Yes, You Need A Light At Night Along With Your Defensive Firearm

Positive Identification of a potential threat at night is vital, and for that you need illumination.

Otherwise tragedies like this happen:

10WBNS: Sources: Man fatally shoots 16-year-old daughter after mistaking her for home intruder

Mistakes like this continue to happen and there's absolutely no reason for them to happen.

"Know your target and what is beyond" is not just a suggestion. 

And before you get all "Hurr Durr a light will give away my tactical position."  You're likely in your house at handgun range.  You're unlikely going to be  acting like a silent ninja at 3am when you hear breaking glass or your home alarm goes off, more likely you're going to be stumbling around grabbing your stuff,  and making some noise dialing 911.   Walking around through a pitch dark house when you think there's an intruder somewhere there is dumb. There's nothing tactical about it.  

Pointing a gun at and pulling the trigger on an unidentified shadow is a recipe for disaster.

A good light will let you most importantly accurately identify and hit your target -- if such target even needs to be hit to defend yourself. As a potential bonus, a good quality light may even temporarily blind or disorient your opponent as well.

Have a light so you don't have a completely avoidable  tragedy.

 Take a low light shooting course, it's rather illuminating as to why you need a light and what a light can do for you.

Update:  Eaton Rapids Joe also offers some cogent thoughts on the matter.

New Bulbs And New Life For Old Tac Flashlights

I've got quite a few flashlights around with older incandescent bulbs. While they were bright at the time I bought them, they've been outshone by the LED flashlights that have come along since.

My Surefire G2, with all of 65 lumens was bought back when it used to be the most awesome of blinding lights that could fit in your pocket. Now I can get more light and longer battery life from a $2.50 flashlight that is smaller and more portable. What to do? Well, upgrade it.

The Flashlight Bulb LED CREE XM-L T6 Single Mode 1-Mode 1000 Lumen LED P60 is a drop-in replacement for the Surefire incandescent bulb P60 type. Whether it is truly 1000 lumens is kinda iffy, I'd say it appears less, but it is a solid ten times brighter than the original bulb and the battery life is not measured in minutes with a dimming bulb anymore. It's also cooler running than the Surefire original bulb, which is good after using it for a long duration.

Installation is as easy as removing the old bulb, removing the spring on the outside of the new bulb and then dropping it in. It sealed perfectly and works better than the original bulb and is brighter by far.

If you've got a C or D Cell Maglite, and who doesn't?, there's a way to get these enhanced for more usefulness.

Rather than the dim glow of the Maglite as compared to today's flashlights, There's an excellent LED replacement for the Maglite, For $15.99 the LITT LED bulb gives off more light at 350 lumens than the standard Maglite incandescent bulb, and it is far longer lasting as well.

If you have a Maglite, you can make it a lot more useful with one of these LED drop-in replacements. I've found it to be considerably brighter and whiter light quality, and the batteries last a lot longer, making it far more useful in case of power outages. Plus its still as impressively hefty and durable as it originally was, if not more so as the LED bulb is more durable than the incandescent it came with originally and is more drop resistant.

I've had both LED upgrades for almost a year now, and both have stood up to lots of use and abuse without fail and cast much needed light during camping and power outage occasions, of which we've had quite a few since I got them.

I'm rather pleased with these LED upgrades, if you've got some older tac flashlights around, you may want to look into upgrading them with drop-in LED bulb replacements.

A Bright Idea - A Pack Of Lights

As days get shorter, dog walking gets colder and people drive even stupider it was time to get a better flashlight for walking the dog and other duties. The cheapy ones I was using were the multi tiny LED type with the 3 AAA battery insert and were only good for letting a car know you're there but not enough to actually see what you're doing. It was free, but still.

So on Black Friday I decided to take a chance and ordered from Amazon the Goldenguy 5 Pack Mini Cree Q5 LED Flashlight Torch 7w 350lm Adjustable Focus Zoomable Light (Black). For the price, which then was $13 and even now is still very good at $18 for a five pack of lights, I figured it would be worth the risk.

I was pleasantly surprised when I received them to find that every single one of them worked.

