Does anyone like Surefire anymore?

[rwolfenstein]

Back in the day they had a holster that held CR123s. What ever happened to that?

It was made for New Orleans Police around the time Hurricane Katrina hit, cause all of the rechargeable only lights were dying in the search efforts. Surefire actually made a G3 LED with holster kit for those cops, cause it would run for days on the LED model. I think it just died out when the need went away.

 

[kaichu dento]

Which one was your favorite? The incandescent or one of the led models?

Incandescent, with a Calipsoi ring which matched the bulb for tint. Great, great light and incredible low level.

 

[kaichu dento]

Never was a big Surefire guy, but I really have a soft spot for the E1e, E2e, E1L and original CR2 Titan. Still got all of them too. The other one I bought 3 or 4 of was the A2 series, and I installed Calipsoii rings in them.

The only one that I actually know where it is now is my modded E1L/E1b, and I don't have any idea of what happened to it, but much floodier reflector than stock. It's got the E1L body, but E1b engine.

 

[thermal guy]

Back in the day they had a holster that held CR123s. What ever happened to that?

I have one of those. Pretty cool

 

[thermal guy]

It was made for New Orleans Police around the time Hurricane Katrina hit, cause all of the rechargeable only lights were dying in the search efforts. Surefire actually made a G3 LED with holster kit for those cops, cause it would run for days on the LED model. I think it just died out when the need went away.

You mean they designed and built a light/holster in the timeframe of a Hurricane?

 

[ghostguy6]

It was made for New Orleans Police around the time Hurricane Katrina hit, cause all of the rechargeable only lights were dying in the search efforts. Surefire actually made a G3 LED with holster kit for those cops, cause it would run for days on the LED model. I think it just died out when the need went away.

Is this the one you are talking about?



I still use and like my old Surefire 6p's and E2led but I will admit there are other lights I reach for now. Once surefire moved away from the lego form factor it made it harder to justify paying the outrageous price. When I had to attempt to use their warranty only to find out it would cost more than a new light I lost all faith in Surefire. Now that cr123's have become obsolete I just cant really justify them when there are so many other brands available for less with better warranty and the ability to use 18650's.

 

[Lou Minescence]

I really don't pay much attention to Surefire. I have 2 6p's with non Surefire LED modules and an EDCLS-T that I like except it only takes primaries. If it could take a rechargeable battery I'd probably carry it. I had an LX2 Lumamax but sold it. It was too bright on low to walk with for me. Many posters thought it was great that Surefire lumens were higher than what Surefire specified but I didn't think so. Supposedly the LX2 had 15 lumens on low but it was more than that. When my life kind of depended on a flashlight to confront losers I always grabbed a Chinese made flashlight with over the top brightness to shine in peoples eyes. Here on CPF there were lots of nasty people getting in arguments about Surefire and Chinese junk. Threads were getting locked once or twice a week. The whole Surefire thing is just not for me.

 

[Dave D]

Back in the day they had a holster that held CR123s. What ever happened to that?

That was the V85, copies are still available from a Chinese site, I've no idea of the quality.

V85 Copy

 

[letschat7]

I prefer American not that I'm a patriot or anything.

 

[Monocrom]

It was made for New Orleans Police around the time Hurricane Katrina hit, cause all of the rechargeable only lights were dying in the search efforts. Surefire actually made a G3 LED with holster kit for those cops, cause it would run for days on the LED model. I think it just died out when the need went away.

As if hurricanes and other natural disasters just all immediately stopped after Katrina. And, doubt that police departments and rescue personnel immediately adopted dual-fuel lights afterwards. Rechargeable battery with the option of tossing in a couple of primary CR123s.

 

[letschat7]

Pila had that in 2003 or so.

 

[Monocrom]

Pila had that in 2003 or so.

We had that even earlier. Bored out SureFire 9P body to accept two 18500 cells or 3xCR123s. SF P91 incandescent lamp. Literally all you had to do was swap out the batteries (not the lamp) and keep going. A custom Leef, or Five Mega body for the SF 9P for those who weren't handy with a drill. Or, didn't want to risk accidentally damaging their stock SF 9P body.

