Hunting rabbits with a Quark 123(2)

Ok, not really hunting them. But as I waited for the Metro train home tonight, I spotted rabbits running across the tracks.

When I hit them with the beam of my handy Quark 123 (2), I was surprised at how dim the the light was. It just barely illuminated the rabbits.

I'm not good at guesstimating distances, but this was probably 100 feet or so.

When I got home, I put my AW batteries in the charger to make sure they weren't the problem. No luck, they were nearly fully charged.

I still like the light. Mostly I use it to walk the dogs in the park and don't normally need a lot of throw to watch out for what's right around me. But if I try to find an owl that I hear in a tree, or see a dog that's loose, I'm often disappointed at the lack of light.

So 4Sevens, do you have anything else of the same size that's a better thrower?

If not, does anyone else have a recommendation for another torch of roughly the same size? Something with a clip that's pocket-friendly.

Consider the Turbo 123? It is only a little bit bigger and has a pocket clip so it is still easy to carry.

It has better throw as a direct result of having a larger reflector. It is difficult to expect much better throw out of the same size because throw is a relation of reflector size and depth to the size of the die. The only better throw you really could get out of the same size is if you pick up one of the older R2 XP-E Quarks.

The other option is to go TIR, and Surefire's E2DL is a top offering in that case. TIR allows a light to throw very well in a smaller package, and the E2DL will not disappoint... It is a bit bigger than the 123^2 but smaller than the Turbo.

carrot said:

Consider the Turbo 123? It is only a little bit bigger and has a pocket clip so it is still easy to carry.

It has better throw as a direct result of having a larger reflector. It is difficult to expect much better throw out of the same size because throw is a relation of reflector size and depth to the size of the die. The only better throw you really could get out of the same size is if you pick up one of the older R2 XP-E Quarks.

The other option is to go TIR, and Surefire's E2DL is a top offering in that case. TIR allows a light to throw very well in a smaller package, and the E2DL will not disappoint... It is a bit bigger than the 123^2 but smaller than the Turbo.

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Thanks, carrot.

This was the older R2 Quark I was describing. (I also have the newer version, in titanium.)

As I read the specs, the Turbo and the 123(2) each have a max of 230 lumens. Do you have first-hand experience that the Turbo is a better thrower?

Yes, the Turbo is a better thrower. I played with them for hours at SHOT but have not yet picked one up for myself. How much better, is subjective, but I feel that it is substantially better that it warrants the offering of two separate lights (regular v. turbo).

I'm not going to use the word throw since according to the otehr "throw" thread it seems, in some eyes, to have more to do with beam concentration than how far one can see wiht the light.

What I will say is that I have tested the Quark Turbo 123-2 and the 123-2 R2 on rabbits out in the bush (and foxes, sheep, horses and my sheepdog) and the Turbo will not help you see a rabbit from any more than five to ten yards further away than an R2 will. The turbo will, however, help cut through ambient light and crap in the air a bit better due to its more concentrated beam so there are actually some times when I've seen it do a noticeably better job, espeically on rainy nights (I was actually a bit surprised by how much difference there was when conditions got bad compared to how much there wasn't when the conditions were good).

The Turbo will also put much more light in the foreground and the areas between it and the spot and it doesn't have the darker void area in the spill that stops the R2 from having one long path of illuminated area right out to the target.

My old Eagletac P100C2 (XP-E Q5) out-distances them both (not by very much though).

i was wondering if there was a high level of ambient light when you used your Quark to illuminate the pesky critters, that may have had the effect of making your light look dimmer.

I find that my Jet III Pro ST (rated at 225 lumens) doesnt seem that bright especially when there is ambient light around, streetlamps etc.

hyperloop said:

i was wondering if there was a high level of ambient light when you used your Quark to illuminate the pesky critters, that may have had the effect of making your light look dimmer..

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I was thinking that too, sounded a bit like he was in an urban area.

It's only been in the last couple of years that I've started using LED torches out here. Before that I used hand held rechargeable halogen spotlights which put out a huge mass of light and allowed me to see things a long way away. That meant that one thing I really had to work to come to terms with when I started using the LED torches instead is that while they seem very bright when it's quite dark, they seem quite dim when you use them in areas that have a fair bit of other man made light around them.

hyperloop said:

i was wondering if there was a high level of ambient light when you used your Quark to illuminate the pesky critters, that may have had the effect of making your light look dimmer.

I find that my Jet III Pro ST (rated at 225 lumens) doesnt seem that bright especially when there is ambient light around, streetlamps etc.

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Good point -- I was at a train station!
Still, the rabbits were in the dark.

Has anyone used a 4.5 inch or so light that's noticeably more powerful than the Quark 123(2) ?

hatman said:

Has anyone used a 4.5 inch or so light that's noticeably more powerful than the Quark 123(2) ?

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It's actually about half an inch longer than that but my new Eagletac P20C2 craps all over my 123-2 R2 quark in terms of brightness. The p20c2 puts out a huge amount of very smooth light with no dark areas, just a long wide path of light, doesn't quite throw as far as the R2 Quark though.

Quark 123-2 Turbo is quite compact, only just longer than the 123-2 R2 Quark and a fair bit brighter than the R2 version. Also feels more solid in the hand. Pleasure to use (alhtough I did have to tune out a darker area in the hotspot).

hatman said:

Good point -- I was at a train station!
Still, the rabbits were in the dark.

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Yup, and your eyes were adjusted to the lights at the station...

Apart from having a ruined night vision, I am also thinking that the color of the rabbits and tint of the light has a lot of influence. Rabbits blend in surprisingly well with the environment. I have never tried a side-by-side rabbit spotting comparison of a cool white versus a neutral or warm white. I _*think*_ neutral or warm would do a slightly better job.

I also think most LED lights (regardless of color temperature) would have a surprisingly short effective "rabbit spotting" range due to how well those little fur balls blend in with the environment.

JaguarDave-in-Oz said:

It's actually about half an inch longer than that but my new Eagletac P20C2 craps all over my 123-2 R2 quark in terms of brightness. The p20c2 puts out a huge amount of very smooth light with no dark areas, just a long wide path of light, doesn't quite throw as far as the R2 Quark though.

Quark 123-2 Turbo is quite compact, only just longer than the 123-2 R2 Quark and a fair bit brighter than the R2 version. Also feels more solid in the hand. Pleasure to use (alhtough I did have to tune out a darker area in the hotspot).

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So how does the Turbo compare with the Eagletac?

Has anyone used a 4.5 inch or so light that's noticeably more powerful than the Quark 123(2) ?

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When you say powerful do you mean lumens? Or throw?

My L-mini II with a turbo head significantly out throws both my 123*2 Ti and 123*2 Turbo - the l-mini II has 190 lumens vs 230 lumens of the Quarks.

hatman, when I read your opening post, memories came flooding back, in a bad way. I'm really surprised there aren't more threads on what you experienced using a flashlight in an environment with ambient lighting. Off the record, even if there was the slightest hint of ambient light, your results would of been the same. It really made me sit up and take notice. The answer doesn't lye in a flashlight that is more geared towards throw, mind you the first time I experienced this phenomenon it was with a light that had a TIR in the bezel. It's not so bad if your in a dark environment with no light pollution, otherwise if you don't want to be left scratching your head you might need to look at different avenues. I can't elaborate on this too much, but I'm willing to share my experiences with you via pm.