Depends on the cells you use. A lot of C’s are just specially wrapped AA’s. Eneloop AA’s have a lot of punch. I use them in place of C’s when I don’t need alot of run time. If I want alot of run time, I use 18650’s. Check out the discussion on parallel 18650’s in a triple C light (Starting at post 550):
Hopefully someone with more C knowledge can answer your question. They will probably want to know what specific C’s and AA’s your talking about.