Flashlights

It was my pleasure.

I need to get my L2 fixed. I charged the cells the other night and now it's not working. I did all that I know to do to check it out. It's done this before and just began working on it's own, but so far that hasn't repeated itself. The L2 is a very throwy light; tight beam. I see that it's no longer made.

https://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_299058.html

A new BLF designed light arrived, the BLF GT aka "Giggles" due to the sound folks make as they encounter it in their hands. The videos explain it and they aren't my videos. Yeah, it'll do what's seen with ease, at least in my testing out to 600 yards. I have no idea what use I'll have for it. But even the wife got a charge out of it and she isn't into flashlights. It's called Giggles for good reason. It'll reach out beyond 1 mile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LStmsIyGldA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2jmUXi6IPg

The 2nd link has a gent who clearly isn't a light nerd; just a user. Giggles is best employed slung cross body and is designed for that. Heck mine weighs >5 pounds when fully loaded with 8 cells. Not many folks want to deploy it with the hand for any length of time.

Edit: Last night I called my neighbor and suggested that he should look into his sunroom, but not to look at my home. I lit it up on turbo output. He was impressed and said that it was lit like daylight. So today I brought it over to him, and well, there's a reason it's other name is "Giggles".

My brothers light and cells arrived. I set it up for him (great packaging by Lumintop BTW*) and it's working fine. He'll pick it up in a few days.

A gent on the BLF lit up a water tower from 1.9 miles away. He posted photo evidence of the act.

*The outer carton is double wall corrugated and the inner carton is single corrugated. The components are encased in closed cell foam. It's nuke proof packaging but for the price at full retail it had better be. With DHL shipping (assuming USA) the lights are 3-5 days away from the customer when they finally go retail. They are definitely up to speed for full retail sales of this monster of a flashlight.

The BLF GT aka "Giggles" dwarfs the Q8.

That huge reflector handles the light produced by the LED fantastically. One gent down in Texas lit up a water tower at 1.9 miles and posted the picture to prove it. For ordinary folks it's best employed with a sling since it weighs over 5# with all 8 cells, but it will run off of 4 cells with a hit taken to the runtime. The Q8 has almost 2x the lumens of the GT. It's all in how the light is handled that makes the difference.

The Q8 will get quite hot in a short time since there is so little aluminum there to soak up the heat produced by the 20 amp draw at full output. After 20 minutes on turbo the GT is warm but not hot. If one knows the Narsil UI of the Q8 the GT is simple to use since it's UI is based on Narsil. There might be a few differences, but nothing major.

It's by far my biggest light and I still don't know what I'm going to do with it. I didn't need it, I wanted it.

Lumentop did a really fantastic job building these lights. A quality operation from start to finish. Heck, they shipped it encased in closed cell foam form fitted to the parts, and the outer carton was double corrugated cardboard, then there was an inner corrugated carton. They could have gotten nuked and survived it. Then they shipped it DHL express with 3-5 day delivery.

Two of the three things I never leave my house without(my cell is the other one)

I was EDCing a Manker E11, but I switched to an Emisar D4 (flood beam). It's not much larger than the E11 but has huge output (for a short time due to heat) for when that's required. I mostly use it on moonlight mode or just a little over that. In full output it gets hot in 15 seconds; lots of output and no mass as a heatsink. My hand is the biggest heatsink.

I find that I use it most around the house to supplement light in the cupboards and such. But not too long ago the wife and I were in the supermarket and it went dark. Before I could pull out the D4 the lights came back on. But it reinforced my decision to EDC a light. Actually I carry 3. The D4 clipped onto my pocket is the easiest to get to, and a BLF designed tube light (flood beam) and a custom made C8 (a thrower) in my EDC Maxpedition Fatboy pack. But that pack also has other EDC goodies that I can't mention here, including a knife which I can mention.

I assume you like your Fenix. I see pocket wear on it. I like to see that.

BTW, I'm an ex LEO also, but I didn't retire from it.

Anyone have recommendations for a tactical flashlight that can withstand the recoil of a 12 gauge shotgun without falling apart or rattling loose?

Looking for something to mount on the magazine tube with quick, push button on/off that I can just tap as I grab the forend to rack a round into the chamber.

If it’s bright enough to blind a home invader and thwart an attack without pulling the trigger, it’s better for everyone...

If it comes with a magazine tube attachment and remote on/off that I can attach near the ejection port...even better...

Price is always a concern, but we are talking about personal home defense of myself and my daughter so I’m not opposed to investing in quality...

