Forward Clicky Weapon Lights

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

I’m in search of a budget, 1” dia, forward clicky light to use as a weapon light on the side of a home defense gun.

I own a few of the dirt cheap 300lm cree lights that have been all over amazon for a while now, but they’re reverse clicky tail caps. Is there a forward clicky tail cap that will replace the stock cap?

I’ve also been looking at the Ultrafire 501b, 502b, etc. I never see any designation of forward or reverse clicky in any of the descriptions of most of these lights though. Anyone here using of the Ultrafire stuff on a rifle or shotgun? Or at least have a list of which lights have a forward clicky tail cap? Really need the momentary on function for a home defense scenario instead of momentary off…

Thanks in advance

2

You will also need a single mode light to use the forward clicky to its advantage. If everytime to press it the modes change, you are screwed.

So what you want is a forward clicky, single mode tac light on a budget. What is the budget? What battery size do you want? Can it have a large head or do you want it to cylindrical?

For weapon mounted lights, you are better off going with a name brand light Olight, ArmyTek, Fenix etc. the cheapo Ultrafire stuff can be decent but the chance of failure is much higher than acceptable for a self defense situation.

You don’t have to spend $200-300 for a Surefire but a $9.99 budget light isn’t going to do it. Trust me, I tried using the ultra budget stuff for serious tasks and they fail.

3

solarforce L2 series of lights.

very nice light. surefire 6p form factor. just as nice quality.

then make your own drop in or modify an ultrafire drop in. i like to take an ultrafire drop in (the real ones have a nice black plastic led trim cover that protects the wires) and replace the driver with a kaidomain.com 8x7135 driver and use some arctic alumina epoxy to glue the driver in and bond the wires to the pill so recoil doesnt break them. ’

wrap the drop in with copper foil tape so that it just about needs to be pressed into the light. snug fit. wicks the heat away from the led.

then use rubber tubing to make spacers to keep the battery from sliding back and forth in the tube and changing modes and breaking stuff.

it takes some fiddling, but you can make an awesome weapon light for little money.

i have a solarforce L2m on my home defense gun. :slight_smile:

Brian

4

Have you thought about Primary Arms ? It looks like a Surefire 9XX but the head is proprietary and the sinking is better than a normal P60-style design. I’ve also found real, used Surefire 951’s for really cheap on eBay, they just need a cheap single-mode drop-in.

Alternatively, if you can keep it permanently on the gun, there’s the Ultrafire UF-762 . Kindof a stramline Surefire 951. Also, the Surefire tailcap off my 951 works just fine on my Ultrafire C1, all UF’s P60’s excepting the 501 look like they have the same tailcap threads.

5

I agree. A solarforce host would be ideal. It is higher quality when compared to ultrafire501/502. Some models already come with a forward clicky or you can switch it out for 1-8 bucks depending on what brand switch you get. If you use a linear driver at about 1.4A (4x 7135) you will get about 400 lumens from an XML. Since this is a weapon light, maybe go with an XPG for slightly less lumens but a smaller tighter hotspot.

The good thing about the solarforce lights is the tailcap is compatible with surefire so you get get the surefire tape switches if you want to run that. I find budget tape switches generally don’t work that well.

6

But I helped my buddy and brother in law set up their A/R's with light malls XML2-U2 s with tail pressure switches and the mounts from deal extreme ,what kind of weapon are you mounting it on ?That would kind of tell how much space ,weighf and mounting location.

7

Screw budget!

This: http://www.solarforceflashlight-sales.com/product_detail.php?t=FB&s=2&id=485

Plus this: CLOSED WTS: Brightest Regulated M2500 P60 LED (Beam Shots) | Candle Power Flashlight Forum

Plus two (or more) of these: https://illuminationsupply.com/batteries-c-48_50/18350-kinoko-imr-850mah-high-discharge-button-top-p-678.html

Done. Can light camp fires if you run out of matches :wink:

-Jamie M.

