The Ultimate EagleTac M2*** TRIPLE REVIEW!

[Zeruel]

Along with the mentioned improvements to the next batch of the M2 line, for the folks who already bought one (or two, or three!), EagleTac informed me you will soon be able to buy the new laser marked ring directly from EagleTac as an accessory. :thumbsup:

Sorry, I thought everyone saw the other thread and didn't want to repeat it but:

Improved weight balance between the head and tail
Improved LED center alignment (even though I found nothing wrong with mine)
Laser printed/labeled control ring
Larger screws made of stainless steel
Improved waterproof seal overall
Complete battery tray with clicky (not sure what this means exactly)
An M2 screw driver

And best of all (but not as good as a click or detent) Increased separation between turbo and strobe.:

Guess it doesn't pay to be guinea pigs....

 

[Wattnot]

Guess it doesn't pay to be guinea pigs....

Hey, it's not THAT bad! Most of that stuff if "fluff." The weight and balance is no big deal. I found nothing wrong with the alignment . . . . my beam is even round on the triple emitter models. The laser printed ring is available for the old lights as are screws and o-rings. Everyone should have a screwdriver already so the ONLY thing the first purchasers are missing out on is the increased spacing in the modes.

Besides all of that, the concept of "public as beta testers" has been going on forever with everything from nails to rockets.

 

[Justin Case]

This light with a handgun? Yikes. They should but a handgun rail on the LIGHT! :laughing:

Sometimes I get the feeling that the light manufacturers have completely forgotten the "tactical" part of tactical light, and think that tactical simply means "bright".

The ad copy on the Eagletac web site says that the M2 is a "compact, hand‐held tactical flashlight." So how suitable is it for "hand-held, tactical" use such as with a handgun in Harries, Ayoob, Chapman, Rogers, neck index, or whatever?

 

[selfbuilt]

Besides all of that, the concept of "public as beta testers" has been going on forever with everything from nails to rockets.

That reminds me of Chuck Yeager's famous line about the original Mercury program astronauts being nothing more than "spam in a can." :laughing:

FYI, EagleTac will be sending me a P7 M2C4 from the next batch to review, and I will compare the results to my existing first round M2XC4 review.

 

[BirdofPrey]

Has anyone tried the light with a handgun yet? I don't mean mounted on a rail. I mean using one of the usual gun+light methods like Harries.

Yes. Its awkward at first but manageable.

 

[Mike Painter]

This light with a handgun? Yikes. They should but a handgun rail on the LIGHT! :laughing:

Stop where you are or we will try to get this out of the holster and pointed in your general direction.

 

[Glock27]

How is the change in weight distribution going to be achieved?
I could see the wall thickness of the battery tube being increased. It would be cool if it was milled from a billet and accepted 18650 without a carrier and just a sleeve for primary's.

Shaving weight from the head might screw up the excellent heat sinking V1 has.
G27

 

[Justin Case]

Yes. Its awkward at first but manageable.

Can you expand on this? What flashlight technique did you use? What was awkward? How did you overcome it? Are you using the tailcap button?

 

[brightnorm]

... It would be cool if it was milled from a billet and accepted 18650 without a carrier and just a sleeve for primary's.

That may not be possible. If it accepted 18650's without a carrier the interior diameter might be too small to accommodate cr123 carriers.

Brightnorm

 

[swiftwing]

Sometimes I get the feeling that the light manufacturers have completely forgotten the "tactical" part of tactical light, and think that tactical simply means "bright".

The ad copy on the Eagletac web site says that the M2 is a "compact, hand‐held tactical flashlight." So how suitable is it for "hand-held, tactical" use such as with a handgun in Harries, Ayoob, Chapman, Rogers, neck index, or whatever?

Well you could clobber someone with this, i have to admit the body tube grips really really nicely in my hands.:devil:

As for the improvements, i don't really care about most of the things, only the larger screws and the improved water proofing appeals to me. Overall, i'm still very pleased with my M2C4. Now if only eagletac would take the 4AA neutral white MC-E comment i made when registering my M2C4 seriously.

 

[Justin Case]

Okay, time to cool off here folks.

I was going to get on here and scold some folks for spreading rumors about parasitic drain but I just did another test and low and behold, there is some. I don't understand why it would be needed on a light that has no memory function and a rotary switch. My guess is that this type of design calls for less components but who knows.

Anyway, I still see no dealbreakers for this light. The leakage I discovered was quickly corrected and the while the UI isn't perfect, it's not that bad either. Aside from the Surefire A2 or L1, etc., no UI is perfect. Even the Legion II has some delay for either coming on or going off or both (where you have to hold the switch?).

So onto the parasite: I put my meter on the most sensitve scale (1ma) and found a .72ma (that is seven tenths of one thousandth of an amp) drain while the light was off. Even though it seemed silly, I then tested it with the optional clicky in the off position and it became zero.

