Show your Rare/Unusual SureFires - Part 1

[Solscud007]

got pics? you cant make a cool post like that and not show pics haha

[Size15's]

hi all,

i've got a m600a-tan that is sealed in the package. the serial number is covered by a white line. anyone know about them? how rare are they? any help would be greatly appreciated.

SureFire introduced the Tan version of the M600A shortly before they released the M600C so I don't suppose there are that many M600A's in that finish although I've no idea how many that could be. Thousands perhaps.

[Sean]

This is about all I got in the rare/unusual category. A CPF edition G2 and a black M2 bezel (mounted on a Z3).

[Seiko]

Not a flashlight, but sure wish they still made these!

[Size15's]

Not a flashlight, but sure wish they still made these!

They are only needed for the most niche of applications so SureFire no longer make them as a production item.

[Bruce B]

How I'd love to own this G2 gem. What a collectors piece this would be.

[naked2]

Not a flashlight, but sure wish they still made these!

All it is is two CR123As shrinkwrapped together, right?

[JNewell]

They are only needed for the most niche of applications so SureFire no longer make them as a production item.

I thought all the 6v weaponslights needed those?

[Seiko]

All it is is two CR123As shrinkwrapped together, right?

Kinda sort of, it is actually 2 123's you can read the red label of the 123' through the white shrink wrap. But they also had a welded strap and a fiber washer between them. and were flat on both ends (think it is just a washer up front).

But using 123's in my weapons lights I have busted about 6 of the heads off of 123's. With that old 223 battery it never happened.

They are only needed for the most niche of applications so SureFire no longer make them as a production item.

All the forend replacement style like for the Remington 870 or mp5 used them back in the day. For surefire they probably were a niche item in terms of sales because people were just using 123's.

[greenLED]

... using 123's in my weapons lights I have busted about 6 of the heads off of 123's.

What exactly do you mean by "busted", Seiko? Is there something breaking? Just curious.

[Seiko]

What exactly do you mean by "busted", Seiko? Is there something breaking? Just curious.

The button on the head of the rear battery will break off. Not all the way just separates from the body of the battery. Also had one of the rear battery punch through the bottom of the front one. This is since they stopped making the 223 in 2002ish.

It is to the point where I take the batteries and the light assembly off the gun (870 and 1187) when I shoot it other then low light drills.

[Kiessling]

Not a flashlight, but sure wish they still made these!

Oh yes !!
I'd really love to have some of those !

IIRC Titaniums can be had in stick form, but I don't wanna have Titaniums.

bernie

[JNewell]

I thought that the general view was that the current generation of Titanium cells was reliable? (Not so the earlier versions.) Am I wrong?

[auxcoastie]

Had this up for less then 12 hours on CPF Market place and it was gone. It has been mine up until now and I had people tell me red 3P's were rare.

[donn_]

I guess these are rare and unusual:



SRTH and T3 turboheads on 2 and 3xAA bodies respectively.

I think I like the look.

[greenLED]

The button on the head of the rear battery will break off. Not all the way just separates from the body of the battery. Also had one of the rear battery punch through the bottom of the front one. This is since they stopped making the 223 in 2002ish.

It is to the point where I take the batteries and the light assembly off the gun (870 and 1187) when I shoot it other then low light drills.

Bummer. Never a good thing when lights & batteries break like that. I guess the tolerances were different back then for those particular lights?

[Size15's]

I thought all the 6v weaponslights needed those?

Given the low cost of SF123A batteries compared to the DL123A batteries back before SureFire introduced the concept of low cost OEM branded CR123A's, the batteries in WeaponLights can be and are changed more often.

As a result the batteries spend less time being subjected to forces that tend to eventually damage them causing contact-reliability issues etc, and therefore the shock-isolated battery sticks are no longer necessary in all but a few niche applications.
SureFire has Americans making these shock isolated battery sticks by hand and so there is an obvious cost difference for the considerable difference taken to prepare these products other the SF123A's produced by the tens of millions by machines.

If you're a customer, for example a specialist military, government or law enforcement team that uses tactics requiring specialist equipment and supplies there are companies like SureFire that ensure such groups have what they need to prevail.
Equipment and supplies that it is simply not economic or practical to put in production or offer for retail etc.

