30+ years I have collected more than a few. Over time I have bought everything from cheap to really good lights. After years of buying crappy plastic flashlights I bought my first Mag-Lite. Fell in love with the knurled aluminum body, adjustable beam and replaceable bulb. As time went by my desire for better flashlights grew, that’s when I discovered tactical Xenon bulb lights. My first was a Surefire G2 Nitrolon.

http://www.surefire.com/illumination/flashlights/g2-nitrolon.html

Wow was I shocked the first time I used it, the intense white beam and lite weight made me forget about my beloved Mag-Lites. But I missed the aluminum body so I bought a Pelican M6 tactical light to supplement my G2, while heavier, I really liked the feel of M6.

http://www.pelican.com/lights/2320/v1.jpg

With a wondering eye a few years later I bought a Hellfighter X-4,

http://www.hellfireusa.com/photo/5.jpg

at the time the latest and greatest tactical light. Then my world came crashing down……..the Hellfighter started having issues with the tail cap switch. I contacted the company and they requested I return the light for service, two weeks later a brand new X-4 was delivered back to me. Happiness in flashlight world returned, sadly it didn’t last long.

The Pelican M6 started to develop tail cap issues like the Hellfighter, Pelican offers replacement parts for the light, just not the tail cap. The twist on feature works but not the temporary push button switch doesn‘t. After awhile the second Hellfighter started having issues with it’s tail cap, which was not a good thing considering I was depending on it at the time as my work light. Really hard to inspect tracker trailers in the dark. I switched to the Surefire G2, after almost ten years was still working without a single issue.

Then came the LED invasion, promising longer battery life and almost indestructible light diode. My first was a Coleman brand aluminum 3 AA LED light, while a little chunky it is a decent light, good brightness and long battery life at 40+ hours of run time. But it left something to be desired, just didn’t feel well constructed. That led me back to my Mag-Lites when I discovered TerraLux, LED conversion kits for Mag-Lite flashlights.

http://www.terraluxportable.com/products/led-conversion-kits/

The one thing about Mag-Lites that sucks is their bulbs, especially in the Mini Mag-Lite, that little two prong bulb is unreliable and very expensive. To say I was impressed with the TerraLux conversion kits would be an understatement. My 2 and 3 D cell Mag-Lites are much brighter and the light beam stays white unlike the normal Mag-Lite bulb/light stream which becomes brown colored after a bit of use. The real surprise was the Mini Mag conversion kit performance, stunning is the word, blinding would be another. I recommend the companies products highly. (Amazon.com sells most of the LED conversion kits, a little cheaper than buying directly from TerraLux)

While I love the intense white light of Xenon based lights like the Surefire G2 the problem is the use of CR123A batteries, typical lights only last for an hour or so and then die, usually with little to no warning. Not good if you are trailing a wounded deer after sun down or broke down on the side of the highway at one in the morning. Which led me to the lasted in tactical lights…..LED based lights. My newest light is a Surefire 6PX Tactical, it’s dual mode tail cap switch offers 200 lumens with a run time of two hours or 10 lumens for forty five hours.

http://www.surefire.com/illumination/flashlights/6px-tactical.html

Two things I have learned in the last 20 years…..LED based lights are pretty amazing and Surefire makes a great, dependable flashlight that I can trust.

Gunner