What weapon light are you using on your AR15?

[swinokur]

www.elzetta.com.


made for the AR15

 

[fmlyman]

I want use this one but can't figure out how to mount it!

 

[Cesiumsponge]

100mph tape and paracord, what else? 😀

I want use this one but can't figure out how to mount it!

I used to hang all sorts of crap off my rifle before I realized how heavy it got. I've since decided to build a dedicated lightweight carbine and my Mk12 Mod1 SPR, and keep them separate instead of trying an all-in-one approach. I'll probably run an M95x with the XM07 since there are a bunch coming back from the sandbox for dirt cheap and pop in a Malkoff, or a M500A with a D36 nailbender. I've tried the M900 and didn't really like it. I have some gangsta grips but I'm not too fond of them now. I'd rather use a handstop.

I used to run the M961XM07 w/ LaRue mount on my AR15 and Saiga-12 shotgun, and a Streamlight TLR-1 on my 870. That was 5+ years ago (the millenium weaponlights) when LEDs were lousy and the millenium series was about all I was familiar with, and before I knew about CPF.

 

[Duckbutter]

Any real disadvantages of having a push button light over a finger pressure switch? I have a surefire(dont know model) on my AR and it is set up where I can use either. I like the look of the push button but the pressure switch makes more sense to me in a home defense situation.

 

[Agile54]

Just removed an X300 from the SBR this week when I received an M300A in sand along w/ a Gear Sector Scount mount.

Not into posting pics of weapons but we'll see.

 

[victory]

Any real disadvantages of having a push button light over a finger pressure switch? I have a surefire(dont know model) on my AR and it is set up where I can use either. I like the look of the push button but the pressure switch makes more sense to me in a home defense situation.

Remote pressure switches actually have a lot of disadvantages. Wires are failure points and they're much easier to accidentally activate.

Anyway, I use a 9p with a malkoff drop in.

 

[Ninja]

Oveready V3 (P60 size drop in) & working on AW's KT4 led turbo tower kit in M900a

 

[victory]

Re: Weapon Light Advice Needed (Fenix TA21)

The best budget rifle light is without a doubt the the surefire G2L. You want more light for some reason? G2 or 6P with a malkoff drop in, and probably the L model at that. It's just the right amount of light, no microprocessors, and Surefire twisty caps are the most reliable switches out there by far.

Multiple brightness settings on a weaponlight are pointless. Also, be weary of some suggestions that may pop up here: a lot of guys are putting way too many lumens on their longarms. Indoors, in light painted or smallish rooms, you're just blinding yourself. Outdoors or in large open areas like a warehouse, bright white light just turns you into a bullet magnet and serves no purpose at distance.

If you want to light up the outside of your house, i suggest flood lights on motion sensors. Pointing a gun at someone outside your home just because you want to see what's up is stupid. Maybe one of your neighbors called in a prowler and the dudes you hear in your driveway are actually cops. You light them up with your rifle light, they'll light you up with bullets. Maybe it's just some dumb kids who run off then call 911 and say some crazy dude pointed a machine gun at them. Don't screw yourself. Life is priceless and lawyers are expensive.

Anyway, get some low-light training and some training on using your weapon systems for personal protection. Equipment is only one element, and it's not the most important one.

 

[Cesiumsponge]

Unless your state allows AOW, SBR, or SBS, clearing a home with a longarm can be very cumbersome and dangerous unless the hallways and doors are quite wide to allow proper movement (all the homes here seem to be very narrow and crampled) and it's best role for home defense is when you're barricaded from an intruder. If you've ever fired an AR15 indoors, you'll know it's absolutely deafening as well.

Weaponlights are technically more for tactical operations where you know you're going into a bad situation. It's less sensible and practical for checking out bumps in the night. The OP doesn't really say what purpose or restrictions are for his situation so it's hard to give focused answers. 2x on the low-light training.

 

[victory]

Unless your state allows AOW, SBR, or SBS, clearing a home with a longarm can be very cumbersome and dangerous unless the hallways and doors are quite wide to allow proper movement (all the homes here seem to be very narrow and crampled) and it's best role for home defense is when you're barricaded from an intruder. If you've ever fired an AR15 indoors, you'll know it's absolutely deafening as well.

Weaponlights are technically more for tactical operations where you know you're going into a bad situation. It's less sensible and practical for checking out bumps in the night. The OP doesn't really say what purpose or restrictions are for his situation so it's hard to give focused answers. 2x on the low-light training.

Absolutely true, but it also has to be said that clearing your home solo with any sort of weapon is truly cumbersome and dangerous without exception. There's a reason cops do it with lots of armored, well trained and equipped men. Sometimes, it may be unavoidable, but that's a crap sandwich you'll have to take a bite of when the time comes.

