Post
by Malicious Compliance » Tue Jun 25, 2019 11:48 am
It all boils down to how you intend on using the torch. If it is mounted to a range toy, have at it with any light you can get your hands on. Cheap is not an issue. However, if the weapon is intended to be used to protect yourself or ones you love, of what value is a torch that doesn't work at the instant you need it? At that very moment of need, I would be willing to wager that the low price you paid and money saved on the torch that is not working would be the last thought on your mind and money would be no object during this crunch time. I have owned many, many flashlights, some great, others, not so much. But if my life, or the lives of those I love are in the balance, I will not cut corners on any of my defensive tools. In my limited experience, Surefire, Streamlight, Elzetta and Malkoff are my choices for lights used when the stakes are the highest. I am not saying these brands are without fault, anything made by man is going to fail. However, with these brands, the odds of failure are greatly reduced to levels that I am comfortable with when the lives of those important to me are in the balance.
With the cheap lights, I find failures occur predominantly in one of two areas - the switch mechanism and the light itself. With the advances in light technology today, I no longer consider an incandescent bulb in my flashlight, LED is the way to go. Is the LED fully potted? If not, it will be prone to failure induced by the shock of shotgun recoil. For a defensive torch, a single level of light output is my preference. No need for strobe or multi-levels of output. 300 true lumens of output, or more, works well. Momentary and constant on options in the switch are also musts for me.
As with all choices we make in life, we need to find a balance that we are comfortable with. I would rather spend the money up front, knowing I may never need to use the light, or whatever other lifesaving piece of gear we are talking about, to achieve the confidence the gear will perform as needed when needed. I own a wide variety of red dots, for example. Several of my range toys have FastFires (an other similar) mounted to them. They work but their functioning is not critical. However, on my defensive tools, Trijicon, Docter, Leupold and Aimpoint (no Acro, thank you!) are my choices. My point is this, the mission of the gear needs to be considered. If lives of ones you love are in the balance, why cut corners?
As a side note, I really don't understand the recommendation in this thread, while posted a few years back, that the magazine springs should be changed every month. A still spring does not wear, it is the exercising, or cycling, of the spring that causes it to wear. A magazine spring, stored in a compressed state with a tube full of shells does not wear appreciably. That spring could sit compressed the rest of our lifetimes and be just fine, provided it was manufactured properly. This is probably the only factual statement I have made in this post, the rest is merely my humble opinion, to be taken for what it is and worth what you paid.