Who has actually used the "Tactical" aspect of their torch?

[TORCH_BOY]

I found an intruder in our back yard, thats when the Blaster Flashlight
came in handy, pointed it at his face and told him to get going on his way

 

[Colonial Marine]

I found an intruder in our back yard, thats when the Blaster Flashlight
came in handy, pointed it at his face and told him to get going on his way

Where in Australia are you Torch_Boy?

We are emigrating to Perth on 1st march from the UK.

regards

CM

 

[smoking]

encountered a bar brawl while working, took out my 6P with the p60 lamp and tried to blind the most violent guy but it didn't really work on him and kept on advancing towards me. i had to back off a little and took out a mag 3D ready for a swing at him then he backed off.
i think lights don't blind violent drunkards or the 6P is not enough.

 

[Templar223]

Kids drinking and smoking pot in a nearby park tend to scurry away when hit with spotlight from 100yards away. Done this a dozen or more times, especially back in the mid-90's in the years after I moved here.

Christmas eve I hit a group of nearly twenty teens fighting and trying to break windows with snow and ice balls with a Mag85 from 50+ yards away. Funny how the fighting stopped and they all started running away in every direction, including two that must have forgotten where the light came from as they started walking quickly in my direction. Another blast in the face at about 40 yards and they took off running in the other direction.

Funny how people misbehaving think a really bright light = popo.

John

 

[zespectre]

I had a friend who did just the opposite. He had his spotlight on a guy who was running away. It was down a steep embankment and he was not going to chase him.
After a few seconds he turned the light off.
It's hard to run in the dark.
The guy said that if my friend left the light on he would walk to the patrol car.

That so reminds me of my rookie days. We're on foot pursuit of a B&E and he dodges into a stand of trees and the training officer with me stops and tells me to turn my light off for a second. <crash, bang, thud> and we turn the light and the perp had run right into a tree and was laying on the ground.

 

[depusm12]

Use mine daily for vehicle approaches on traffic stops. Or while searching unsecured buildings. Especially now that I'm working midnight shift. I'm using my Surefire 8NX, Streamlight Strion on my belt and Brinkman Maxfire w BOG 3w Led module with Li-Ion battery in my pocket as backup and my SL-20XP in my gearbag.

 

[DonX_Fi]

This happend last autumn to me. I was on round as night guard. I heard nearby school yard noise. I was opposite of yard on incoming gate. I stopped right behind gate. I heard 'STOP POLICE' many times. The sounds of running was coming near by me, behind corner of building. I was ready; The SF 8XN, battery hot from charger, on my hand and other hand was the FoxLabs OC on quick release holder. There they came. Man was runnning getaway from Police. Bad guy was soon to be the winner, guy was making gap to Police. Police was running with opened telecopic baton in hitting position on his hand. Man was getting runnaway from Police. I just Hopped to front on the bad guy, from behind the gate.
It was dusky. BAM !
I shined guys face about 2 meters before he come up to me, by my SF 8XN and yelled: ' FREEZE THIS IS GUARD!'. The man was instanly blinded and unoriented.
:nana:
I took submission on that man's throat and forced him to ground. He was lying on his belly down, me on top of his back. I put my knee on his face and shined his face. He tryed to wrestle on me, but he didn't see a thing.

The Police joined to wrestle and together with Police, we cuffed bad guy.
The 8XN made my day ! ( or should I say Night ? )
:twothumbs

 

[ABTOMAT]

So how many people actually have had to use their light in a "Tactical" manner?

I walked along the ceiling into the kitchen, dropped to the floor, upside down on a rope, illuminated the target with my 6P, then covertly de-animated the pile of envelopes with my Dark Ops ninja nailfile.

 

[cratz2]

Why is the theme to Mission: Impossible coming to mind as I read this thread?

Closest I've ever come to using a tactical flashlight tactically is shooting while illuminating a target with one. Just paper targets, mind you... but still...

 

[laserbokkie]

I spent a few months in Cape Town-South Africa last year.
Although I lived in one of those enclosed security complexes in Table View, they once broke into my house (during daytime) and took almost everything that i brought to the country (laptop, clothes and so on).

That made me nervous, so whenever there was a noise or my staffordshire getting nervous, I would grab my M3, pepper spray and the dog and went on to look.
I know that was stupid to go out alone and unarmed but just sitting around was impossible for me. Once I cornered a guy and blinded him just to see it was the neighbour walking his dog at 2 am in the morning....he had trouble with hos wife.
We ended up having a beer in my front yard.

Called the cops twice since they also broke into cars (mine too-dyuricg daytime).
Took them once 30 mins to show up....

South Africa is a place where you go to jail for 5 yrs for not having a TV licence and murder gives you 2 yrs...

 

[trivergata]

Not the trpical tactical situation or tool, but I got jumped by 5 guys and had a 6D mag. 1 broken arm and skull fracture later, they left (their arm and head, not mine).

Cops wanted to know why I was carrying such a large light. I told 'em "it's because it gets dark out here."

When the cops finally caught them (30 minutes after they jumped me, as I was filling my report with the officer and the kids were in the middle of another felony) you could still see a pattern where the mag tailcap hit one kid in the temple.