As an upgrade its impressive - 350 lumen and with a single AA battery its single rectangular Cree LED throws and impressive amount of light. Excellent visibility in the dark, the focussable light can be broadened into a round beam or tightened into the square focused ray of light to really punch through the darkness. The strobe function is pretty good to let cars with their highbeams on blinding you know that you're there and get their attention away from their cell phones.

The case is rather a heavy duty feeling aluminum and has the weapon-light style frame with push button on the rear and an rectangular instep on the tube for holding it in a fist for illumination, or punching with it should such a thing be needed and the bezel has a few sharp points for such a use.

For $2.60 (now $3.60) a light they're practically disposable for what used to cost twenty times that. I've replaced the crappy flashlight in my car, and the dog walking jacket, and now each member of the family also has a bright pocket-sized flashlight with impressive illumination to carry around.

Not a bad deal at all.

Shedding Lots Of Light: The Streamlight TLR-1 HL

I sadly just missed the sale Amazon was having on the Surefire X300, as I decided to buy one right after Murphy's Law showed me his.

All was not lost however, as AMAzon has the Streamlight 69260 TLR-1 HL on sale. This is a good thing considering I had yet to own a weapon-mounted light and the kids like to play with and misplace my old trusty Surefire G2 light on a regular basis, which means it's not always back at the bedside where it's supposed to be. With the light mounted to the Glock 23 in the bedside Gunvault, that's not a problem anymore as it is safe and secure from little curious and prying fingers.

Mounting the TLR-1 to a railed pistol is a snap and easy to do and it fits the Glocks (the one I have with a rail) and M&Ps that I have with no issues. You can also change the mounting key to match Picatinny, Beretta 90two, S&W 99, and S&W TSW rails if needed.

The HL stands for High Lumens, and it is indeed a high lumen beam - 630 lumens, and it truly does throw a ton of light.

So much so I believe it gives off more than ML's Surefire.

Even in a daylight-lit room, when hit with the beam my eyes hurt (note: light was not attached to a gun during this test), with after-flashes remaining long after the beam had passed.

In the darkness, anyone hit with the light is going to be momentarily blinded. This flashlight transforms two CR123 batteries into one solid nasty light beam.

For those inclined to tactical disco, there's also a strobe feature that is not the most intuitive to activate and which I don't think I'd need or use much. Tactical disco? For some, I guess it's all about Stayin' Alive folks.

In addition to strobe, there's also momentary on and constant on modes, and the finger paddles are ambidextrous and easy to reach on either side.

The Glock 23 now has night sights, a laser, and now the light, so I'd say it's pretty much all setup for a nightstand gun now.

Circuitus Burnus Fixus And LED Light Install

Well, my friendly electrician returned today and found the break.

Located in a junction box, one of NINE, yes 9! found daisy chained together in the attic, the Romex aluminum wire had some fine scorching.

So, on the bright side we didn't need to tear through any walls, not yet anyway.

Reducing the load on the circuit was a must, so I completed the install of the LED Lights.

I chose the Ecosmart 6 Inch Bulb LED. With a CREE LED it's the equivalent of a 65 watt bulb with only a 9 watt draw. Much safer and energy saving as well.

The install is however not exactly drop-in. But it is close, especially considering I could do it.

First remove the 65 watt bulb.

Next remove the trim by pulling out the two springs from the slots.

Next unscrew the wing-nut holding the plug in place and pull the plug holder out. Remove the plug from the holder by pinching the two black plastic pieces on the plug.

Next, screw the LED bulb into the plug, expand the three metal wings on the LED Bulb (I found the second position fit the cans best).

Next push the bulb up and twist so the three wings engage the canister, and you're done.

When everything was going well, this took about 5 minutes per bulb. When however I encountered miss-cut holes for the canisters hidden by the trim requiring re-seating the entire canister and trying to make it not fall out of the ceiling completely, stripped wing-nuts keeping the plug holder in place, and other sundry idiocies the house refurbishment monkeys performed, it took longer and enhanced my vocabulary considerably.

The LED lights are quite pleasing to the eye, perfectly dimmable and an easy replacement. Considering the power saving and safety benefits of having them on that circuit it was a worthwhile upgrade.

