Versatile Light Recommendations

[poesraven]

Versatile Tactical/Practical Light Recommendations

Trying to find a quality light that could be tranferred between various firearms w/out using a team of rocket scientists. Adaptable btwn- handgun/to shotgun/to AR15 M4 16" profile. Given the cost of Quality lights its difficult to afford each their own, but I would like to have at least 1 quality light. Or would it be just as $$costly due to fact of installing the mounts that would accomodate the light. handguns would be of 1911, and glocks w/ rails. SG -generic 500. Thank You

 

[another okie]

After wading through a large number of web sites I managed to locate mounts for my Insight M3.

Of course it mounts easily on my Glock 17

Then I found a snap on mount for the AR-15 that snaps into the holes in the handguard and gives you a little weaver rail that the M3 works fine on. I bought it from holstersplus.com. I originally saw it in the Lone Wolf catalog.

For my Remington 1100 Competition Master it was a little longer of a story. Streamlight makes a device that fits between the magazine cap and the tube, but it gives you the wrong kind of rail for an M3. Gould and Goodrich makes an adapter which gives you the correct rail. I was a little surprised by the need for the adapter, because the literature for the Tactical Illuminator said that it fit the M3, but it was that other kind of rail, slightly different in size. You can force the M3 onto it, but it will be hard to get it off and may damage it. Similar mount are made for the 870.

 

[poesraven]

Will the AR mount work w/ other lights or just that one? Also that mount on your SGun is that specifically designed for that light. Thanks

 

[another okie]

Upon further review I believe I was mistaken in referring to the snap on as a Weaver rail. The snap on has the same type of rail as the Glock does, which apparently some people call a "standard" rail. Most lights use this type of mount. The new X200 or 2000 or whatever the number is comes with both types. Most 1911s I have seen with light rails use the same kind of rail the Glock does, as do the Berettas, Springfields and so on.

The snap on is easy to take on and off, but not easy to carry around with you, so if you are going to carry the light around in a pouch so that you can put it on either the Glock or the AR, you would want to install the snap-on unit and just leave it on. Another alternative would be to put some kind of mount on the AR, but caution! Most of these give you Weaver or picatinny rail, not the "standard" or "Glock" type rail.

The Shotgun mount also gave me some other kind of dovetail-type rail of a slightly different size than the "standard" rail. That's why I bought the "GG & G light rail adapter for dovetails", which slides on the Streamlight part and gives me the "standard" rail. The Shotgun mount itself is called the "Tactical Illuminator Remington 870 Mount."

It's actually pretty hard to describe all this without pictures, and it's obvious that we have not developed an agreed-on way to refer to all these different types of rails.

 

[poesraven]

Thanks Okie. True, it seems things are never simple when trying to compare and understand these. You'd think these would be universal-standardized, but I guess thats how the manufacurers get you to buy their product then get you to buy their mounting system to adapt to other mountings'. Hmmm, makes me wonder. Thanks for the info./ It would be nice to get Pics of the different rail systems- I've yet to find a web site that has them. I guess too many variants.