letschat7
Flashlight Enthusiast
Did Nightstick ever have a USA made light?
What Flashlight And Traffic Cone Combinations Would Be The Most Effective?
- Thread starter JAS
- Start date
Help Support Candle Power Flashlight Forum
They are favoured here by many professions as well. I own one and it works quite well. The only draw back is I needed to bend one of the contacts up a little because it would flicker if I bumped it. After that it has worked flawlessly for years.
Seriously doubt it.
Literally all the ones I've had were worthless garbage. The last one, did a comparison review of it along side the Streamlight Polytac it was blatantly copied from, on my YouTube channel. The light was so horrendously unreliable that I told my viewers I was going to take it apart and toss it in the trash bin when I was done filming the review, and I did.
I have no doubt it's popular in some circles. Some of their offerings look like Streamlight models but at a lower price-point, with claimed higher lumens. One thing I learned working at Mary Mount Manhattan College (among other things) is that what's popular is far from what's best or even ideal for the job. Almost every security guard there (mix of in-house and contracted 3rd Party) carried a single-AA, Ray-O-Vac LED shortened penlight. Common as dirt at Wal-Mart or Kmart back in the day. Cost was around $7.oo and having a light was a requirement by the client.
Thing is, there's a large performance theater inside the school. Security needed flashlights to light their way when checking the theater, which was left dark during foot-patrols. I'll never forget Day1 on the job being shown around by an older in-house guard whom I later on learned was a worthless low-life, who got extremely lucky in Life to have scored a fantastic and easy job at the college thanks to his dad. For some bizarre reason he loved to brag to the new hires how he had done literally nothing to get himself a great-paying Union job that he's had for decades at one location, and will be able to retire in the lap of luxury in a few years. Seems an odd thing to brag about but okay....
He switches on his Ray-O-Vac and tries shinning it from the back of the massive theater to the stage. It was pathetic. Then he advises me to get one just like his, and where I can buy one. (Don't remember which light I had on me that day. Likely one of numerous 2xCR123 powered LED models that could blow that ROV easily out of the water. And no, I didn't pull it out and show him up.)
That ROV's popularity among the other guards had literally nothing to do with its quality, its performance, its output, its reliability?? Had everything to do with its cheap-as-hell price, and that having a light is an absolute requirement for guards at the college. That was literally it! So what's popular among certain groups doesn't mean that it is for all the right reasons. But in fairness, that's pretty much every group on the planet!
Back in the inca. days, NYPD would technically issue flashlights. Basically recruits were told to go out there, buy their own with their own money, and were actually given a list of requirements that their Duty light had to meet. Veterans would usually pull the rookies aside and recommend the 2C Maglite in black. Not because it was superior to all the other models that met the NYPD's requirements. Oh no! Not at all.... It's because it was the absolute cheapest out of all the lights available at the time that did meet those requirements. Performance, reliability, screw that! The only thing that mattered was spending the least to meet a set of requirements. The rookies were just dumb-luck fortunate that the cheapest was actually a good flashlight, in their case.
letschat7
Flashlight Enthusiast
I'm going to defend the Ray-O-Vac and the Maglite 2C.
They are both pretty good lights. Sure we may have the higher expectations having grown up on Surefire 6P and the like but it meets the requirements of the FAA and they are still in use and being sold decades after production ended. I picked this up for pocket change and everything it it was made in USA and thanks to older cells being better made they didn't leak. The design is fairly sturdy and if something happens replacement cost was always low. The last USA made incan light from Eveready was like between $2-3 and Fulton is $20-30. Meanwhile Mag 2C seems to be the workhorse of the NYPD and British Police.
It is lighter and more comfortable to use for very little money, maybe upto 20 in dollar, pound, euro. You can drop these though and run them over and if you are very concerned they can be upgraded with various LED modules of varying performance. If you get a full size Mag C with a decent bulb they can reach out and illuminate things. Unless you are using a firearm there isn't as much need for CR123 tactical lights but once you use them well you don't really want to go back.
They are both pretty good lights. Sure we may have the higher expectations having grown up on Surefire 6P and the like but it meets the requirements of the FAA and they are still in use and being sold decades after production ended. I picked this up for pocket change and everything it it was made in USA and thanks to older cells being better made they didn't leak. The design is fairly sturdy and if something happens replacement cost was always low. The last USA made incan light from Eveready was like between $2-3 and Fulton is $20-30. Meanwhile Mag 2C seems to be the workhorse of the NYPD and British Police.
It is lighter and more comfortable to use for very little money, maybe upto 20 in dollar, pound, euro. You can drop these though and run them over and if you are very concerned they can be upgraded with various LED modules of varying performance. If you get a full size Mag C with a decent bulb they can reach out and illuminate things. Unless you are using a firearm there isn't as much need for CR123 tactical lights but once you use them well you don't really want to go back.
Attachments
We used to have a member who was part of the British police force. He mentioned one day how everyone was issued 2D-cell Maglites (incandescent models.) Fantastic back then for use at night. But being England with their collective diseased mentality on anything possibly being used by anyone as a weapon; the 2D Maglites came under fire by British politicians. Worried that police officers would start bashing suspects over the head with them.
So, after a very short time in service, they were all collected and British officers were forced to use 2AA Mini-Mags, instead (again, incandescent models). The irony.... The 2D Mag. was never created as a weapon. But the 2AA Mini-Mag., was! It's a Kubaton! Created as such, back in the day as a street-legal option in very restrictive American jurisdictions. Thing is, back then, it was the best EDC flashlight you could get. Especially for those who needed a good, pocket-able light for work purposes. Today, Maglite will never openly admit it. But that is how the 2AA Mini-Mag. was birthed.... as a covert weapon.
Edit: Typo.
Last edited:
letschat7
Flashlight Enthusiast
Back in the day one of my online friends was a former firearms officer(British police) and I remember asking about Superfire that was making claims of being USA made and having more sales to the UK police than here in USA and he hadn't heard of them. I never asked what he was issued. I find the holsters for Maglites of various sizes though. Surefire pouches are available too but more for British Army it seems.
M@elstrom
Flashlight Enthusiast
For a light with greater "presence" how about a lightsabre replica? 🤣
