Blackhawk Gladius strobe effectiveness in daylight

Hello,

Does any one have any idea how effective would the Gladius's strobe be in disorienting an attacker in daylight?

Thanks

Paul

I have serious questions about its effectiveness at night, much less to a daylight adjusted pupil

If strobes are disorienting, why do they put them on emergency vehicles, including School Buses?

You would think, if that were the case, everytime I'm driving down the interstate highway and run into a School Bus with it's blue strobe (much more powerful than the Gladius) I should be run off the rode and fly into the ditch at 80mph.

InfidelCastro said:

I have serious questions about its effectiveness at night, much less to a daylight adjusted pupil

If strobes are disorienting, why do they put them on emergency vehicles, including School Buses?

You would think, if that were the case, everytime I'm driving down the interstate highway and run into a School Bus with it's blue strobe (much more powerful than the Gladius) I should be run off the rode and fly into the ditch at 80mph.

Click to expand...

Agree. In daytime, it would be as usefull for self defense as a kitten. And I doubt how good it is at night time, I've never had any problem with hitting people at the dance floor.
Admittedly I have never used the Gladius strobe, and their might be a difference with a directed strobe if there is COMPLETE DARKNESS, but I still have my doubts. I can't be repeated enough it seems, but IMHO, flashlights aren't weapons(defense or offense), crenelated bezels or what not.

Crenulated bezels are not weapons?

A paperclip can be a weapon. A flashlight, regardless of bezel can be a weapon. Maglites are famous for this.

That's pretty much my point. You could use the flashlight without the crenelated bezel as much as a weapon, doesnt do much difference(except for the "tactical" image). You could as well walking around with a good sized rock in you pocket instead of paying a healthy amount of dollars for a bezel. If you want to defend yourself, dont buy a flashlight.
Oh,and maglites are an excellent example, them you can actually use as a club. A small tactical surefirestyle torch, not so much.

Maybe we put crenulated bezels on little flashlights to project Maglite envy?

Lobo said:

Agree. In daytime, it would be as usefull for self defense as a kitten.

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I dunno, maybe a kitten could come in handy?

It's Dangerous to Go Alone (warning: linked page plays music)

-Rick

Hmmm sounds like the Gladius is a bit of a waste of time. It's main feature over and above a standard ( and much cheaper ) flashlight is it's strobe.

If the strobe is totally ineffective then I think I'll stick with something just as bright but half the cost!

Strobe is designed to confuse an onlooker, their videos online of tactical use they are weapon mounted or side carried and they use th estrobe to confuse any enemy's, a strobe amkes it about 200x harder to figur eout exactly were the flashlight is at any given moment unless they stand still.

So the strobe does work to some degree from close range ( under 15 foot? ). It sounds like it disorientates and buys a small amount of time for escape!

sigh.

The strobe (at night) is pretty effective. However, a lot of people have wrong ideas about the effect. It does not cause the attacker to writhe in pain -- it distracts him and lessens his reaction time for a crucial few moments. As a defender, you have to know what to do after that. If you buy the Gladius for defense and think that's all you need, you're dead wrong -- maybe literally.

At daylight, the distracting effect is lessened, but nevertheless something is there. I strobe people frequently (university/college, to give you an idea ) with normal work lighting, which causes people to blink, turn away and cry "Stop that!" Would it help against a determined attacker? Maybe. I don't know. Wouldn't bet my life on it, either at day OR night.

And the Gladius has so much more to offer than just the strobe, though some of it might not be seen. High quality does not necessarily mean more modes, higher brightness or more listable features. Adjustable brightness, low low setting, thermal management, one of the best UIs are the high points I can think of the top of my head.

Brings me back to a turboflare video being used by a SWAT team. The video had a guy in a cubicle with a gun, you see a turboflare flop over the wall and onto the floor and BAM, in rushes the SWAT guys..

I dunno, the only strobe I see being effective would be muzzle flash coming from a moderately-large caliber firearm..

Well, Ken Good, the man behind the Gladius, was a Navy SEAL. He thinks the strobe helps, and when no one wanted to make a light with it, he did it himself. I wouldn't argue with a SEAL on tactical questions .

Hello Paul,

Welcome to CPF.

The strobe function on the Gladius will be just as effective as any other "tactical" light would be in daylight, or high ambient light conditions. You can get an idea of this by taking your brightest light out in daylight conditions and have a friend flash you with it.

On the water you are supposed to have a steady anchor light, not a flashing one. The reason is that it is easier to pinpoint the location of a steady light. The flashing light can "disorient" you as to its precise location.

