Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.
A few days ago I ordered this little jewel.
200 lumens may have been a bit much. (Said in the same tone as “Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?”) But, nothing kills like overkill, right? I’d been wanting a tactical light for one of my 870′s for a while but just couldn’t get myself to pull the trigger (see what I did there?) on getting one.
Brightness? Holy Crom..imagine painting the interior of the sun white, filling it full of magnesium and setting it off just as the sun goes supernova *and* the universe suddenly hit’s the exact moment the expand/contract cycle switches. It’s 10x that bright. I think I could strip the paint off the side of house with it.
I paid a few extra bucks and got the model with the constant/temporary/lockout switches. While it’s nice being able to light up your target, there are times when having the light on your shotgun light up might be a terminally Bad Thing…so, a lockout switch.
And I learned something very interesting. You don’t need to buy a forend wrench for the 870..(although the SureFire light came with one)…the 870 has one built in . The slide assembly, apparently, can double as a forend wrench. Now, I would only use that as a last resort since if you have a tight forend you might bugger up the slide assembly and then you’d be up the creek. So, get a tool. BUT…in a crisis, you can use the slide assembly.
I’m sure the Matt Foley* survivalists would say that this is just more expensive yuppie gun toys and that anyone on a “working man’s” wages could just duct tape a $4.00 made-in-China flashlight to the side of the barrel on their $125 Mosin Nagant and achieve the same effect and have plenty of money left over for more 7.62x54R ammo. Who needs a ‘fancy’ light on their gun, anyway?
Uhm..I do. It’s dark 50% of the time and when I have to go snooping around in it I don’t want to have to rely on a Stalin-era fencepost with a ChinaMart flashlight taped to it. Since I can afford to get a purpose-built piece of quality gear, why wouldn’t I?
* = The guys who think all you need to survive the apocalypse is to live in a van (or travel trailer) down by the river.
