Some of you know that I won a custom Mag 951 flashlight from Black Bear in his drawing that he had a couple of weeks ago. I was on vacation last week and finally got to really take it out for a spin out on our land.
The flashlight is nice and solid of course. Looks and feels like a regular 3D maglite except a little bit lighter. Black Bear also threw in the Vanson 10 bay charger and an extra set of rechargeable batteries, which is very nice to have. Seeing as I received the flashlight in the middle of the day I couldn't really tell much about it at first but taking it out in my smallish backyard that night you could definitely tell this thing has some real firepower! As others have mentioned when you point it up towards the sky it's almost like having a lightsaber and it resembles those spotlights that some business use to get attention at nights in big cities...just a visible shaft of light that extends into the sky. I finally got out to my land with it though and really got to test it out. I compared it directly to my dad's new Brinkmann 1 million candlepower rechargeable spotlight and I was surprised to see that the Mag 951 outperforms it. It was brighter and shined farther. Incredible!
I went cruising around my land one night with my rifle hoping to catch some coyotes or feral hogs unawares but I did not...just a bunch of cows. However it's really a great light for this application IMO. It does have a short run time but if you have a backup set of batteries you've got enough light for an hour's worth of shining and it's sure as hell bright enough. It's also easier to drive and shine out the window at the same time because it's much lighter and less awkward than a rechargeable spotlight. I could also shine it and shoot at the same time if I wanted to.
As far as distance goes, I don't know that I shined it to it's maximum distance. We don't have any lanes on our land that are really more than a couple hundred yards. The one time I did actually measure off a distance was when I was coming back from spotlighting I stopped the car, turned off the headlights and shined it at a tree that was a ways away at a bend in the road. Then I drove the distance which was almost exactly a tenth of a mile, which is 176 yards. I think it would be effective somewhat farther than that but I don't know how much farther. The spot at that distance wasn't a tight circle of light, like a Surefire would be at, say, 15 or 20 yards, it was a very large but somewhat more diffuse spot at that kind of distance. You get a lot of light at whatever you point it at and a pretty wide beam, similar to a normal maglite pointed at something except about 27 times brighter.
That's about all I can think of to say about it. Let me know if you have any other questions. Very satisfied with the light and I think I'll probably use it regularly any time I'm out at my land. If you need as much light as possible in a handheld then look no further, this is unbelievable.
brad cook
The flashlight is nice and solid of course. Looks and feels like a regular 3D maglite except a little bit lighter. Black Bear also threw in the Vanson 10 bay charger and an extra set of rechargeable batteries, which is very nice to have. Seeing as I received the flashlight in the middle of the day I couldn't really tell much about it at first but taking it out in my smallish backyard that night you could definitely tell this thing has some real firepower! As others have mentioned when you point it up towards the sky it's almost like having a lightsaber and it resembles those spotlights that some business use to get attention at nights in big cities...just a visible shaft of light that extends into the sky. I finally got out to my land with it though and really got to test it out. I compared it directly to my dad's new Brinkmann 1 million candlepower rechargeable spotlight and I was surprised to see that the Mag 951 outperforms it. It was brighter and shined farther. Incredible!
I went cruising around my land one night with my rifle hoping to catch some coyotes or feral hogs unawares but I did not...just a bunch of cows. However it's really a great light for this application IMO. It does have a short run time but if you have a backup set of batteries you've got enough light for an hour's worth of shining and it's sure as hell bright enough. It's also easier to drive and shine out the window at the same time because it's much lighter and less awkward than a rechargeable spotlight. I could also shine it and shoot at the same time if I wanted to.
As far as distance goes, I don't know that I shined it to it's maximum distance. We don't have any lanes on our land that are really more than a couple hundred yards. The one time I did actually measure off a distance was when I was coming back from spotlighting I stopped the car, turned off the headlights and shined it at a tree that was a ways away at a bend in the road. Then I drove the distance which was almost exactly a tenth of a mile, which is 176 yards. I think it would be effective somewhat farther than that but I don't know how much farther. The spot at that distance wasn't a tight circle of light, like a Surefire would be at, say, 15 or 20 yards, it was a very large but somewhat more diffuse spot at that kind of distance. You get a lot of light at whatever you point it at and a pretty wide beam, similar to a normal maglite pointed at something except about 27 times brighter.
That's about all I can think of to say about it. Let me know if you have any other questions. Very satisfied with the light and I think I'll probably use it regularly any time I'm out at my land. If you need as much light as possible in a handheld then look no further, this is unbelievable.
brad cook
