Size15's said:
Grant,
Your experience with 6P (P60) Lamp Assemblies is not consistant (the opposite in fact) with the feedback people give on the life-spans of their SureFire Lamp Assemblies both here on CPF and elsewhere.
Did the lamps die as a result of dropping the flashlight?
Hmmm....not sure whether you're questioning my veracity or my sanity!
I have some experience with SureFire's lamp assemblies. I've owned 2 lights (a 6P and the "Combat Light" version - the 6Z, I believe - which was later sold off), and my wife owns a 6P as well (a "gunmetal" version, still SF's best looking light ever.)
On Day 3 of being a SF owner, I turned my 6P on and laid it on our coffee table; it rolled off, onto a carpet floor, and the LA failed.
A couple months later, I was in a doorway; someone called my name, I turned quickly, and my holstered 6P hit the doorjamb; the LA would no longer light up.
Roughly 8 or 9 months later I was camping in a very remote area of Oregon in a pouring rain. I'd been using the light off and on all night, and one time I pushed the button and the LA blew.
My wife was participating in a low-light shooting match in which she was seated at a table. The scenario was to draw light and handgun and engage several targets. She drew the light as she began to stand, her 6P bezel hit the edge of the table on the way up, and failed to light.
I've watched as someone who was using a Combat Light on a lanyard dropped the light to facilitate a mag change (light being lit); his ejected magazine hit the dangling light, blowing the LA. I could go on, but I've no doubt caused the SureFire contingent to see red as it is!
After replacing so many lamps, I looked for something that, even if it should prove no more reliable, would at least be cheaper to feed with bulbs. When the Strion became available I bought two - one for me, one for my wife. This was when the had first come out; even the wholesaler, who was a StreamLight service and parts center, hadn't heard of it yet. That was what - 3, 4 years ago? Well, as incredible as this sounds, BOTH our Strion are still on the original bulbs!
We treat them no differently than we did our SureFires; my personal Strion has deep nicks gouged out of the bezel, for instance. I can't count the number of times I've dropped it and hit it against something. My wife has carried and used hers daily since new. Neither has yet failed.
Matter of fact, we use the Strions even more as a general illumination tool than we did the 6Ps, primarily because of the economics of running rechargeables - so they have more active hours on them than our SureFires did. Again, I stress they are still on the original bulbs, a claim which neither of our Surefires can make.
I've been assailed by SureFire apologists before. I tell them the same thing: I like SureFires, but they aren't perfect - no matter how much one wishes they were.
Am I hard on lights? Yes, but no more than one would expect for a light supposedly designed for "tactical" environments. I'm sorry, but saying that a lamp for such a light works fine "unless its been dropped" is like saying that a failed firefighter's helmet "works fine as long as it doesn't get hot!"
As to reports of people getting much better life out of SureFire lamps, I can only surmise that they're either padding the truth, or they work in an air-conditioned office and take their vacations in nice parks with paved walking paths. I do neither of those things.
A light to me is a tool, no more; I don't collect them, fondle them, talk to them, take them out to dinner, store them in velvet-lined cases, or sit them on shelves where they can be admired my passersby. I use them, often in rough environments, and to me their sole value is in how they survive (or fail to survive) the use to which I put them. From that perspective, my experience with SF lamp assemblies is less than confidence inspiring.
Sorry if such a conclusion disturbs anyone's sensibilities, but it's been my experience, and I offer it up only as the data point that it is.
-=[ Grant ]=-
