Well, I always had "light", in that there's both a Photon microlight and a teeny little LED Lenser light on my keychain*, but I didn't always have LIGHT. I kept my Surefire Z2-S and my handy little Streamlight Microstream in outside pockets on my purse. I'd have carried the Microstream in a pocket, but at 28 lumens it wasn't a big enough improvement over the keychain lights to warrant another pocket wart in my mom jeans.
So when I left my purse at home or locked in the trunk, all I had was the dinky keychain lights. In light of certain recent events, not having a good bright light ready to hand was leaving me feeling less-than-prepared. Fortunately, one of the little trinkets in the freebie bags from Leatherman they gave us during the factory tour was a LED Lenser P3 AFS
flashlight.It has the sliding focus head that is the LED Lenser trademark, is machined aluminum, and despite being a little single AAA-cell flashlight about the size of the Microstream that easily slips into a pants pocket, it throws a no-kidding 75-lumen beam that will travel clean from, say, the middle/back rows of a theater to the emergency exit doors down by the screen, which was a comforting feeling when I went with Shootin' Buddy to see #OCCUPY_GOTHAM_CIT... er, The Dark Knight Rises this past Saturday.
Also, with the machined flats in the flashlight body, it's easily controlled by holding it between two fingers, just in case you needed both hands to, say, manipulate a pistol, for instance. I'm impressed. It's in my pocket right now, as a matter of fact; I had to take it out to snap the photo up there.
*There's a reason for the two bitty keychain lights and one or both of them being a Photon (or Photon knock-off). The Photon is flat and can be locked "on" and so, in a pinch, you can take it off the keychain and set it down to use like a little hands-free candle. Plus, the things are tiny, weigh nothing, and are dirt cheap. There's hardly a reason to not have a couple on your keyring.
13 comments:
I've been carrying one of those first light tomahawk's as my primary LIGHT for a while now. I found a killer deal on a few of them, so that got me past the sticker shock of their MSRP.
I like this light. A LOT. It's damned easy to run well with a handgun too. Can even easily reload with it in your weak hand.
My general purpose light has fluctuated between a single AA light (brinkman?), a surefire backup that's fairly beat up, on it's third switch, but is sort of handy as, well, a second light, and a 4seven something or another two CR123 light that is programable.
Runs on a AAA?
Nice.
I love my Fenix E11 for size/lumens/value. The little 1 AA light will put out 105 lumens and slips into any cell phone pocket or goes on the hip in its sheath very easily. And for $27 at amazon cant be beat.
I will say this for the old standbys from Surefire and Streamlight: None of these newfangled lights have that same "drive nails with it" solidity that they do...
If you have a Surefire and a Fenix, and need to shine a light over a wall, stand on the Surefire and shine the Fenix, 'cause the Surefire won't care... ;)
Hadn't heard of the Tomahawk before; that looks nice.
BIG fan of flashlights, especially with LED lamps; been caught several times in the dark with no artificial means of light, and it sucks.
Just from where I'm sitting, I can see 6 various flashlights. Having lived in a windowless basement apt for several years, even my pocket knife has one of those flat keychain lights stuck to it with double sided foam tape.
I bought a Microstream on May 8th at the Glock armorer's couse; had the cool Glock logo on it.
Yesterday I dropped it in an envelope with a terse letter to Streamlight. I reached into my pocket on Saturday to grab my Leatherman juice. I got the juice and some odd pieces and parts I didn't recognize at first. It was the lens cover and other assorted light making and focusing items. The Microstream disassembled itself in my pocket.
I'd had it less than 3 months. I carried it for maybe 20 days during that period.
I told Streamlight to keep the pieces and figure out where they went wrong; no need to try to placate me with a replacement.
I'm done with Streamlight's crap...
I bought a Streamlight Syclone back in the day, when high power LEDs weren't white. Orange LED(many hours on a battery set) and a Xenon bulb(many minutes on a battery set), switchable between the two. It came in handy when we visited Carlsbad Caverns. We took the last tour of the day, and as we left an area, the ranger turned off the lights behind us. She asked if I would mind being last in line, to keep folks from wandering off.
Stay safe
Agree wholeheartedly...had gotten a little sloppy about carrying the primary light. No longer the case. As I'm sure you'll agree the CT Midnight 3-Gun was a bit of an eye-opener...there's no such thing as too much light!
Also reaffirmed my belief in the necessity of lasers on self-defense firearms. Sometimes the only shot you've got is with the laser!
Good to see you again in Oregon, BTW.
Michael B
I use a flashlight at work(equipment field service)and prefer using the Eneloop rechargeable AAs. Favorite 2xAA light at the moment is a FourSevens Quark.
Once you carry a good light for a while, you'll be amazed that you ever got along without one.
I have a Streamlight Nanolight that likes to come apart in my pocket, maybe I need something better for daily carry, like the Lenser P3 AFS or a Fenix E11. I also have a Malkoff MD2 and it is the Cats Meow, (same as Shizznit for you younger folks), although it is a little large for small pockets.
I picked up a single AA LED light at Sportsman's Warehouse during their leaving town sale.
Little thing is wicked bright, especially for its size and single battery. It certainly drains a battery in a hurry, though.
For flat-out evil blinding, 1200 lumens of ocular pain from my bicycle light or turn night into X-class solar flare with my 150W KC Daylighters.
I went With FourSevens, I got the Quark Pro QP2LX (360 max Lumens) Maelstrom MM-X (480 max lumens w ability to use rechargeables and convert to weapon light, and the Maelstrom MMU-HD 1200 max lumens. Nice features, waterproof, and very powerful all of them.
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