Al

[Beretta1526]

It started out as a collaboration with Surefire. Surefire went ahead and made the proposed number of "serialized" M2s there were something around 600 supposed to be made for a limited edition set.

making that many lights is easy work for SF. Just take a select 600 out of the normal production line of M2s and set the laser engraver to new parameters. Such as adding the "Strider" logo and new serial sequence "SF001 and up"

Strider did make some knives. as far as I can tell somewhere around 270+ lights. I have yet to see a knife set match above #300 range. I have seen set #274 well documented in a FAQ online and set #275 is still for sale in the marketplace.

Maybe the knife sets were not selling as well as hoped so they cancelled the knives. Im sure it takes a LOT longer to make strider knives. I doubt these are mass produced as quickly as SF makes M2s. So the rest of the lights, somewhere in the 300+ range are sold off to random distributors.

The idea that the lights came with the SW02 was an idea I gathered from the texts in the catalogs. However the support that the lights actually did come with the SW02 is spotty at best. I have seen more lights with out the SW02 than with them. Im sure the first 100 or so came with the tailcap. Mine did not and mine is #72. However I got mine used and who knows, the previous owner might have kept or lost the SW02.

The SF overrun lights that already had the Strider logo on them were all re-laser engraged with the "2001" and sold separately, just as shown in the photo of willrx's "stack-o-Striders" there. As with most "special" runs of SF lights (like the E2-CJ and C2-CJ), there was almost no mention of them anywhere, other than on dealer websites like Bulldog Enterprises (Geez, I miss BDE). To my knowledge, none of the 2001 lights had the SW02 tailcap, and were simply packaged as any other M2, but with different model number and the engraving. ALL of the SF/Strider sets that were sold had SW02 TC's when they shipped from SureFire. Anyone that got one second-hand that had anything other than the SW02 has one that was swapped out.

I believe I currently hold the highest serial number SureFire-Strider light, s/n 299. My SureFire-Strider knife (and it's BIG) is s/n 289. There is a long story behind why my s/n's are 10 off, but the short of it is that the guy that has the M2 body that belongs with my knife won't give it up. He won't even trade it for my #299, not even just the body + some cash. I haven't pestered him recently, but the last two attempts of contact he didn't even acknowledge.

Anyway, I have yet to come across the knife for set #299 or see set #300 anywhere (if it exists, it's most likely kept at SF or Strider or something like that), but vaguely recall seeing a photo of the SF-M2-ST #301, and it had the "2001" engraving on it. My #299 does not have the 2001.

These sets were meant to be a true collaboration between SureFire and Strider. Strider was just not able to produce the number of knives required without making sacrafices in quality. Strider may have been dealing with contract deadlines too, I really don't know. Rather than have issues or drag the release out, they scaled it back and that's where it ended (at 300 sets). I would have LOVED to see an E2e/SnG combo for the EDC crowd, but Strider just plain got busy and couldn't keep up.

I posted this pic in a thread about SF displays, but you can see the M2 in the display, and the knife in the foreground with the sheath off to the side:



.

[ampdude]

I'm still loving my E2e-CJ and the other E2e-CJ I have still sealed in the box. Does anyone out there still have a sealed E2e-CJ? Didn't think so....

Maybe somebody somewhere, please come forward.

Beretta1526, I wish I had known you had that hard anodized E2e-BK with the twisty before you put it on B/S/T, I would have snapped it up in a second. I almost jumped on the orange E2e that came up a few days ago, but I can't afford anymore SF shelf queens at the moment.

E2e-CJ and C2-CJ has to be the coolest lights Surefire has ever put out to date.

Hey Surefire, wanna get your sales up quick, even in this economic climate? Put out 100 more E2e-CJ's and 100 C2-CJ's to your favorite dealer and watch them sell out in a week.

[willrx]

Beretta1526,
Thanks for taking the time to share this information-but the plot thickens. At least one of my M2-ST's are above 400 and none of them are engraved 2001. I'll try to get a picture up.

[willrx]

Ok, I checked the serial numbers and they are as follows:
235
238
258
297
398
403
407
427
None of them are engraved 2001.

[Solscud007]

Thanks for the info Beretta1526. I thought my hypothesis was pretty good. Just more information to validate my idea.

That is awfully strange about the guy with your matching s/n. Maybe you can do a three way exchange. Maybe get a lower number or something and trade that to him. Did he give any reason as to why he is holding onto the matching light?

[Beretta1526]

Ok, I checked the serial numbers and they are as follows:
235
238
258
297
398
403
407
427
None of them are engraved 2001.