8

I’ve got parts in the mail to mount a l2m with my own p60 dropin and a pressure switch to my winchester defender 1300. I haven’t received everything to finish it yet, but when I do I’ll post the results

9

Argh. Must resist urge to buy L2m and the XM-L2 drop in on IOS, for $27.70…….

10

Resistance is futile. Purchase.

-Jamie M.

11

+1 on solarforce
As for the MTG2 dropin it would kill your eyes too
But whatever floats your boat
I’d still love to play around with that dropin though

12

………The Board Rules. If In Doubt Buy Both Two

13

L2N and the Solarforce P60 dropin XML2-U2 5MODE-U2 5 mode which I paid 16.95 $and this will come as a surprise a Light malls XML2-U2 P60 drop in 5 mode which was 8.95 and the light malls drop in is much brighter (they are bot in orange peel reflector) so save some $and give the light malls drop in a try.

14

and ..............

Never link to cpf unless you have to.

15

Hi upSLIDEdown,

My 2¢ is 1 mode, XP-G, orange peel reflector light with forward clicky switch.
I favor either a Ultrafire WF-501a on pistols or a Solarforce L2-M on the long guns. I’ve had both in use for the last 2-3 years, and shoot these guns with the lights installed.

I don’t want to be looking for which mode when things are tough, your light shouldn’t be continuously on, but only used to identify. After you illuminate an area, it’s time to turn the light off and MOVE. Multi-mode lights mean that you are changing modes at ever light press.

Lights on are a pacifier for you, and a beacon to announce your presence to any bad guys. All they have to do is wait, they’ll know where you are.

Really bright lights night blind EVERYONE, including you. With night adapted eyes, (like me after bedtime / lights out), you don’t really need many lumens. Hundreds of lumens are fine in combat situations, you’re already shooting at each other.

Where I live, the further away you are from a bad guy, the harder it is to stay out of jail if you shoot them.

Try this…
Place a relatively bright, (300+ lumens), light next to your bed. The next time you get very early, (2am-4am), turn that light on high and walk around with it a few minutes. Then randomly turn it off, and see how well you are adapted to the dark room.

I just took break and realized that my best weapon is maybe to corner them and talk them to death until they beg for a call to the police !

What ever you choose, good luck, and I hope you never need it ! :sunglasses:

later,

s. I emailed Solarforce and bought 2 forward clicky switches and installed them into my favorite lights!

16

Have you tried one of those pressure switches?

I haven’t done much research on them but a member had mentioned it a few days ago and it seemed interesting. Something like $20 for the tailcap, wire and pressure switch assembly iirc.

17

I can’t seem to find the data on mt-g2 on copper but I thought at 4.5A the LED lumens is around 2500 or 1700 lumens OTF assuming ~70% from the reflector?

18

I’ve got this one on the way for less than $4

19

Wow. A lot of awesome feedback, rather quickly. I’m headed to bed in a few, but I will definitely look into everything posted. I have a lot to learn as far as acronyms and names go. My little Ultrafire $3 light works great at work, and is almost disposable, should it ever crap out. I run switch out between a pair of rechargable 14500s, and it works great for what I do.

As for this weapon light, it will mounted on a picatinny rail, so I have a mount picked out. It’s an offset mount for a 1” light. So anything 1” should work. It will be on the end of a 12ga shotgun though, so it’s gonna have to be able to take some recoil. Keep the ideas coming, and I’ll look into all of them soon. Looks like I need to check out Solarforce though. :slight_smile: Thanks everyone!

20

A simple set up would be:

- solarforce L2M (comes with forward clicky I think) $11+$2 for shipping from solarforce-sales

- xpg-2 1A from FT ~$2.50

- p60 SMO drop-in ~$2

  • single mode 1.4A linear driver $2-5

I think this should easily be getting 300-400 lumens with decent throw and ~2 hrs of runtime with an 18650 or ~30 minutes with an 18350.