Now you folks can do some math on this for your own piece of mind. I just thought of something regarding the small drain: Everyone knows it's not good to store lithium ion rechargeables FULL. Well this tiny drain could possibly help extend the life of your batteries! Also, if you choose to install the tailcap clicky switch and keep it off when not in use, there is no drain at all. So the only issue I see where the drain might matter is for CR123 users who are NOT using the clicky tailcap.


Enjoy!

If the light uses something like one of the ATMEL TinyAVR PWM controllers to implement the different lighting modes, those chips have various sleep modes, some of which draw on the order of 1 mA and others in the uA range. When using the clicky tailcap, effectively that is like disconnecting the circuit, so that the controller can't draw any power.

The saving grace is that the recommended cells for this light have fairly robust capacity. If you use 18650 cells, you will probably drain them in about 4-5 months, excluding any additional drain from actual illumination usage. But if this light could accommodate 16340 cells, then the shelf life would probably be only about a month or so, which IMO is poor.

Regardless, however, there is really no good reason for such a high parasitic drain when controllers like the TinyAVRs have a sleep mode that pulls only microamps.

 

[9x23]

I understand there may be a triple 18650 battery tube in the works, and that would certainly balance things up quite a bit and solve the waterproofing issue too. I'd be the first to buy one if they released that as an accessory item since I find the 2 cell handle, while quite serviceable, is somewhat awkward in the hand. I'd rather have a larger round handle with an extra battery in it. Besides, if they went with a triple battery tube it would likely be round, which would also be an improvement in terms of waterproofing as well since you wouldn't need to have screws any longer holding together the battery body. Just make a one piece body (or two pieces if the tailcap is separate) with threads to screw directly to the head assembly.

9x23

 

[brightnorm]

I understand there may be a triple 18650 battery tube in the works, and that would certainly balance things up quite a bit and solve the waterproofing issue too...

That is one of the advantages of this light:http://www.light-reviews.com/we_storm/review.html

Brightnorm

 

[BirdofPrey]

Can you expand on this? What flashlight technique did you use? What was awkward? How did you overcome it? Are you using the tailcap button?

I tried it with the Harries Technique. I'm sure other ways would work but when I was LEO this was what we drilled on and therefore its what I do now.

I'm not using the tac switch. What I did at the range was tighten the lanyard around my wrist (right hand). I can let it drop, draw my weapon (right hand) with the light hanging free. As I bring the firearm up I take hold of the light with my left hand and take my position under my right and **** back to offer bracing. This of course is under the circumstance of already having the light turned on as I suppose this wouldn't work well trying to turn the light on from this position unless you became good at doing so with your pinkie.

The awkwardness came from the fact that the handle is not round. Not really a hinderance, just not what I'm accustomed to. I think that having some time on the range with said light, it wouldn't be a problem at all. The size is something else to get used to. I'm accustomed to drilling with the A9. There is quite a difference here.

I do a LOT of drills that practice technique on human antagonist. However, the M2 would likely come into play when hiking and coming upon an aggressive animal. Therefore, the technique I mentioned above would work well for that. Not so much a human target. For that, the A9 (or similar light) would be better with a tail switch. If people like the switch on the M2, then I suppose it would be fine as well.

 

[fairway1]

I got my M2XC4 on last Friday. I took it out of the box, loaded up two 18650's and started playing with it. I did not have any trouble hitting the turbo although the spacing does seem rather short and odd. When I was ready to put it away I noticed and oval shaped O-ring on the floor. I am not sure where this came from or where it goes. I did not install the clicky and that is still in the package. So, does this o-ring go at the top of the battery tube or the bottom?

 

[selfbuilt]

I got my M2XC4 on last Friday. I took it out of the box, loaded up two 18650's and started playing with it. I did not have any trouble hitting the turbo although the spacing does seem rather short and odd. When I was ready to put it away I noticed and oval shaped O-ring on the floor. I am not sure where this came from or where it goes. I did not install the clicky and that is still in the package. So, does this o-ring go at the top of the battery tube or the bottom?

If it maintains its oval shape outside the light, and actually has square edges instead of being cylindrical along its length, it is probably from the top where the head plate is. See my M2XC4 review here for pics showing the two o-rings during disassembly. It may have been an extra in the package, or else the screws holding the head plate in would need to be quite loose.

 

[Justin Case]

I tried it with the Harries Technique. I'm sure other ways would work but when I was LEO this was what we drilled on and therefore its what I do now.

I'm not using the tac switch. What I did at the range was tighten the lanyard around my wrist (right hand). I can let it drop, draw my weapon (right hand) with the light hanging free. As I bring the firearm up I take hold of the light with my left hand and take my position under my right and **** back to offer bracing. This of course is under the circumstance of already having the light turned on as I suppose this wouldn't work well trying to turn the light on from this position unless you became good at doing so with your pinkie.