Dive 223 A Long Swim With A Cool New Torch

Today Rob and I headed to Union Lake in the early afternoon to get a dive in.

We suited up and hit the water. Surface temperature of the water was 68 degrees, but the bottom when we got out to 40 feet was 51 degrees.

I headed out carrying the flag, and a camera.

As you can see, the visibility was not all that great, Rob is only arms-length away in this picture.

Visibility is still not great but much improved from what it was.

So we kicked out and found the line from shore rather quickly and headed out to the boats. At the photo copier boat (so named as , believe it or not, there's a photocopier in the stern of the boat).

At the boat we had a chance to compare my new LED canister light with Rob's 21 Watt HID.

My new canister light is a LightForMe TEK ONE, and it quite simply rocks. It's so hip, it's square. A single large LED light, it gives off a square light pattern rather than a traditional circular pattern. The light is bright and really cuts through the particulate in the water like a hot knife through butter. I bought it from Tec Dive Gear, and the service was simply phenomenal - they answered all my questions and got me the light fast and with no problems. If you're planning to buy a serious dive light, give them a call.

At the photocopier boat we needed to decide which line to take out:

We took the line less traveled.

And in taking the route less traveled, we found, the legendary lost colony of Golf Balls! This place is Union Lake's own mysterious Stonehenge-like site. How the golf balls came to be placed here, and what the formation means is all a mystery and still unexplained by any expert who has taken a swing at the question. It is likely that ancient golfers trudged along and played this course before it flooded and became Union Lake and left these balls here for some reason yet unfathomed.

Another ball a few feet away sat apart as a guardian of the rest of the colony.

We then headed back to the photocopier boat after pondering the mysteries.

See, I told you there was a photocopier there on the boat, but the copies it makes these days are rather grainy and soggy.

There was also a fish hanging around the photocopier boat.

We also passed by a crayfish surrounded by zebra mussels.

Leaving the crayfish we headed into the weeds as we began to ascend.

As we ascended, we had to vent the air from our drysuits as it expanded. Air expands as pressure is reduced which occurs when you ascend. To prevent this expanding air from lifting you up uncontrolled to the surface you ahve to get it out of the drysuit. The air comes out via the drysuit cuff dump when the arm is raised above the rest of the suit.

Yep, sometimes, you just gotta vent.

We then were almost at the end of the dive, and the gauge tells the tale, a 68 minute dive.

It was a great dive, celebrated by some adult beverages at a local bar once we had exited the lake and packed away our dive gear.

SCUBA Reserve Light Goes Boom!

After diving Sunday I had realized that my Halcyon Scout 3C had been getting noticeably dimmer, and today after getting my tanks filed, I went to check the light. This is the primary reserve light used when the main canister light doesn't work. The light would not turn on so I figured it had been inadvertently turned on in transit and it was time to change the batteries (fresh ones were installed in April).

So I unclip the light and take it inside to change it. I notice the rubber cover is kinda loose and the top doesn't want to unscrew and I have to really hold it on and turn the light head pretty hard to get it to open. I'm turning it to open it and .....BOOM!

Not quite an Earth-shattering kaboom, but a boom all the same.

The light head cover shoots forward whacking my palm with quite a smack and the light bulb/mirror unit holder go flying from the light and a battery shoots out.

The boom was loud enough everyone in the house heard it and comes to see what happened. After assuring everyone that everything is ok and we didn't just have a major explosion, I look at the flashlight, now in four separate sections.

On examining the unit, the light bulb and holder show some grey and white build up on the side and the threads of the flashlight body all appear damp, and there is a corroded bit under the label on the top of the top battery.

I'm thinking that some water leaked into the flashlight body, the battery then leaked and some gas built up at depth resulting in a pressurized tube and quite the boom on opening, but I'm not sure.

The light bulb unit itself is now quite dead and while not visibly broken will not work with new batteries. On the upside, this moves my plan to convert the light from the standard halogen bulb to a nice bright LED conversion forward.

So be careful when opening your dive lights to change the batteries, there may be quite a bit of pressure waiting for you when you go to unscrew it.