low powered weapon lights

[JEB]

I have been having a thought regarding intensity in weapon mounted lights. The trend for WMLs (on rifles especially) seems to all be 300+ lumens and I am beginning to wonder if that might be a little much for some situations.

Little bit of background: I currently have a 350 lumen light mounted on my AR. A couple weeks ago, around 3 am, I awoke and was unable to sleep, and took this as an opportunity to “clear my house” in full darkness while having my eyes completely acclimated to the dark. I have a small home (think single-wide) with mostly light-colored walls. What I quickly discovered was that when I quickly lit up a room, the brightness was so intense that it caused me to squint pretty hard. This got me thinking that perhaps my light is too powerful (at least for my needs).

Jump forward to last night I did some experimenting. I taped a streamlight stylus pro (100 lumens) to the handguard of my AR pistol, turned off the lights, and checked a couple rooms. This seems like more than enough light to easily make a positive ID out to about 25 feet (well over the longest line of sight in my house) and it doesn’t hurt my eyes with excessive splash-back. Currently I am considering fabricating a mount to attach this light to the front sight tower, but wanted to make sure I wasn’t off my rocker before proceeding. The questions I am having are:

Do you find that there are situations where bright is TOO bright?

Is there anything to this idea that I am overlooking?

Any potential negatives that I have not thought of?

 

[Gordon]

I have been having a thought regarding intensity in weapon mounted lights. The trend for WMLs (on rifles especially) seems to all be 300+ lumens and I am beginning to wonder if that might be a little much for some situations.

Little bit of background: I currently have a 350 lumen light mounted on my AR. A couple weeks ago, around 3 am, I awoke and was unable to sleep, and took this as an opportunity to “clear my house” in full darkness while having my eyes completely acclimated to the dark. I have a small home (think single-wide) with mostly light-colored walls. What I quickly discovered was that when I quickly lit up a room, the brightness was so intense that it caused me to squint pretty hard. This got me thinking that perhaps my light is too powerful (at least for my needs).

Jump forward to last night I did some experimenting. I taped a streamlight stylus pro (100 lumens) to the handguard of my AR pistol, turned off the lights, and checked a couple rooms. This seems like more than enough light to easily make a positive ID out to about 25 feet (well over the longest line of sight in my house) and it doesn’t hurt my eyes with excessive splash-back. Currently I am considering fabricating a mount to attach this light to the front sight tower, but wanted to make sure I wasn’t off my rocker before proceeding. The questions I am having are:

Do you find that there are situations where bright is TOO bright?

Is there anything to this idea that I am overlooking?

Any potential negatives that I have not thought of?

Overlooking the lower power settings on MOST newer "hi lumen" tactical lights or even the great new $20 Duracell 1000+ lumen c cell flashlights Costco has .. When I started using tactical lights in training there were no LED and the high priced lights topped out around 100 Lumens . Yes that was good for searching rooms in normal homes. It had very limited deterrent effect to the oppositions eyes however like the new 200+ ones do. If your 350 lumen mounted light is too much with no controls to lower it then consider a piece of duct tape across the portion of lens closet to your eyes, usually the upper portion. The light won't be left on long enough to melt or burn it and it is allways there when you pull it off if you leave a tab. When 600 lumen lights for less than $100 became available I was very stoked, now I could see all around the yard when needed. You are not supposed to walk around like a light house when sweeping or searching. , on when actively searching/firing and off when moving is the recommended routine. remember you can point the gun down toward floor to lessen light scatter. Yes exposure to bright light kills night vision and shining in the eyes even temporarily blinds opponent which is to your advantage.

 

[FL-NC]

I always stuck to the idea "brighter is better" when dealing with white light. Overseas, I never had to clear anything covered in white paint or any other color of paint, but many of our shoot houses stateside were painted white internally, some were unpainted concrete, some had rubber walls, some had walls made of pressure treated wood.

 

[Zerodefect]

Yes, absolutely.

I'll put a 'lil Surefire Xc1 on my carbine sometimes. Small, lightweight, only 100 lumens.

Weapon lights should have zero settings. Push on only. The last thing I want is ringtones and weather reports from my weapon light.

 

[JEB]

Overlooking the lower power settings on MOST newer "hi lumen" tactical lights or even the great new $20 Duracell 1000+ lumen c cell flashlights Costco has .. When I started using tactical lights in training there were no LED and the high priced lights topped out around 100 Lumens . Yes that was good for searching rooms in normal homes. It had very limited deterrent effect to the oppositions eyes however like the new 200+ ones do. If your 350 lumen mounted light is too much with no controls to lower it then consider a piece of duct tape across the portion of lens closet to your eyes, usually the upper portion. The light won't be left on long enough to melt or burn it and it is allways there when you pull it off if you leave a tab. When 600 lumen lights for less than $100 became available I was very stoked, now I could see all around the yard when needed. You are not supposed to walk around like a light house when sweeping or searching. , on when actively searching/firing and off when moving is the recommended routine. remember you can point the gun down toward floor to lessen light scatter. Yes exposure to bright light kills night vision and shining in the eyes even temporarily blinds opponent which is to your advantage.

that is a good idea using tape. less light if you don't need it, and remove the tape if you need more. I'll give this a try!