I know we have some tactical guys and LEOs on this forum, so I’m looking at the “operators” in the group for experienced input. I bought a $20 “tactical light” off of Amazon and it ceased to function after only a couple shots at the range...definitely not something I want to rely on...


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BadDad are you going to be mobile with it, or can it be laid down on the floor while you and the daughter stay safe in the safe room and wait for the LEOs to arrive and clear your home?

I know of no budget light that I would trust with 12 ga recoil. But to lay it down and flood an area while most of you stays behind cover, that's easy. When I lay the Q8 down on max' brightness (5k+ lumens) it forms a light shield that can't be seen behind. For someone not wanting to get into rechargeable Li-Ion cells and what it takes to use them safely, made even more difficult with a light that uses multiple Li-Ion, there is the Manker Mk41 which uses 4 rechargeable NiMh or any AA size cell to include Li-Ion or even primary AAs. Note tha I wouldn't suggest using these with 12 gauge recoil. I know that it will shut off the Q8 if it doesn't break it. The cells are held by springs and the recoil will momentarily break the circuit acting like a click of the switch. But they'd be fine for laying it down to blind.

BadDad are you going to be mobile with it, or can it be laid down on the floor while you and the daughter stay safe in the safe room and wait for the LEOs to arrive and clear your home?

I know of no budget light that I would trust with 12 ga recoil. But to lay it down and flood an area while most of you stays behind cover, that's easy. When I lay the Q8 down on max' brightness (5k+ lumens) it forms a light shield that can't be seen behind. For someone not wanting to get into rechargeable  Li-Ion cells and what it takes to use them safely, made even more difficult with a light that uses multiple Li-Ion, there is the Manker Mk41 which uses 4 rechargeable NiMh or any AA size cell to include Li-Ion or even primary AAs. Note tha I wouldn't suggest using these with 12 gauge recoil. I know that it will shut off the Q8 if it doesn't break it. The cells are held by springs and the recoil will momentarily break the circuit acting like a click of the switch. But they'd be fine for laying it down to blind.

I don't ever want to have to harm another person. Cover and concealment while waiting for LEOs to arrive is always the plan.

I'll look into those options.

BTW...LiIon batteries are not a big deal. I have several LiPo batteries, safety bags, and a LiPo charger that will also charge LiIon, NiMH, and a variety of other potentially dangerous batteries, so I have that going in my favor...

If I'm breaking the rules with this post, mod's please just delete it.

BadDad, I teach this stuff when I have the time.

No one in their right mind wants to harm another person, but sometimes others bring rain down onto themselves by their actions. My plan is to disengage and evade, but not in my home or in my curtilage, since my home is my castle and Maine considers it to be that as well (we have the Castle Doctrine). If they got past the dogs the wife and I stay in the safe room, me behind cover with significant lumens down the hall, the cell phone on speaker phone. I would tell dispatch to record the call. I have significant firepower to alter the perps thoughts and actions and plenty of distance to make it so. I'm also a competition shooter so it would be suicide for anyone to try it. Of course they wouldn't know that, but they'd figure out real quick that it was a very big mistake on their part. If they disregard the warnings I would have a very clear conscience. After all, how many warnings can be given? Any perp would hear everything between dispatch and myself by design. My goal would be to have them leave.

You may have seen me on ABC national news. We recently had a 4 day manhunt quite literally in my backyard for a cop killer, and ABC used my quote, "I think he has more to fear from us than we have to fear from him.". The entire hill locked and loaded when we knew what was going on. We live in quiet rural Maine, but not during those days. We woke to a 'chopper hovering overhead and fixed wing aircraft going back and forth. If need be we can keep the peace on our own since we're quite some time from seeing a uniform once we call. It's a way of life for us, but while we're ready we aren't normally on edge. I was doing chores with a black rifle slung over my shoulder while the wife kept her eyes on the treeline. I won't be shot at on my land. He may have gotten the first shot but I'd have gotten the finishing shots; I only need one and I had many more than that. It was an interesting 4 days. For 2 days they had roadblocks set up and we didn't even try to get out, not that we needed to. But no mail delivery or pick up, so shipping was disrupted. But guns are always within reach to protect the small livestock from 4 legged predators on a daily basis. It just so happened during that time that we had a 2 legged predatory animal in the back 40.

You might also go over onto "the budget light forum" and ask your question there. There are lots more knowledgeable folks there and they put my knowledge about lights to shame.