I’m looking to pick up a hand held spotlight for not only on the water but for daily use. Trying to see the numbers on houses for late night service calls can definitely be difficult with a half assed flashlight. Any experiences or opinions on what to pick up would be great.
What’s your price range? How far away are the things you want to illuminate? You can spend a little or a lot and get a great light. For a budget light around $40 US that will send a lot of light a long ways, get an Astrolux Ft03 with SST40 for distance or xhp50.2 for shorter range and lighting up a bigger area. For a shorter range, the Sofirn Sp33 v3 has a ton of lumens but only about 300 meters useful range. You can get a kit for around $40 US. A Sofirn C8G or C8F is good for throw too.
I have both the C8F and C8G and I use them on rifles with excellent results.
The C8F will give you a very nice wide beam with good throw. Great for hunting pigs in groups where you are taking fast shots. I realistically use it out to about 200 yards but it’s best around 150 where the beam is wide enough or see a great field of view.
The C8G though REALLY gets out there, easily to about 300 yards. It’s a tighter beam, but at 300 yards, it’s had a chance to open up nicely. I plan to hunt coyotes this fall with it and with a good scope, it will take a coyote I would want to shoot at any distance at night.
If you want further throw, you are looking at a larger light (or very narrow beam). It’s a trade off of course. But for a C8 sized light for spotting numbers, both will do nicely for the price and performance I think. Just carry a spare battery if you need more time on a night out.
Good Luck!
The Convoy L2 was The Standard for beefy pencil-beam lights for quite a while. You can run it with 1 or 2 cells, the latter for hella good runtime. Comes with everything…
Smaller lights can have nice tight beams, too. Nitecore P30, BLF GTmini, Sofirn C8T, Nitecore EC4GT (probably discontinued, but hella nice, and if you find one, get it).
Another vote for a C8 or the C8G.
Both will light up a house address farther away than I can read it.
Add some low power binoculars and you’re there.
The Sofirn SP70, is big and clunky and heavy.
It will light up the world on high.
All the Best,
Jeff