Tactical Flashlight Mission "The Rapids"

This past Saturday some friends and I went on a tactical flashlight mission to some local rapids. This mission included about a half hour hike through the woods before reaching the first of two large rapids. The seccond set of rapids was another ten minute walk from there. The trail was heavily wooded and the air by the rapids was thick... perfect for testing some new lights.

My first goal for the night was to complete a runtime test for my MCLux PD on high. The light lasted for about half of the trip: About 55 minutes on an AW RCR123 700mah.

My seccond goal was to compare the PD, Kroma, and my Cree P4 Elly with a well known incan. The TL-3 1499 was used for comparison. The best tint in the heavily wooded area was the modded Cree Elly. The Kroma being the worst. I did notice however that with the red and white highs on together, greens and browns were slightly more vivid.

Dale (CPF User: cmaylodm) recently purchased an M3T and was excited to use his new light. He ran both high and low lamp assemblies, and he liked the low the best... more runtime. I will ask Dale to reply with info on the other lights that he brought.

Some Pics:

Upon arrival to the first set of rapids we were greated by a lovely warning:



And by the sound of water moving as swiftly as this:



Here's Dale with his M3T LOLA:



And me with the Kroma on red high:




I would like to thank my girlfriend for taking the pictures. Hopefully sometime soon I'll have pics of all the lights we brought.

Sweet, sweet lumens outta that M3T. While I enjoyed the extra output of the MN16, I found that the MN15 was more than adequate for what we were doing. The L5 was a trusty trail light, although I preferred using incandescent lights for their natural tone. I was also pleasantly surprised by the performance of my Ultrafire WF-602A1--a wide, even flood beam with almost no detectable hotspot which was excellent for up-close lighting. I was a little disappointed with my Ultrafire C2, only because the tint was ugly compared to the L5 and WF-602A1 (both of which I didn't really like compared to incandescents). It did throw like no other LED light I have seen though, but that will change once I get to see Aepoc's Seoul turbohead tower. Going out and actually using the lights where they were totally necessary brought out new traits of my lights that I had not previously noticed shining them around the house and outside where there is a lot of light pollution. All in all, it was an awesome time!

Looks like you guys had a lot more fun than I did taking my dog for a 1.5hr. walk I wish I could have been there for the trip. We need to all get together and hit up the cave for another awesome flashlight mission.


Oh and Dale, the MN15 on 2x17670's ran for 1.5hrs before the cell protection kicked in. At 45min. into the run, the light was still putting out ~140 lumens out the front(started just shy of 200 lumens for the first 5min or so). I was impressed!

Nice, I am thinking of taking your suggestion and going for the A19 and 2x17670s. Hopefully I'll get that setup going soon so we can take a trip out to the cave, sounds like the perfect place for a bunch of flashaholics! How strange is it that the less ambient light there is, the more excited we get? :laughing:

I got my turbo head tower working today. Wish I would have had it for the rapids. The VO seoul I put in it has a real nice color. I would like to compare it to your PD Strauss.

Here's a pic of all the lights used on the mission:



My lights are on the left and Dale's on the right. I only brought a couple for this trip. Hopefully next time I will have some more lights completed.

Dale's L5 and M3T make a great looking couple

yes they do... I almost like Dale's lights better then my own (In the pic anyways)

you spelled mcLux wrong in your sigline.

Yup I did. I need to update it anyway.

Aepoc said:

Yup I did. I need to update it anyway.

Click to expand...

Damn right you do....I wanna see that copper Mag in your sig line! :naughty: