My Tactical Effectiveness Test!

[SuRgE]

Happy holiday,

Now I'm not a LEO but do any of you test the ability of your torches for a tactical situation by shining your light at your reflection in a large mirror from about 21 feet away. I do, to see how much I'm blinded by the light. BTW, 21 feet is the average distance of a gunfight.

I have a hallway about 30 feet long with a full length mirror at the end. I pretend my reflection is the intruder. I then blast the mirror with my torches to see which causes the most discomfort to my eyes. Not to scientific but you may be surprised by the results you get with various so called tactical lights.

I learned that my PolyStinger with the focus adjusted tight easily induced more "blinding light" than a P60 Lamp or a P90. Yeah, theres a larger hotspot with my P90 but it doesn't have the same effect as the tightly focused beam.

Having reach this conclusion, I now am considering a Turbo head for my Surefires.

Try this test, Its fun, even if your wife thinks your a Whacko!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[LEDagent]

I've actually done that test with an Ultrastinger, my dad's Mag 6D, my E2, and my 1 million CP Spotlight. Needless to say...i am now blind. Just kidding.

The Ultrastinger and the Mag 6D had the same discomforting, shield your eyes and turn away effect, while my E2 just had the "let my eyes just adjust to the light effect."

My spotlight on the other hand had me drop to the floor in pain....no..just kidding again. It was like staring into a car's highbeam.

 

[webley445]

>>. BTW, 21 feet is the average distance of a gunfight.<<

Thats 21 ft or less. Try 12 to 3 feet for the majority of encounters.

 

[SuRgE]

Webley445,

Thanks for the correction, your right! Read it in a couple of Gun mags and in a NRA fact list.

 

[Viper]

With my tigerlight, I can temporarly blind myself by shining it down into the carpet. It's that bright. But If you want a real good test, try Haloween night.

Parents of kids usually stand at the bottom of my 30ft driveway, while the kids get run to the candy. I stand at the top by the door and shine my light down at the street, you'd be suprised how many parents (also usualy holding a light) will turn their head and squint.

It became a contest to see how far away I could get someone to shield their eyes or turn their head. Only 1 person ever caught on, and said "Nice Police light, what is it?".

I didn't have a tiger light at that time, I was experimenting with a SF6F with P61 lamp Assy. I can't wait to try my Tiger light next year.

It was a little aggrevating to the parents, but I very effective test for me, because of the random unsuspecting people approaching me in the dark.

 

[Monsters_Inc]

I guess the downside to a tightly focused beam is that you have to aim the hotspot at the eyes or at least head of the 'intruder', pretend or not. The purpose designed 'tactical' lights allows a greater hotspot area, as in these situations you don't always know where the intruder is in order to aim the light exactly centered on the subject.

 

[Albany Tom]

Reminds me of two stories. "Tactical" depends on the environment.

1. Local flood, I'm in college, entire town is surrounded by water, all power out. The "dorm lady" in one of the buildings is annoying everyone by shining one of those plastic 6v lantern battery lights across the street at the kids/students hanging around outside. I have an idea... I had a Mag 3D "modified" with a 2-amp bulb and NiCad's. Pretty bright for a Mag, to say the least. Setup the light, and from about 50 yards, got her to turn her head away, lower the flashlight, and go inside. Yep, aimed right at the eyes, which were apparently very well adjusted to darkness. She couldn't see me, or pretty much anyone else for that matter.

2. This story is from a friend who recently retired as chief of police of a local town. He said he and his guys once had to deal with a bunch of kids yelling and swearing at them from the other side of the Hudson river, in Troy, I'd say maybe 100 yards away. Their Mag's wouldn't reach far enough to light up the kids, and the kids new it. However, the chief had a 12v spotlight in the car, and that worked pretty well. Well enough to light up the area while the Troy PD arrived and rounded up the kids.

 

[Charles Bradshaw]

Nothing like the Night Sun on LAPD choppers. hehehe. I used to live in LA.

If I ever need one for tactical purposes, it would be my Legend LX.

 

[Coherence]

test the ability of your torches for a tactical situation by shining your light at your reflection in a large mirror from about 21 feet away

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">If you stand 10 feet from a mirror, the image of yourself appears to be 20 feet away. Would be more accurate to stand 10.5 feet from the mirror for your test...

 

[txwest]

Originally posted by webley445:
>>. BTW, 21 feet is the average distance of a gunfight.<<

Thats 21 ft or less. Try 12 to 3 feet for the majority of encounters.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">You're going to have to start shooting pretty fast to catch me at that distance. I could cover 20' very quickly if I thought you were going to shoot at me. :>) TX

 

[TigerLight Pro]

The TigerLight was designed to has a significant spill over. I n Portland Oregon we do not have =choppers so we have to do man hunts the old fashioned way, yard to yard. I wanted a penetrating light without sacrificing the spill over that allows an officer to see threat in the peripheral vision. I figured it had to be an effective flood at 60 feet to give time to react. An attacker can close 21 feet in less than a second and do alot of damage before an officer can react. The fact is that act always beats react. the bright light and pepper spray gives the user the chance to level that playing field.

 

[Rifter]

I hate you, you just had to say something like this so i would go out and try it didnt you? Just blinded myself with my M2+A19+KT2(N2 LA) and it was BLINDING, when i turned on the light i had to take a step back, was like getting hit in the head lol. VERY effective. And i was kidding i dont hate you

 

[Albany Tom]

Just a moment of physics thought.

If you try a flat mirror at 30 feet, you're actually shining the light 60 feet.

This physics moment is now over, regularly scheduled programming to resume.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I've got a similar setup in my apartment. E2e and Arc LS seem pretty much the same, from a 'blinding' standpoint. Must be the color temp... oh well.

Trying the Ultrastinger... yow! Not comfortable. Still squinting as I write this.

Trying the Optronics 2 mil spot... can''t se ee scren anymor, heda hurtss , oh, the painnnn

 

[Ratso]

I used test it by looking directly into the light!! Yowch! Never again since I tried my P61 HOLA though...

 

[Xrunner]

Thanks for the info, I'll have to try it sometime and see how many more people I can convince I'm crazy. Just a random thought, anyone know what the brightness of the Night Sun Charles talked about?

-Mike

 

[Tomas]

Originally posted by Xrunner:
. . . Just a random thought, anyone know what the brightness of the Night Sun Charles talked about?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">From several articles about police, fire department and military helicopters: "30-million candlepower Nightsun"

 

[Charles Bradshaw]

I was making a comment on how bright the Night Sun is.