Review: CQG Bullet (XP-G/16340)

Great review as always , JohnnyMac .

Your pictures are excellent . Thanks .

Beautiful pictures as always.
Thank you for the informative review!
Now I really want one.
One question, is it too slippery to hold?

Thanks! Actually it’s not really slippery. There is a very light texture to it that makes it somewhat grippy compared to other SS lights I have.

I love mine—( and ordered a 2nd one from Ric)
but personally I do find it slippery, especially in pseudo-cigar hold.
I have a neoprene chapstick sleeve on it that helps; but I was considering glueing
on a cord wrap of some kind. Not sure how well that would work, or if I want the added girth.

If you do find it to be slippery, perhaps you could stretch 2 thick O-rings onto the body, one at either end or wherever feels best to give something to grab onto in a cigar hold.

cool little light, but I seriously doubt it the beam can reach as far as 183 meters ( 600 feet or 200 yards, that’s 2 football fields ) even in total darkness… you can proof me wrong if you can take pic of this light hitting that far :smiley:
BUT maybe they’ll see you at that distance in total darkness if you shine it at them :wink:

Wonderful looking for keychain use. I hope they will released a version with the newest nichia high CRI !
Also I’m a little concern about EDC unprotected crapfire in my pocket…

I just got this little light in the mail on Saturday, don’t remember ordering it! Oh, that’s because I didn’t ! It’s a surprise gift! :slight_smile: This is the only way to beat the quality of this little SS light, is to get it as a gift. :wink:

I’ve found that with the supplied cell as charged as it will go (mine stops charging at 4.15V) it pulls 1.09A and makes 220.8 OTF at start-up and 186.3 OTF at 30 seconds. And with an AW IMR 16340 (had to pull the little silver Oval sticker saying “AW” off in order for it to slip in) the light pulls 1.41A and makes 265.65 OTF at start-up and 210.45 OTF at 30 seconds.

Very neat little light, well made and with a nice tint.

Also DBC Approved! :slight_smile:

Thanks for taking it apart, now I don’t have to. :wink:

Awesome! Hey, if you can, take some lux readings from it and see what kind of throw numbers you get with yours. Your OTF lumens nearly match mine. If I didn’t see my lux reading @2m with mine I wouldn’t have believed it. I think I’ll retake them again tonight. I’d like to compare with what you get, Dale. :slight_smile:

Ok, will do. I set up in our game room at 5M, but it’s a dueling area at the moment, Dad’s trying to beat his brother in some Dominoes…

Hey, did you just thread the pill out the front by using some tweezers inside in those 2 holes? Any problem getting everything to line back up putting it back together? I didn’t take mine out because everything was such a close tolerance, wasn’t sure it’d be easy to get the pill back in the exact same position but thought it’d probably just bottom out in the threads.

Thanks for the review JM. You shot this one out pretty quick.

Yeah, thanks JohnnyMac… had reigned in the light purchases until I saw this…. 0:)

Thanks for the very nice review JohnnyMac. It is indeed a lovely light.

I was waiting for some output numbers of this light because I was in another thread very critical about the led-on-driver-board habit of DQG/CQG lights. In the DQG18650 Tiny light I found the result was highly unacceptable: 10% light loss in the first second, 30% after two minutes, almost nothing of this loss was battery related. This CQG bullet runs at a lower amperage, so the consequences of the bad led-mounting are expected to be less. Taking the numbers above, on a 16340 battery Johnny measures 10% output-drop @30seconds, 23%@2minutes, Dale measures 15% output-drop @30seconds with the supplied cell (1.09A), and 20% output-drop @30 seconds with a AW IMR battery (1.41A). Take notice that (I am sure that) at this amperage, output drops within 30 seconds (or even more than a minute) are hardly related to flashlight size or body material, or even the battery; it is caused by thermal things that happen close to the led.

I am glad that the output drop in this light is not as dramatic as with the DQG18650 Tiny, and is even in my opinion acceptable (how many people will notice a 20% output drop?). Loss of memory caused by the heating up is a worse thing of course.

But I could not resist measuring the output in my D25C clicky Ti. It is a small Titanium 16340 light with a XM-L2, but not as tiny as the CQG. it has a normal pill (brass, which has good thermal conduction, but not as good as aluminium or copper), and is admittedly modded with a Noctigon board.

Now, being bigger the XM-L2 has internally a bit better heatpath than the XP-G2, the copper board also helps a bit, but not much at the 1.3A that this light runs at on high (but any brand new light could/should have a copper board nowadays, they are not that expensive?), the big thing is: at 30 seconds the output drop is only 5%, and only 10% at 2 minutes.

And the main reason IMO is that the leds sits close to metal, and not to fiberglass.

djozz, the bullit emiiter is actually mounted on the pcb of the driver, no star at all!

Yeah, it all threads out the front. When reassembling just thread the pill all the way in until it bottoms out. Next, thread in the reflector and bezel until fully seated. Lastly, thread the pill forward until it seats against the reflector base. The threads are amazingly fine but super smooth and with high tolerances. Taking it fully apart will make you appreciate it’s build quality even more. :wink:

Johnny

I see what you did there. :smiley:

Can’t help myself, have to say it…Bullet is so wrong for the description of this light, as is the picture at the start of this thread! Everybody here is quick to point out a picture depicting a cell being installed backwards or the light coming out the wrong end of a known flashlight.

The “Bullet” is the projectile that travels the length of the barrel and ends up doing all the damage, of course. The shell, or casing, is the housing for the bullet and holds the primer and gunpowder. The vast majority of us know this! So why show a “casing” leaving the gun barrel? Why call what looks like a cartridge case…a bullet?

Ok, I feel better now. Carry on!

Edit: And by the way, 18mm is fully .21” larger than the law allows for a handgun. At .71” when .50 is the legal maximum. Just sayin…

Ok, lux tests at 5m and converted show 1.75Kcd with the supplied cell, 2Kcd with the AW. That translates to 84M throw with the OEM cell, and 89M with the AW IMR cell. Not major, but still good for the very compact nature of this light.

That’s far more reasonable than my initial figures. I must have read something wrong when I tested lux. Unfortunately I’ve been working on an atomizer review tonight and haven’t had a chance to retest but I will tomorrow night and will update with my results.

Just WHAT are you putting in that atomizer? Huh Johnny? :wink: