Do you make regular use of your big lumen lights?

For those of you who own those big lights, such as the Fenix TK70, Sunwayman T60CS, or Olight SR9X, do you actually use them regularly, or are they mostly shelf queens? I have modest lights in the 200-400 lumens range, and I find that I use them far more often than my high powered multi-LED light. I am in the market again for something more powerful, maybe a Fenix TK35, a Fenix TK41, or Olight SR92, but am afraid of turning it into a shelf-queen.

If you do use your big lumens light, do you use it regularly and what do you use it for primarily?

It really depends on what are flashlights to you. In my case, my EDC LD12, 1xAA is enough for 99% for my auxiliary illumination needs. All my other lights (10 to 2200 FL1 lumens) are for the "pleasure of owning" one, thereby making them shelf queens. Whatever I may call them, just having them makes me happy. If I get to use them for whatever reason, then I'm more happy!

I find my Mac's Customs 3840L quite useful whenever I want to light up a large area at short to intermediate distances. Good for showing a group of people something that is large without having to wave the light around like you have to do with narrow beam lights.

The Barn Burner I find useful for very long distances when I want to see EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW AND ALL AT ONCE!!! And, it's great just for giggles to hear non-flashaholics hollar "HOLY $H17!!! WTF?!?" :devil:

And then there's the Maxabeam....that one kinda speaks for itself if you live in the middle of thousands of acres of land as I do.

So yes, the big dogs are probably my favorites.

I use my SF M6 a lot, along with my Ryobi One+ Xenon light, and I love using the Maxabeam, mostly for the OMGWTF effect it has on people.

They probably only account for 20% of my flashlight use though - most is my EDC SWM V10R TI - the Kydex holster on my belt makes it so easy to access and put back

My Fenix TK45 is a shelf queen. I only use it for showing off.

I don't need a large light, so therefore I only use small lights.

Use them very often yes - to be fair, I like to show off with them

I was just linked here from my TK-60 thread by the OP creator. This is a good point, and I'd bet that many people dont use their big throw/big flood lights very often at all, and when they do, its probably only to impress friends or to impress oneself, and even then it only gets turned on for a few minutes/seconds!

I dont yet own any of the super high powered LED flashlights. The brightest I now own are about 5 LED lights that run anywhere from 600-750 lumens on high or turbo. The whole reason I have not yet bought a 1500-2500 lumen light is that I wont hardly ever use it!

I dont use the 600-750L settings on the lights I own now! I only turn them on to check them out for oooh and ahhh, or to get oooh and aaah from other people. But when I am actually outside at night using -any- of my LED lights for a real task, I use modes between 10L - 100L, with 30-50L being the most common.

I just cant imagine really needing 2200 lumens, and I honestly cant say that I have ever really "needed" that much brightness! Sure, there were times when we were growing up in the late 80's, riding around the rural, hilly countryside just 10-15 minutes drive from large towns, and we would use cigarette lighter plug-in style spot lights to check out herds of deer standing out in the middle of fields. We werent hunting them, as we never carried our rifles or shotguns with us in our cars, but it was cool just to check out these sometimes HUGE herds of deer getting together. A 2000 lumen LED light would be more convenient for that purpose, as you could leave the car with it, but then again, I have not gone out checking out deer at night since like 1994! Plus, its not something I really NEED to do anyway.

But I am now looking at the Fenix TK-60. It is not one of the super-bright LED lights, as it runs at 800L on high, but it does have great throw for an 800L light. Plus it runs on 3 or 4 common D cell lights. I would use it as my anti-intruder, home defense light since its bright and large. If nothing else, it could also be used as a club in a pinch if you were being attacked by an intruder. So it wouldnt be an everyday carry light, and I wouldnt bring it with me on backpacking trips, but it should be a great home light thats easy to use for anyone who needs it. Its bright enough to see far across the property too. Its not a 2200-3800 Lumen overkill light either.

So although I considered buying a 2000+ lumen monster light as recently as 2 months ago, I cant now see wasting the money on something that bright which I wont use anyway. Maybe I'll buy one next year when I've got more spending money, but even then, I'll have to leave my development to use it on high, because it would bother the neighbors as I live on a cul-de-sac, with my house surrounded by other houses.

But I think the TK-60 might make sense though.......

Yes they get alot of use, I usually carry 5 or 6 lights and always have a thrower like a TN-11 with me. I know the day I don't have it with me is the day I will be in the dark somewhere, I should not need it with all my edc torches but it would bother me its home.

Nope. My TK70 and TK45 sleep on the floor next to my bed and the TK40 is in a box with all the other lights I don't use often, including 2 predators and a TK15. I only whip these out when I hit the field for a flashahol fix. 200 lumens in more than I need at home, but I do like to turn the V11R up to 500 lumens every so often.

I have a Lupine Wilma TL(1100 lumens) and Lupine Betty TL-S (2600 lumens), and they get some carry time, since they are so small but put out mostly floody light. I use them when I go for a walk with the kids, but don't "need" them. I talked myself into buying them, so I could use them when I ride my bike at night, as Lupine is primarily a bike light manufacturer. It is nice to have that kind of light, but my EDC is a Zebralight SC80 and/or Surefire E1L. More than enough light from either of those, depending on what I am doing. The surefire for throw and the Zebra for flood and longer run time with more lower lumen options