Ok, here it is: I purchased some nerf guns recently (I also made some modifications to those, Thanks to Andystone316 for his post on the marketplace, but that's a different story). I'm not an actual kid, just a fully grown-up flashaholic kid. The reason I got those was because I am fortunate enough to have a cousin who's as flashaholic as I am and we like to go test our flashlights out in a park a few times during the summer. (More details on this in this thread: Ultimate Flashaholic Camping.) I just thought that it might be fun to add some weaponry to our night outings to get some actual tactical use out of our flashlights. Turns out it was a great idea. A few weekends ago, I went to see my cousin and, of course, brought the nerf guns along with some of my most powerful flashlights, knowing we'll be doing some serious testing.
The Setup:
We did the testing in my cousin's carpeted basement, in which there are a lot of old chairs and various objects, giving us extra obstacles. We took out the old foam chairs - the very same ones we played with 30 years ago! – and each built a small fortress. We were separated by about 10-12 feet and also had some extra obstacles behind us. Not having any rail mount or remote switch for our lights, we left them on top of our fort walls, aimed to blind the enemy with the strobes.
The Situation:
With lights dimmed, and soon enough completely out, we lied behind our fortresses and started shooting at each other. Obviously, we quickly realized that the strobe should be our best ally in this situation. Since I bought excessive amounts of ammunition and clips, we were in for a realistic siege.
The Equipment:
Guns: One semi- auto and 2 manual guns each
Clips: one 35 rounds and 2 X 7 rounds clips each
Lights:
My Cousin: Fenix TA21, TK15 and TK30 (it's all he had in the basement with him, but next time I better bring my whole collection)
Me: Fenix TK15, TK40, TK45, ArmyTek Predator, Led Lenser M7R (yea, yea, I feel like I should dodge some more bullets right now)
Reminder: those lights where laid in strategic places, purposefully aimed at the corresponding opening and on strobe all the time.
The Fight:
We fought for a total of almost 1H30, with the strobes being on full-time for a little less than one hour. We had to crawl back every now and then to gather some ammo and found some ways to move our main cover a little, ending at less than five feet from each other. We did take one major break to gather all the spent ammo and refill our clips. It was very hard to see each other and aim and we had to find ways to hide the enemy's strobe with our hands, weapons or through uncovered openings. Lots of fun, let me tell you.
And now for my catchphrase:
If someone had told me 20 years ago that I would one day play with 130$ worth of nerf guns and ammo, the same old foam chairs and about 500$ worth of flashlights in my cousin's basement, and still as much fun as when I was 5, I probably would have called him a bunch of indecent names, kicked him in the crotch and spit on him. Good thing no one ever told me this, cause I would have been the fool...
Combat Related Conclusions:
-We are definitely out of shape
-We are no professionals, but we concluded that a fight might start with a lot of fire exchange, but will quickly slow down to more calculated shots as ammo is being spent (unless you're already a professional of course). In the end, the hand weapon, if not hand to hand combat, seems to win the fight. I also base this last statement on lessons learned from taking medieval sword fighting courses for over two years, where the saying "it always ends with wrestling" was the main conclusion and too often proved by myself and many others.
-Automatic weapons are only superior in short calculated bursts, especially on open terrain. (this is open to debate, of course)
Flashlight Related Conclusions:
-Our eyes hurt for 2 days (don't hold up, we're laughing too!)
-I don't see any type of damage resulting from this and we were at VERY close range!
-Strobe is not such a nuisance that you cannot fight back or get sick... unless you ARE epileptic.
-Strobes are much more annoying than a constant light.
-You can get used to having a constant strobe aimed at you rather quickly (a few minutes). You will not see better after getting used to it, but it will not deter an attacker who has his mind set on his goal.
-Our brains and eyesight can also adjust to switching from having a constant strobe or powerful in the face to lying back in the dark and still see enough in a few minutes. I need to mention that what I call "dark" here has a limited meaning, since there was a lot of light bouncing back from the walls, but it seemed dark enough at first that I needed a few seconds to re-adjust when reloading my magazines.
-Turning a constant bright light on in front of the strobes helped me a lot while trying to spot the enemy, but seemed to be much less distracting for the enemy.