Josh

 

[cratz2]

Not the trpical tactical situation or tool, but I got jumped by 5 guys and had a 6D mag. 1 broken arm and skull fracture later, they left (their arm and head, not mine).... you could still see a pattern where the mag tailcap hit one kid in the temple.

Sounds brutal! Hopefully I'll never have to fend off 5 guys while armed with just my L0P.

 

[Cairo]

I use it to scare the crap out of my sisters with strobe and a Alien mask hahaha

 

[Ragnar66]

everytime i clear a building ill throw it on and off at the appropriate time....

 

[M@elstrom]

Sounds brutal! Hopefully I'll never have to fend off 5 guys while armed with just my L0P.

It's not the size of the light in the fight it's the size of the fight in the light...




I don't buy lights because they're tacti-cool, I choose based on their UI, ruggedness and reliability but UI first and foremost as it's a tool I'll use over and over again every shift...

 

[Leoht]

This story is a bit different. About a year ago I was moving our cattle from one paddock to another late at night. One of the steers took a particular disliking to my dog and charged at him, unfortunately I was between the charging bovine and dog. A blast of strobe from my TK40 stopped the angry 1000 kilogram beast in his tracks.

 

[metalophile]

On the night of the 4th of July I took my two kids to the park to watch the fireworks. I gave my kids a couple of my AA EDC lights to light the path. After we had enjoyed the fireworks we were in the crowd of folks leaving the park. I also had my 18650 powered P7-C (approx 600 lumens) lighting the way, and on medium power (~300 lumens) I had by far the brightest flashlight in the crowd. I was using it sparingly. Well, two guys come up behind us on the path riding a golf cart and shining a flashlight (maybe 100 lumens) as the golf cart didn't have any headlights. Well, motorized vehicles are forbidden on the park paths, and I wasn't sure they could see my small kids flitting behind me on the path, so I ordered my kids close and shone my flashlight on medium directly at them for a couple of seconds just to make sure they saw us. Then I hear a voice from the golf cart, sounding somewhat irritated, "Don't shine that flashlight at us! We're the police!". I guess they didn't like being out-gunned flashlight wise. I declined to show them what my flashlight could do on HIGH power.

 

[Dankung]

Do you do some night hunting or fishing?
if you do, you will find 'tactical' are useful

 

[novice]

I don't know if this is 'tactical' or not, but I walk my dog almost every evening in a small park about a block away, right next to a bike path where a young man was brutally murdered last year. It is a small park, and the baseball diamonds/bathroom building break it up into medium-sized areas. I always take a couple of throwers, and I am able to sweep each area fairly well, with no dark corners left for anyone to really hide in. I would feel much more vulnerable without the ability to do that.

On a separate note, a few years ago, while walking my dog, an aggressively-curious pit bull charged from across the street. Fortunately all he did was sniff my dog. I was shining a Fenix P2D on 'turbo' directly into the dog's eyes at close range, and shouting 'NO!', and it did not appear to make the slightest difference to the other dog.

 

[Xacto]

Not "used" but "considered using" my Surefire G2X Tactical two times within the last few weeks. One time was in the mid-evening, it was already dark but still plenty of people outside when I went to the ATM and got approached by a hobo (he used that word on himself) who was standing at a kiosk. He asked me if he could ask me a question. I turned around, left hand on the holster where the Surefire rides on my belt and and answered him "Yes, but with two meters distance!" I had to repeat that order and he just lamented why I reacted that way... he finally asked if I had some spare money (of course not, the rest of my words wasn't PC).

The next situation came when I was walking around the neighbourhood (walking in the Nordic Walking sense) around midnight since the schedule of that day and the "steam" in my head after an argument with my wife (not about flashlights ;-) ) just drove me out of the house. Since there are still parts of our small city I do not really know, I went in the direction of a larger sub-suburban living area. When I came to a small traffic circle with three directions, another pedestrian came from the lane in my 8 o'clock position. The lane to my 12 o'clock position lead beneath an autobahn overpass, so I had no real other option than to keep on walking straight ahead. I was a little bit quicker than the "bogey on my six", so I was suddenly in front of him. I switched from the sidewalk to the middle of the street, used my Surefire G2X to shine underneath the overpass (and generally show the "bogey" that I have a situational awarness). While walking in the middle of the street, I glanzed over my shoulder to check where he is, when he asked me a question "Can I ask you a question". This time, I replied with "Yes, but with 5 meters distance" hand again on the already reholstered flashlight and checking any for any defensive means I was carrying. All the while I was walking backwards, hand on the Surefire pouch, checking where I was going and keeping an eye on him, he lamented why I was acting that way and that he only came to live with us etc.... (who in his right mind would react the way I did when walking past midnight, I usually expect not to be talked to). Since he did not stop in his tracks, I decided to quickly walk to the still open BurgerKing. Once there, he too entered the building, waiting 2meters behind me but saying nothing. I ordered a small Coke (good thing that I had my wallet with me) waited till it was his turn at the counter and so that I could use the time to gain some distance.

In the end, what was planned as a "short" 3-4km walk turned into an 11km / 2h walk. Although I had never the need to actually shine the Surefire in someones eyes, I was glad that it would have been available if the situations would have turned out otherwise.

a picture of the traffic circle, my path in red, the other ones in blue.

Cheers
Thorsten