Then I doubt that my vague recollection of the #301 is correct then. I am starting to wonder if the original agreement between SF and Strider was for X number of lights with logos to be used for sets and SureFire (upon realization that Strider could not meet the volume for the sets) stopped the serialization and went to the standard M2 s/n's and just engraved the logo with 2001? If they hadn't produced the full quantity of them, then it would be much simpler for production rather than to do special sequenced s/n's.

Also, I should maybe then edit my statement of the highest s/n light (in the wild) that had originally come with a knife as a set?

I seem to recall that when these sets first came out, that many of the sets wound up getting split up and the lights being sold separate from the knives as well. There were quite a number of them on eBay, and I had seen one online retailer that was selling the items separate. At the time, SF didn't have the online sales locked down like they do now, and the dealer wasn't even an 'authorized' dealer. It was the wild west then.

On another note, it's quite cool that you have #297, and the #398 is interesting to me, as I have one that is 10 off, having one that is 100 off would be cool. (I'm sure you're not selling, and I don't have the scratch for that anyway)

Thanks for the info Beretta1526. I thought my hypothesis was pretty good. Just more information to validate my idea.

That is awfully strange about the guy with your matching s/n. Maybe you can do a three way exchange. Maybe get a lower number or something and trade that to him. Did he give any reason as to why he is holding onto the matching light?

I dunno. I think the guy is just stubborn and just plain won't deal with me. I think he's a Suspect on USN, and at the time, I was just a plain ol' member. Maybe now he would be a little more receptive to an Accomplice? I hope I can figure out who it was again. I don't remember if I kept that info/PM (or thread) in my UserCP on USN.

Beretta1526, I wish I had known you had that hard anodized E2e-BK with the twisty before you put it on B/S/T, I would have snapped it up in a second.

Had I known anyone were looking for one specifically, I'd have given a heads-up.

As you may have seen, I've sold quite a number of my relatively rare lights. The L6 Porcupine, Porsche E2, E2e-BK (twisty), etc. were just some of the casualties. I managed to keep my SF Strider knife and the light 10 off from it, an E1-BY, E2e-CJ, C2-CJ, SF handcuff key, small plexi counter display, and an E2D with the original domed lens. I've thought about selling the E2D with domed lens, but don't know what I could put in its place in the display.

Hey Surefire, wanna get your sales up quick, even in this economic climate? Put out 100 more E2e-CJ's and 100 C2-CJ's to your favorite dealer and watch them sell out in a week.

Geez, I hope not. Well, at least not an E2e-CJ or C2-CJ. It would be quite cool to have one of the new LED lights in the CJ, but why not take it yet another step further and do DigiCam camo on one of the new lights to be like an update all around? I'd much (100x) rather see that over another release of the previous limited/specials.

.

[Beretta1526]

OK, all this got a small fire lit under my patoot and I PM'd the guy with the light that matches my knife. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

.

[willrx]

Thanks for all the shared information and keep us posted on your light search.

[Solscud007]

I know this isnt light related. But i thought it is at least staying on topic.

Have you guys used your Strider SF knife?

After seeing the knifetests website and seeing how much torture a Strider can take, i have no qualms about using my strider sf.

Ive chopped down a small tree with it. Diammeter was about 3-4 inches. But i was helping out my friend. He was using an Axe but since the tree was up against a fence, the axe couldnt get into the tight places. We used the knife to dig up concrete and i used the knife to tear out drywall and as a pry bar to remove nailed playwood from the ceiling in my garage when i had a busted water pipe.

Nothing too aggressive a few cosmetic scuffs. but a knife like this should be used. Its like those pansy people with Hummers (not G2 but first gen hummers) and dont take it offroading.

[Beretta1526]

OK, all this got a small fire lit under my patoot and I PM'd the guy with the light that matches my knife. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

.

Well, it's gone. He sent it to someone stationed in Germany.

.

[donn_]

Finally, I got the lovely 7Z into my collection!





As I hoped, it's a perfect fit for 4x 2/3A NiMH cells, so it runs a Malkoff M30 perfectly, and will also run WA1183s as well as a variety of LED turbo towers.

I think it also looks particularly good with the SRTH:

[DM51]

That 7Z is a truly beautiful light - what a fantastic shine to it, too! It looks a bit like one of those old extending 3-4 section telescopes...

[willrx]

Super, Donn! Glad that worked out.