As someone who has be trained in low light, in clearing structures, my first inclination would be to barricade myself in an area where i can protect myself and my family and call the police. Even so, a light on your weapon is an absolute necessity to see what the threat is should they try to breach that barricade.

 

[angelofwar]

Post Deleted

 

[Cesiumsponge]

The bad thing about living in a household with more than your significant other is people (children, siblings, room mates?) sleeping in multiple rooms. For my particular situation, there are no small children but there might be a situation where you have to round up the family before barricading and that would require minimal clearing to get to some very specific areas of the home. I've trained in low light with and without flashlights and it's difficult under just training stress alone. I wouldn't want to do this stuff for a living!

One thing about barricading is getting another family member in the room to call, and stay on the phone with 911 and specifically and repeatedly clarify your location in the home and description to dispatch so when officers arrive, it won't lead to a dangerous situation in mistaken identity. Otherwise I would find it very difficult to simultaneously operate a firearm and phone with proficiency. I guess I'm a phone luddite because I still don't have bluetooth (not that I'd have the mind to grab it in an emergency anyhow)

 

[angelofwar]

Post deleted

 

[victory]

The bad thing about living in a household with more than your significant other is people (children, siblings, room mates?) sleeping in multiple rooms. For my particular situation, there are no small children but there might be a situation where you have to round up the family before barricading and that would require minimal clearing to get to some very specific areas of the home.

Your best bet is to have a plan, and to have your family know the plan. I do live only with my SO, however, that has not always been the case. The way my apartment is laid out the bedrooms are at the end of a hallway so my barricade position is simply the doorway to the bedroom. No one can access the other bedrooms without going through the death funnel. Similarly, at my parents house and my previous apartment all the bedrooms are on the second floor, so it's a similar situation defending the stairs. A person suddenly confronted with a bright light at the top of the stairs or the end of the hallway faces the daunting prospect of guessing what is behind it. Few would charge into the bottleneck without cover and those that would face a perforated demise.

The time when you really have a nightmare on your hands is when the bump in the night that wakes you isn't the front door getting booted in, but a disturbance in one of the bedrooms. Now the game has gone from defensive to offensive

That's what great about less lethal rounds...3-4 Rounds of bean bag and then a slug/or buckshot if it get's too dirty (plus, it'll give ya a better chance of notting getting hung out to dry in court). Chance doesn't just favor the Brave...it favors the prepared as well...

There's nothing great about less lethal rounds in a civilian defensive setting. Not only is the legal standard for using them the same as using lethal force, but when your confronted with someone firing real bullets, the last thing you want is to have to go through 3-4 rounds almost guaranteed not to end the fight, and probably sending your opponent scrambling for a more covered position to shoot at your from. Police will almost never deploy less lethal weapons in a potentially deadly situation without having another officer present to provide lethal cover.

You say: "every step you take towards to give yourself the advantage, your chances of coming out of a situation alive greatly increase." Take your own advice, the best step you can take towards giving yourself that advantage is to have the first load out of the barrel be capable of ending the fight.

The purpose of adding light to our rifles is to help us identify the nature of the threat. If it is a lethal one, we want to immediately respond with lethal force. If the threat is anything but, hold your fire. Using less lethal munitions still carries with it the risk of death. They are not called "non-lethal" for a reason. They take a beanbag in the wrong place and you have a dead person that may not have justifiably needed killing

 

[Size15's]

Please keep this thread on topic. It's about the lights rather than the tactics etc.

 

[victory]

Please keep this thread on topic. It's about the lights rather than the tactics etc.

You can't really make a distinction between the two as they're part of the same puzzle. A weapon light without the training, tactics and mindset to employ it effectively might as well be a handheld. As such, any thread about a light on your rifle is a thread about fighting with your rifle by default.

Granted, on your side of the pond they're aren't any rifles to attach them to.

 

[Size15's]

It's got nothing to do with which side of the pond I'm on - simply that we've managed to keep the emphasis of this thread on the light until recently. Discussion of the wider picture is great but better suited to a dedicated thread in a more appropriate part of our forums.

 

[victory]

In that case, i will revise my post to better reflect the usage of tactical illumination.

 

[Markm87]

Here's what I had to use in the old days... before LEDs got good enough for the job. Insight M3 and a incan G2.

 

[Markm87]

Where the heck did that come from? but I can't find it for sale anywhere. Edit: turns out that's because it's a prototype, and there's not (yet) enough interest for a production run of 500.

Check back with GearSector... I heard they ended up doing a limited run of the double light mount.