Greetings from Arkansas

spudley112 · 2019-10-25T05:58:08.000Z

Hello all. Just joined and wanted to introduce myself. My name is Dale and I live in Northwest Arkansas. I am a former Marine (89-95) and retired law enforcement. My big interests are anything outdoors, hunting, camping, hiking, shooting etc. I am also a huge motorcycle nut. I have been riding steadily since I was 12 and my current bike is a Harley Ultra Limited. I am a knife collector but more on the user side than the safe queen side. I am always looking for and adding knives to my collection.

To sum up my interest in all things flashlight - Me and a friend were at a sporting goods store and I was looking at the lights they had available. He made the comment that I always check out the guns and knives, which he understood, but I always seemed to be looking at and buying new flashlights. I told him part of it was certainly because of my interest in the outdoors, but a larger part was from my police days. A good light often meant that I had the advantage in tactical situations. Being without a light could mean disaster very often. Sometimes as a police officer, the only companions you have when things start to go south are your weapon and a decent light.

One particular situation has always stayed with me. I was a K9 officer when I was called to a scene where a suspect had fled on foot and they requested I use the dog to locate and subdue him. We started a track and it ended up going much further than expected through the woods. Often as not, a fleeing suspect will go a ways out of sight then hide. This guy just kept making his way through the woods. The rechargeable lights we had in our cars at the time (cannot remember what they were) were extremely bright, but after being recharged often, and the lack of fresh batteries, they tended to not last very long. While on this track, my light finally dimmed and went out. Fortunately, I had carried my own lights (Surefire pistol light and Microstream) with me as backup and it saved the day. To this day I value a good high quality light!

My recent additions are all in the compact edc category.
Maratac Copper AAA (a beautiful well-made light)
Olight I3E (on my car keychain)
Olight I3T
Olight I1R (A lot of wow in a small sub aaa keychain light-Wear this one around my neck)
Jetbeam 1MK AA
Nitecore TUP (love the display)
Thrunite T1 (my personal favorite - I love the function and UI)

I have a drawer full of other lights…I may have a problem haha.

tatasal · 2019-10-25T06:12:08.000Z

Welcome to BLF!

raccoon · 2019-10-25T06:13:28.000Z

Thanks for stopping by, spudley112!

spudley112 · 2019-10-25T06:39:25.000Z

Thank you. I am just now starting to get into lights to a deeper degree. I started lurking posts on different forums and realize there is so much to learn. I know to outsiders (muggles) it is probably like (it’s just a flashlight…it’s either bright or not) but I am learning there is so much more to a quality and high performing light. I face the same kind of scrutiny in knife collecting. The lay person does not know the difference between a gas station knife and a Sebenza, but to those in the know, they are different worlds.

As I said, I have always had an interest, but I am learning a lot really fast. I have been watching the heck out of Matt Smith’s videos and his enthusiasm for his craft is amazing. I will try not to be annoying with my myriad of dumb questions.

Henk4U2 · 2019-10-25T06:56:23.000Z

Hello spudley112, welcome to BLF. Lovely collection of shiny lights you have.
Maybe it’s time (speaking in knife terms) to progress towards a machete. Or so.

spudley112 · 2019-10-25T07:01:57.000Z

Henk4U2:

Hello spudley112, welcome to BLF. Lovely collection of shiny lights you have.
Maybe it’s time (speaking in knife terms) to progress towards a machete. Or so.

Admittedly, my interests have been in compact and edc lights to this point. I am looking toward moving up to some throwers now. Next will probably be the Astrolux FT03…but next week I gotta stay poised for the M2R Pro release. So yeah…you are right when you say it is machete time! haha

MRsDNF · 2019-10-25T07:05:24.000Z

Hi and welcome spudley. I’m sure a few members here are glad you are a retired LEO.

neo71665 · 2019-10-25T09:08:55.000Z

Welcome from a fellow arky

spudley112 · 2019-10-25T09:20:00.000Z

neo71665:

Welcome from a fellow arky

I am from Fayetteville