Overall though, the concept of Dual-fuel back at the start of the turn of the century was way ahead of its time. Nowadays it's just a given that LED lights running off of one 18650 are going to be compatible with 2xCR123 cells. Wasn't always that way. And to this day, there are a lot of lights that only work with not only rechargeable cells, but a proprietary rechargeable from the company that makes the light too. Bought a handful of those types of lights. Done with that nonsense.

Very happy that my new AceBeam Defender P16 works with any type of flat-top 18650 battery. And, I can still toss two CR123 primaries into it. Heck, I've got 3.0v rechargeable RCR123s from SureFire, and Watson that also work in that light.

Edit ~ Typo.

 

[rwolfenstein]

You mean they designed and built a light/holster in the timeframe of a Hurricane?

I don't think so. I think the light already existed and so did the holster. They just made them into kits for NOPD and sent them out there to help with the search effort.

 

[rwolfenstein]

Is this the one you are talking about?
View attachment 47967
View attachment 47968

I still use and like my old Surefire 6p's and E2led but I will admit there are other lights I reach for now. Once surefire moved away from the lego form factor it made it harder to justify paying the outrageous price. When I had to attempt to use their warranty only to find out it would cost more than a new light I lost all faith in Surefire. Now that cr123's have become obsolete I just cant really justify them when there are so many other brands available for less with better warranty and the ability to use 18650's.

Yep that's it.

 

[rwolfenstein]

As if hurricanes and other natural disasters just all immediately stopped after Katrina. And, doubt that police departments and rescue personnel immediately adopted dual-fuel lights afterwards. Rechargeable battery with the option of tossing in a couple of primary CR123s.

I can tell you one thing about government, we are never as prepared as it's made out to be. I found our power outage flashlight at our office the other day, it was some cheapo 2 cell plastic d battery flashlight. Guess what batteries we don't carry... D batteries. All of the remaining flashlights we have that are normally mounted in the cars, well those batteries have exploded or lost their charge. Food for thought.

 

[Monocrom]

I can tell you one thing about government, we are never as prepared as it's made out to be. I found our power outage flashlight at our office the other day, it was some cheapo 2 cell plastic d battery flashlight. Guess what batteries we don't carry... D batteries. All of the remaining flashlights we have that are normally mounted in the cars, well those batteries have exploded or lost their charge. Food for thought.

I wish I could say I'm surprised. But I'm honestly not. Not even a tiny bit.

 

[rwolfenstein]

I wish I could say I'm surprised. But I'm honestly not. Not even a tiny bit.

Last time I brought up that all the car mounted flashlights are dead to the Sgt. He said we don't use them (he's the days sgt.) And we shouldn't use our budget on batteries for things we don't use.

 

[Monocrom]

Last time I brought up that all the car mounted flashlights are dead to the Sgt. He said we don't use them (he's the days sgt.) And we shouldn't use our budget on batteries for things we don't use.

Not surprised at that either. A thoughtless bureaucrat in a sergeant's uniform. I know what that's like.

 

[rwolfenstein]

Not surprised at that either. A thoughtless bureaucrat in a sergeant's uniform. I know what that's like.

Its the whole reason why I track the department budget, its how I got a brand new stinger LED DS out of it and retired a stinger XT from the late 90s lol.

 

[Bucur]

I owned two Surefire lights so far: a Maximus that I had bought in 2012 and a Titan Plus in 2016. The former is now a paper weight with a dead battery. The latter, however, is still my favorite EDC light. The last time I lost it (three similar losses so far), I examined newer alternatives but I couldn't find one that I would prefer. Fortunately, I found it again, just before buying a new Titan Plus. I cannot comment about Surefire in general but for me, the Titan Plus is still the best in its category. I don't use it as a keychain light, though. It is too heavy for this but IMO, just the perfect weight; size and performance for pocket carry.