The awkwardness came from the fact that the handle is not round. Not really a hinderance, just not what I'm accustomed to. I think that having some time on the range with said light, it wouldn't be a problem at all. The size is something else to get used to. I'm accustomed to drilling with the A9. There is quite a difference here.

I do a LOT of drills that practice technique on human antagonist. However, the M2 would likely come into play when hiking and coming upon an aggressive animal. Therefore, the technique I mentioned above would work well for that. Not so much a human target. For that, the A9 (or similar light) would be better with a tail switch. If people like the switch on the M2, then I suppose it would be fine as well.

Thanks.

The requirement to start with the light on and what I assume to be great difficulty to turn off the light in Harries IMO are huge weaknesses. Basically, it precludes any sort of light discipline that you'd like to apply to a situation. Can you try out the tailcap button option to see how well that works?

Any particular reason that you are drawing a pistol with about a pound dangling from your wrist? I can't imagine that a boat anchor can help your draw. Why not use the light with your left hand and put the lanyard around your left wrist?

 

[BirdofPrey]

Thanks.

Can you try out the tailcap button option to see how well that works?

After hearing all of the horror stories about stripped screws and what not, I just decided it wasn't worth the hassle of putting the tail cap on.

Any particular reason that you are drawing a pistol with about a pound dangling from your wrist? I can't imagine that a boat anchor can help your draw. Why not use the light with your left hand and put the lanyard around your left wrist?

Because I feel most comfortable with the light in my right hand and I'm not counting on using it in a situation where I count on it being a major problem. If I'm investigating a bump in the night, I won't be using the M2. I'll be carrying the M2 when hiking and activities such as that. I'm much more prone to encountering a dog/coyote/rabid shrew in that situation and therefore the weight isn't a major concern of mine. Not bragging but I can draw fast as hell and to be honest, the extra weight affects me minimally in a competition of "draw and fire" against a buddy of mine.

Would it affect me in the heat of the moment if something were truly happening? Possibly but its not a major concern of mine at this time.

One last thing, the reason I carry it on my right wrist with lanyard and let it drop is also because I don't carry it in a position to makes itself readily transitionable to the Harries technique. I carry it like you might carry a maglight when on a long walk. There isn't an easy way to switch to the appropriate hold using just the left hand. However, when letting it drop and dangle from my right hand it is extremely simple and more of a gross motor movement to then sweep in with my left hand to take the light up into the proper hold.

I won't say there isn't a better way because often there is for someone else. It just seems to be what works for me. I suppose given time to decide what I want to do, before going and searching an area, then yes, I'd likely just carry it in my left hand and draw my weapon into a position sol carry or just carry low but thats not the kind of situation I'm likely to be in when hiking.

 

[brightnorm]

CAUTION! Do not trust the M2 lanyard clips!

My M2XC4 took a tumble onto a wooden floor from about three feet. The light was fine but the metal clip had split open; the metal itself had broken. I tested the metal with a 7" wire cutters and it easily cut right through using very little pressure.

I am always careful to use my lights with lanyards around my wrist when outdoors and I depend on them for securing the light, especially on rough or dangerous terrain. I am getting rid of these flimsy clips on my M2's and substituting better ones, or just knotting the lanyards. Despite the ample-appearing lanyard attachment, its design makes tail-standing the light somewhat awkward regardless of what lanyard you use.

I am surprised to see such an inadequate accessory on such a high quality light.

Brightnorm

 

[weklund]

Caution, Do not trust the M2 lanyard clips!

My M2XC4 took a tumble onto a wooden floor from about three feet. The light was fine but the metal clip had split open; the metal itself had broken. I tested the metal with a 7" wire cutters and it easily cut right through using very little pressure.

I am always careful to use my lights with lanyards around my wrist when outdoors and I depend on them for securing the light, especially on rough or dangerous terrain. I am getting rid of these flimsy clips on my M2's and substituting better ones, or just knotting the lanyards. Despite the ample-appearing lanyard attachment, its design makes tail-standing the light somewhat awkward regardless of what lanyard you use.

I am surprised to see such an inadequate accessory on such a high quality light.

Brightnorm

Same here. I simply let my M2 free fall from my hand while the lanyard was secured around my wrist and the clip snapped in half. Luckily my light hit the carpet. This is a serious flaw in the lanyard / M2 connection. I would remove the clip immediately and replace it with a Stainless Steel clip if you are going to use the lanyard. I was amazed at how easily it broke apart. "BEWARE".........:devil:

This Type Of Stainless Steel Micro Clip with or without a swivel from LightHound.com would work fine.