This is the same principle that the Gladius uses.

An example would be a bad guy moving along being followed by two good guys. One of the good guys had a steady light, and the other has a strobing light. The bad guy will know when the good guy with the steady light is approaching and will be able to keep track of him with a high degree of accuracy. On the other hand, the good guy with the strobing light may be able to approach the bad guy without him realizing how close the good guy is getting, and without the bad guy being able to accurately zero in on him.

Tom

elgarak said:

sigh.

The strobe (at night) is pretty effective. However, a lot of people have wrong ideas about the effect. It does not cause the attacker to writhe in pain -- it distracts him and lessens his reaction time for a crucial few moments. As a defender, you have to know what to do after that. If you buy the Gladius for defense and think that's all you need, you're dead wrong -- maybe literally.

At daylight, the distracting effect is lessened, but nevertheless something is there. I strobe people frequently (university/college, to give you an idea ) with normal work lighting, which causes people to blink, turn away and cry "Stop that!" Would it help against a determined attacker? Maybe. I don't know. Wouldn't bet my life on it, either at day OR night.

And the Gladius has so much more to offer than just the strobe, though some of it might not be seen. High quality does not necessarily mean more modes, higher brightness or more listable features. Adjustable brightness, low low setting, thermal management, one of the best UIs are the high points I can think of the top of my head.

Click to expand...

Well said. A strobe combined with a gun will give you an advantage over only a gun. But if you're not regurlarly involved in gun fights and room searches in low light environments (like a LEO, SWAT, military etc) just the gun should be more than enough(which is a whole other discussion) for a civilian. If you buy the Gladius for that purpose, you should probably invest in good kevlar also...

For any light to have a blinding effect, it has to overwhelm other light sources to the eyes of the attacker.

In a dark alley, that means the bezel of the flashlight has to visually overwhelm other nearby objects that are illuminated by sidespill and (flashlight) light that is reflected off nearby objects.

In a dimly lit room, the flashlight bezel has to overwhelm sidespill/reflected light *and* ambient room lighting. Much more difficult there than in a totally dark environment.

In daylight, well, you are competing with a G2V star. Unless you are into the thousands of lumens, you can pretty much forget about overwhelming daylight-adjusted vision under the sun.

Scott

My experiments (at night) show that the Gladius strobe principal effect is to make a potential attacker loss the sense of depth. You can walk away from him or even towards him without him noticing you are moving.
This effect is probably a good thing to get some distance and run away.

Luigi

I can't comment on the Gladius strobe, but I have played with the Fenix ones, I am not sure how different the strobe rate is. I find that in a totally dark room, with the strobe on a table, it is ildly disorientating to walk towards it (I normally feel slightly dizzy) of course it isn't impossible, but as Luigi says, it causes a slight loss in depth perception (things seem to jump around a bit).

Another advantage to my mind, is that flashing lights grab attention and people look towards them. If you point a bright light at someone they tend to just look away, if you point a flashing light, it grabs their attention, momentarily, causing to stare at it which doesn't do much for their night sight.

As has been said before, they are not weapons (only adjuncts to weapons, when used tactically) and the effectiveness of a strobing torch in a self-defence scenario is perhaps questionable, but if used properly, I think it could be more effective than having a constant light source under specific conditions. However, you either need to back the light up with something stronger or (in this country) run and hope they don't follow.

The Police officer who was posting about tactics in one of the other threads said that he used the strobe when going into derelict buildings to check it out and went to constant on when he had acquired a target and had his firearm pointed at them. That way it was harder for someone to identify exactly where he was until he was in a strong position (as described so accurately above by others).

Andrew

I respectfully disagree that a strobe isn't effective (specifically at night). When using a light in a tactical scenario with the proper techniques, strobing is used to conceal movement, position, depth. location, etc.

While light may not be an effective long term weapon, it is not meant to be deployed alone against a avistary. To be effective you use the light first and the follow it up with something else... be it movement, a shot, or a strike.

When looking at a scenario alone the lines of the one discussed, remember the 3 S's: Speed, Shock, and Surprise. IMHO any tool that can be used to increase one of these is worth considering.

Maybe mercop will chime in...

My life is pretty quiet - no guns or knives. My reasons for the strobe is to deter animals from attacking!

I have an elderly dog who in her youth could out run aggressive maternal mother cows and dogs who's owners can't be bothered to control them.

I've read somewhere animals tend to avoid bright strobe light, so I'm hoping this will deter them enough for me and her to make our escape!

I've ordered a Gladius, arrives next week so if any one is interested I'll post as to whether this works.