Surefire L1 "shorty"

I'm surprised I haven't seen more people do this...

One of the biggest complaints I've heard about the Surefire L1 is that it's longer than desired for a 1-cell light. Surefire helped the situation with the current-generation L1 body, which is shorter due to a re-oriented circuit board. Unfortunately, the current-generation (Cree) head is the longest L1 head ever, which doesn't help.

So... I put an old-style L1 head on a new-style L1 body, giving the shortest possible L1. This saved me about 1/2" versus the Cree head, and is about 5/8" shorter than the old-style L1.



Of course the old-style head I'm using has an SSC P4 (bin U2SWOH) and a reflector... I'm not taking a step backwards in brightness here, haha!

I've been carrying the Shorty for a couple of days now, and the difference in length is definitely noticeable. I love it!

Wow, thanks for the idea! I just tried it and I love my new shorty L1. I have the most recent version of the L1 that I purchased at the beginning of the year, as well as one of the very first L1's that I've owned for quite awhile (SN A00130). My 1st gen L1 still has the original emitter in the head though, so while it is no powerhouse, I do love the smaller form factor now.

Works very well yes? I have 4 or 5 like this, really nice form factor for sure. Enjoy!

I was thinking about putting my Lux III red L1 head on my cree L1 body... but I didn't have the guts to try it. Cool mod that looks nice and with your modern emitter it is the best of both worlds. Very nice! :thumbsup:

MARNAV1 said:

Works very well yes? I have 4 or 5 like this, really nice form factor for sure. Enjoy!

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Man, I wish that I had the vast resources that some of you seem to have to be able to afford such redundancy. I keep reading posts like "I have several of these $100+ lights" and am always curious what you do with all of them?

For the OP, that's a nice setup! Now the only thing you need (other than a few more ) is the right clip from an E1B to make it just right :thumbsup:

Thats my EDC light for close to 6 months now. Gen 1 head that Milky Seouled on the current body and Gen 1 tail. I like the lower output of that tail cap. And E1B clip. Also Oragon Shooter tail gaurd.

Jeff

So if the driver is in the body why did surefire make the head so large?

FredM said:

So if the driver is in the body why did surefire make the head so large?

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Surefire's TIR optics are extra-long, for some reason.

On a related note, the original NX05 optic actually works very well with the SSC P4 emitter.

nice, best of both....really like the slimmer look too
now only if SF update the current L1 to such