rifle light help

Disgruntled Seabee

Disgruntled Seabee

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I started thinking about this the other day, I've seen lots of you guys with lights on your ARs and it got me thinking about getting flashlights for the rifles. It'll be easy for the ARX's because they have a built in quad rail. This is not to be tacticool, i want it to be functional and practical. The same as putting a light on your handgun. This realm is new to me, in the military I didn't get this cool stuff. But in these current times you can't be too careful.

whats the best lumen output? how far should it be able to light up (i know it sounds dumb but seriously) pic rail attachment, button turn on vs pressure pad, stuff like that

thanks
 
Budget will drive this conversation.

Cheap would be the stream light hlx rail mount. It’s about $100

Next for me would be an arisaka 600 series light and tape switch with tail cap

The top for me would be the cloud denfensive owl. It’s like $400

As far as throw and hot spot stuff on a rifle I want to be able to positively identify a target at 100 yds. It take quite a bit of light to do that. I’m no expert on this. Watch mrgunsngear ‘s videos on all these lights and what you might want.


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Zbizzle911 said:
Budget will drive this conversation.

Cheap would be the stream light hlx rail mount. It’s about $100

Next for me would be an arisaka 600 series light and tape switch with tail cap

The top for me would be the cloud denfensive owl. It’s like $400
As far as throw and hot spot stuff on a rifle I want to be able to positively identify a target at 100 yds. It take quite a bit of light to do that. I’m no expert on this. Watch mrgunsngear ‘s videos on all these lights and what you might want.


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OOF! yea not looking to spend THAT much, but positive ID at 100yd is a good starting point, thank you
 
I have a stream hlx mounted on my rifle and love it. I have two of the same lights for pocket carry so everything takes the same battery
 
I have m300 and sf df m600. The 300 throws just as far imo but the df600 has a lot more spill. Lots of folks like the stream lights as well.

I’d like to try one if the okw heads but haven’t had the extra monies to pony up.
 
I'm not engaging targets at 100yds with a flashlight... I have used TLR-1s on rifles and Pro-Tac 1Ls on SBRs and pistol length ARs..
 
BU2scwMJL said:
Well the farther, or brighter, the better... theoretically
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Disagree... Many of these lights these days are too bright. You stand a good chance of blinding yourself before you see your target. Inside a house 150ish lumens is plenty...

Weapon lights outside are just a bat signal where to aim for bad guys if you are searching for a target at a hundred yards anyway...
 
Don't think you can really go wrong with a TLR1 or similar.
My AR is currently wearing a TLR 1 and my Ruger PC Carbine has a TLR 7.
I'm probably going to swap out the TLR 1 for a Olight PL-MINI 2 Valkyrie or PL-Pro Valkyrie for the wife's AR and mine and move the TLR 1 back to the Mossberg 590.

I prefer a bit more lumen since we live in a rural area and may have to be outside.
 
Just shined my 600 on a couple coons after my first reply and at 80/90 yards I could see them very clearly through my optic. Too bad there’s house in that direction otherwise they would have been down for the count.
 
bigfelipe said:
Disagree... Many of these lights these days are too bright. You stand a good chance of blinding yourself before you see your target. Inside a house 150ish lumens is plenty...

Weapon lights outside are just a bat signal where to aim for bad guys if you are searching for a target at a hundred yards anyway...
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I agree but...

The beam of the light makes a huge difference. The OLight seems to have a well concentrated beam! And spillj from a distance is negligible. I personally don't plan to use that light in a building. In my own home I will doubtgfully use a light at all.

Sparingly outdoors and momentary usage only as it is a bullet magnet.
 
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bigfelipe said:
Disagree... Many of these lights these days are too bright. You stand a good chance of blinding yourself before you see your target. Inside a house 150ish lumens is plenty...

Weapon lights outside are just a bat signal where to aim for bad guys if you are searching for a target at a hundred yards anyway...
Click to expand...

Disagree..... I don’t mean to sound like a dick, but what are you basing this off of? Have you had any formal training in weapon light usage? If not, you need to get some and you will come out of it seeing things in a whole new light (pun intended).

As I’ve said every time this topic comes up, and it’s mentioned about blinding yourself in a house...if your blinding yourself with your own light, It’s not the light, your tactics suck and you need to get training. I haven’t seen a weapon light yet, that is “too” bright.
 
To the OP, I pretty much agree with @Zbizzle911 and his recommendations. If I were you, and budget were a concern, then my choice would be the Streamlight HLX and mount it with some type of scout mount.

I personally wouldn’t use the Olight on a rifle, especially since it’s about the same price as the Streamlight. A lot of those budget lights (olight, fenix, etc) have crazy high lumen counts and look like they would be an attractive choice for a rifle, but know that it’s not just lumens that make a good rifle light. Candela and head design are even more important. For example I have a 1500 lumen Fenix light that I pocket carry and it won’t throw as far as my 600 lumen Streamlight Pro tac rifle light.
 
Derek8404 said:
Disagree..... I don’t mean to sound like a dick, but what are you basing this off of? Have you had any formal training in weapon light usage? If not, you need to get some and you will come out of it seeing things in a whole new light (pun intended).

As I’ve said every time this topic comes up, and it’s mentioned about blinding yourself in a house...if your blinding yourself with your own light, It’s not the light, your tactics suck and you need to get training. I haven’t seen a weapon light yet, that is “too” bright.
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Well, dick :p , I am no operator as I've always said. I've only had a couple classes on the subject and a bunch of different types of matches. So I'm basing it on my limited experience which I will wager is still a good bit more than the bulk of the folks on here with the exception of a few of the military/leo crowd. It's easy to wipe out your night vision with a light. I've seen people do it a hundred times by mistake running 1000 lumen weapon lights during a course of fire. So, I suppose if you use the caveat, make sure you get trained with your light up the world weapon light, sure. Go as bright as you want. My personal opinion, worth exactly what I'm charging for it, is that a basic TLR-1 is plenty of light for weapon use indoors or out.
 
bigfelipe said:
Well, dick :p , I am no operator as I've always said. I've only had a couple classes on the subject and a bunch of different types of matches. So I'm basing it on my limited experience which I will wager is still a good bit more than the bulk of the folks on here with the exception of a few of the military/leo crowd. It's easy to wipe out your night vision with a light. I've seen people do it a hundred times by mistake running 1000 lumen weapon lights during a course of fire. So, I suppose if you use the caveat, make sure you get trained with your light up the world weapon light, sure. Go as bright as you want. My personal opinion, worth exactly what I'm charging for it, is that a basic TLR-1 is plenty of light for weapon use indoors or out.
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Fair enough, and I’ll agree with that caveat. A good practice with a light to avoid blinding yourself indoors, is to hit the ceiling or floor with the light and use the spill to search a room rather that pointing the light straight out. That is, until you’ve identified something worth pointing the weapon/light at.
 
Derek8404 said:
Fair enough, and I’ll agree with that caveat. A good practice with a light to avoid blinding yourself indoors, is to hit the ceiling or floor with the light and use the spill to search a room rather that pointing the light straight out. That is, until you’ve identified something worth pointing the weapon/light at.
Click to expand...

That brings up another part of the discussion on lights... Beam concentration, throw vs wash/spread...
 
Also, just an FYI for anyone who may be interested in them. Cloud Defensive is going a blem sale of some OWLs for $259, that’s a hell of a deal for the light. The sale was supposed to happen yesterday but they had some server issues and pushed it back to a future date.
 
wsfiredude said:
I run the SL Protac rail mount on my rig. Compact and throws 350 lumens. I’m hsppy with it.

View attachment 220650
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Pretty sure that's the Streamlight I got, put it on an Arisaka mount for a slim package. Affordable as far as these things go. Most likely use for me would be putting down some critter messing with the zoo and it reaches plenty far to do that, it'd easily handle anything inside.
 
bigfelipe said:
Disagree... Many of these lights these days are too bright. You stand a good chance of blinding yourself before you see your target. Inside a house 150ish lumens is plenty...

Weapon lights outside are just a bat signal where to aim for bad guys if you are searching for a target at a hundred yards anyway...
Click to expand...
I got a streamlight Protac HLX first time I used it the splash back blinded me. Need to get some training, until then I am back with TLR-S.
 
I have this one on my AR-10
https://olightworld.com/olight-warrior-x-pro-black

Pros
It’s really bright
The head is designed to throw a beam very far away. The furthest I’ve tested it is about 250 feet in the middle of the night.
I could clearly make out people and features etc.
Rechargeable, don’t have to take it off the rifle to charge it.

Cons,
It’s a very big light. best for full length rifle
On the high setting it gets hot very quick
Picatinny mounting is plastic.

It’s like having a deer spotlight on your rifle truthfully. I’m happy with it.
 
I have tried a lot of different lights. Hard to decide as all seem to do well in one category and not in another. That being said, I really want to run an OWL. Seems like the jam but cannot confirm.
 
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Gray said:
I have tried a lot of different lights. Hard to decide as all seem to do well in one category and not in another. That being said, I really want to run an OWL. Seems like the jam but cannot confirm.
Click to expand...

The OWL is pretty awesome and it’s my favorite rifle light so far. It is a little pricey but when you consider that you don’t need to buy a mount and pressure switch for it after buying the light then it is about the same as some of the competitors. It’s also completely ambidextrous, you just swap the tail cap and head around and switch it to whatever side you need and since the pressure pad is integrated, there are no wires or cables to worry about routing and getting snagged. The head and tail cap themselves are also interesting, they attach to the light with a 3 lug type mounting rather that the traditional threads and the tail cap has a built in tool for mounting the light.
 
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