Lessons learned:
-Nerf guns are fun for any age (for close range combat, of course... I still got some airsoft guns for the long range shots when we go outside)
-We found out the hard way why military training is so intensive.
-I now remember what is called "rug burns"
-Fighting hard makes you hungry enough to order a large pizza at 1 a.m. even after overeating the whole day and not drinking a single beer.
OK, Now the answers to the obvious questions:
Which one was the most annoying?
The TK45 seems to have been the big winner. This conclusion is based on short-range combat, but I'll definitely give it a try on longer ranges this summer.
The TA21, TK30 and TK40 seemed to be equally annoying at close range.
The Predator was probably the second most annoying one, but having it on constantly means that the overheat protection came in rather soon, so I just turned it off and reserved it for short bursts – which I tried only a few times due to the fact that it wasn't attached to any of my weapons. The constant momentary on did seem to hide my head very well, while giving me a chance to see my cousin's face real nicely, though.
The concentrated beam of the M7R meant that it had to be aimed carefully and was not very useful. The flood setting on it didn't seem to do much in keeping my cousin from seeing me or in helping me seeing better. It is a very nice flashlight for other applications, though (dodging incoming) and does deserve much more attention. More to come in a separate thread when I have a chance.
Did any of your lights heat up?
Apart from the Predator, no. All the other lights kept working for at the very least 45 minutes in a row and did not feel more than just warm when we picked them up. Obviously, I had a battery charging day right after that.
All In All
Our current research is limited in a few ways:
- We had more than one strobing light on at all times. This means that the strobing effect is somewhat diminished, as lights are not in sync.
- The strobes where constantly on: Our vision was not fully in "night mode" at any time.
- Our strobing lights where in fixed and in known positions. This gave us a chance not to look directly into them every time. It also gave a chance to our eyes and brains to adapt to a point where we could see our surroundings almost normally (the fact that we had multiple unsynchronized strobes helped.)
While a strobe does nothing to completely stop an aggressor, it certainly gives you the advantage of hiding whichever part of you that is close to the business end (and can hide any weapon you're holding). It will not keep someone from seeing you if they have a bright light of their own or if there is sufficient ambient light.
Personal and final conclusion:
A strobe in the face is annoying a hell and certainly counts as a serious advantage, but is definitely not the be-all end-all of tactical advantages.
I used to have the mind-set that aggressive animals might stop in their tracks because they can't see you anymore, but now realize that this does nothing to stop other senses from working properly, especially peripheral vision. A strong light or strobe is extremely annoying, but it only does little to deter and attacker. While I might think twice about how I would approach a real-life situation when having my face blinded by strong lights and strobes, it doesn't mean that I would stop right there – and I'm definitely not an aggressor type of person.
Some animals still could stop in their tracks when some 600 lumens+ strobe is aimed at them, just because they don't have a clue about what's going on, but in dire moments (like being real hungry) they might not give a crap so you should have some other surprise at hand, just in case. I realize that I am carrying human reaction to animal reaction, but I also understand that most animals see much better in the dark than we do and those lions on the Discovery channel don't seem to care at all about the 100 million candle power aimed at their faces, even at less than 20 feet.
If I was looking for a gun-mounted light for use in the military or swat, I would most definitely choose something with momentary strobe activation for tactical reasons. But, if I needed a good law-enforcement light for normal police or security guard duties, the strobe would definitely become no more than a good but secondary option. Yes, it hurts the eyes and it is extremely annoying to have strong strobes pointed at you, but we are still very adaptive beings that can cope with a variety of situations and I wouldn't count on a strobe as being a total security shield. Besides, if you don't train to shoot at someone who's moving in square steps like you're on acid, it might not help you at all.
This test is not over and will continue on my summer trip to the "two towers". Stay tuned for the "Ultimate Flashaholic Camping Trip: Year 3" thread or some separate thread that will be mentioned in there for sure.
P.S.: anylau recently reported stopping two dogs from attacking him and his sister after finding out that a strong light didn't do anything (Thread here). I then conclude that the surprise effect of the strobe certainly is much more of an advantage than the constant use of it. I'll find out more on my next camping trip.
