Weapon Light Advice?

[BenW]

I've decided to get a weapon light for my Mossy 500 and recently acquired 870. The light will remain on the 870 most of the time, but I want the option to switch. Although I know the Surefire forends are most certainly the bomb, I don't really wanna shell out 500 smackers for two forends. So as of now, my top choice is one of the Streamlight M series lights with a mounting adaptor for each shotgun. Here are my questions:

1) For those that have these lights, any model recommendations (I'm looking at most practical, bang for the buck, versus tacti-cool)?

2) How easy are the switches to operate for a lefty?

3) Regarding the mounts: in my web searches, the Streamlight brand Mossy mount looks to be pretty straightforward. For the 870 however, I've found some sites that just sell a single 870 mount as "one size fits all", and others that sell one for the standard mag tube and one for the extended (I have the extended). I'm also interested in aftermarket mounts that may be better than the Streamlight brand. I did a search here for "Streamlight and shotgun" and found one thread that talks about mounts from www.insightlights.com. Anyone have experience with those? Also, that thread being a year old, are there other mounts worth considering that have come out in the last year?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[8830]

I use the Insight mounts on my shotguns for my Streamlight M3 lights. This is the best combination I've found to use one light for several different weapons. The 870 mount can be put on any side of the shotgun.

 

[BenW]

8830 -- is this the mount that you have? May I ask where you purchased it (the Insightlight page doesn't appear to do online sales)?

Edit: Apparently the Insight dealer page was down yesterday. I was just sent a message with a link to the now working page and saw that WildAlaska is one of their dealers, so will give him a shout (if he's not too busy moving his store )

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

Get the surefire.

The light needs to be on the pumphandle, and the switch needs to be acessable when the light is in any position. the surefire pumphandle light has both attributes.

 

[Gordon]

Well here is my $.02: I HAVE a Sure fire pump handle on my tactical 870 And it stands daily duty. HOWEVER I used to use a Choate side mount that replaced pins and Thumbscrews off easily and went between the 870 and 1100. It uses hose clamps to hold any size light. I used to use a 3 cell C size mag light with a Krypton bulb way back before the new 'Tactical' lights were born. It never failed in 20 years use! On ranch and range! Now that mount is still used on my 1100 'tactical' with an Streamlight Ultra Stinger. What a torch! And it instantly comes off for a flash light use! The gun is NOT off balance but it is kinda heavy, what with the NOD and all!

 

[8830]

BenW,
That's not what I have. I got mine from www.natchezss.com

 

[Tomac]

I use the TacStar on both my Saiga-12 shotguns:
http://www.midwayusa.com/rewriteaproduct/108686
It comes with 2 different-sized universal mounting clamps plus a std flashlight cap and coiled pressure pad switch for the light itself. The pressure pad switch attaches w/velcro so you can place it anywhere you like. 50rds of buck & slug and so far no problems. HTH...
Tomac

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

another thing to remember when looking for a shotgun mounted light is that the recoil is great enough to damage a flashlight not designed specifically for a shotgun.

If your flashlight dosn't have a shock isolated bezel ( to keep the bezel from slamming forward and breaking the glass and possibly exiting the front of the light) and a battery stop (to keep the batteries from slamming forward and crushing the lamp) you should lay in enough spares to account for a lifetime of approximately five to 10 rounds.