 

[JEB]

Yes, absolutely.

I'll put a 'lil Surefire Xc1 on my carbine sometimes. Small, lightweight, only 100 lumens.

Weapon lights should have zero settings. Push on only. The last thing I want is ringtones and weather reports from my weapon light.

I agree completely! I want one brightness setting and that's it! don't need a bunch of features, just light.

 

[ClickClickD'oh]

One of the important things to remember about weapon lights is that they are not supposed to be used as search lights. Nothing gives me pucker factor faster then seeing an officer hang a Glock around a door and trigger the light to see what's behind it.

You should be bouncing the light off the ground or surface away from what you are looking at, and using the reflected light to search for things that don't look right, shadows where they shouldn't be or Baba Yaga. If you are looking into the lights hotspot you need to retrain how you are using your light.

 

[labnoti]

The human eye can see things over an incredibly wide range of luminosity from very faint light, to very bright, but not at the same time. The brightness (magnitude) of the brightest object or reflection you see will determine how faint an object (lowest magnitude) you can see. The more you turn up the light on one thing, the more you need to turn it up on everything else to see it. In other words, projecting a bright beam of light will give you tunnel-vision.

Where super bright beams work well is over long ranges. They need to be very narrowly focused to avoid reflections and glare of nearfield objects. It would seem they have limited use for home-defense, self-defense where the situation is more likely to be CQB. The guy whose fence-line is a half-mile out might have special needs.

Using a bright light as a "dazzler" is a different subject. The criteria for effectiveness in dazzling your target is not likely to be conducive to improving your own vision, but I can't speak to the effectiveness or any benefits of dazzling. I just don't know.

 

[labnoti]

You should be bouncing the light off the ground or surface away from what you are looking at, and using the reflected light to search for things that don't look right, shadows where they shouldn't be or Baba Yaga. If you are looking into the lights hotspot you need to retrain how you are using your light.

This is good advice. My EDC pocket light maxes out at 100 lumens, but when I use it in my own home at night, I typically shine it off the white ceiling. Not only does it keep the beam out of other people's eyes, but it also prevents me from reducing my visibility looking into the hotspot.

Outdoors, I sometimes feel the 100 lumens is barely sufficient for ~25 yards or so. I don't get off work until 7. In the winter it's dark. I walk my dog where there are a lot of Coyotes. When the moon is out, I see them out there around 50 yards or more. When there's no moonlight, I'd like a little more light. I thought maybe a red LED light would work well. It's something to consider when increasing to 300 lumens or more, maybe red light is better?

 

[greyling22]

Most modern lights are adjustable. For example one of my lights has settings up 1500 lumens 800 lumens 400 lumens 150 lumens and 10 lumens at the touch of a button.

I have a little Olight that that will go from 500 lumens down to .5 lumens.

 

[Zerodefect]

I have some of those as well. But never use them as tac lights.

I have a carbine with a Surefire E2d led that goes high on first push, and then low on second push. It's good for hunting and such. If I wanted to use it for carbine or HD training I'd swap it's head with my E2d led that only goes to full power only.

 

[Gordon]

Of course a tactical light on a weapon should have only one manipulation to full on . A second click to dim is ok. About 10 or more years ago when I was still training with top tier trainers and lots of mideast combat vets and Swat officers I was introduced to the sure fire 900 pistol grip weapon light. These seemed the bomb to me and I spring for the optional hi power bulb in the turbo head. These haligen 225 lumen bulbs ate 2 123 battery s an hour, versus the 100 lumen 2 1/2 hour run time on the normal bulb. They were like the eye of good at the time. They also had two small "navigation" LEDs which were revolutionary at the time which ran for days and let you see immieditly in front of your feet. It is what's on my bedside AR SBR.

 

[Varminterror]

I’m in the “I want it bright, and will cover part if I don’t want as much light when initiating.” Also in the camp of, “my eyes have built in shutters and I know how to operate them.” Once it’s on, I expect to have it on until the demand has fully ceased, threat resolved, so I don’t worry much about flash blindness by blinking the light on or off.

 

[adcoch1]

I have a small rail on the front of my home defense ar that my pistol light will click on to. And I have two different pistol lights, a 150 lumen and a 200, plus a 1000 I can mount if I need long range. I like the 150 inside, it gives good lightup across the entire house, and it'll do the same across the back yard too. The 200 is a bit bright inside but better than the 150 in the back yard. The 1000 is just awesome for long range outside, but don't use it inside without sunglasses...