I think its more a bit of poking fun at cpf. Eg, go to cpf, start a thread entitled I handled a solarforce tonight, see how before it gets pulled for “ass baiting” or some crap like that.
Nice bullet proof set up.
+ 1
I miss Annie (the cute character from the show, not the RL Alison).
+1! Hard to fault the 6P except its price. But 60 smackeroos is still a lot to newbies. Yet there’d be a posse set on them for speakin up for clones.
[quote=CarpentryHero]
If your life depends on it, a Surefire is well worth the peace of mind. (Lifetime warranty is nice too)quote]
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Oh yeah ...if it saves your life ..
So let me get this straight ..If your life depends on it .. it's worth it ...and it's got a lifetime warranty .......
Huh so that means if it fails and your life depended on it .. you get a new flashlight ...but you're dead
well it's an interesting way to sell a light
[quote=Boaz]
Buying a 6P is not compulsary, don’t fret.
The quality of the Surefire 6P anodizing wishes it were as good as the Solarforce L2P.
I don’t hate Surefire. I still own one of their products because I trust it and don’t think there is a better version made. It is a weapon light for my Glock. I had the Glock brand light and it failed under recoil. I had the Streamlight and it had problems as well. I spent the big big buck and got the top of the line Surefire (at the time) X200 and it has worked fine.
As far as weapon lights, Surefire is still great. If we are talking handheld flashlights, I see zero reason to pay Surefire prices.
My local shop has the led 6P for $109. The drop in needs to be upgraded right off the bat as they are well known for being crap, the Tube can only handle cr123s which is a HUGE downside, the anodizing is second rate compared the HA3 stuff on the L2P.
Not much left on the Surefire worth keeping. I thought about getting one but realized it would be like buying $100,000 a new car and immediately having to put a better engine in it, have it painted, interior completely torn out and upgraded and then seeing a $30,000 car past that is every bit as good in every way. The shame might be more than I could take. LOL!
I do have some $urefires in my collection, and like them a lot…
… as shelf queens. 
I have never paid more than about 50 bucks at the most, for one, though. My latest one is an OD-greenish C2, bought for about $30,— on eBay. Then, I also have the generic (now discontinued) 6P incan, my first P60 light, on which I was silly enough to spend some serious money on gadgets bought from Lighthound and Overready. The torch itself cost me about 35 Euros, but I was careless and threw enough money at it so it would be worth 150 dollars now - and, in two years, I have used it no more than maybe two minutes. Next are my E2AA outdoorsman, very nice greenish HA, but that one doesn’t see any action at all, as well. And of course my precious, slightly worn “Laser Products Sure-Fire 6P” from 1992, which I got for about 13 pounds sterling (=20:money_mouth_face: on ebay. That particular torch inspired me to remove the hexagonal anti-roll design of my old (glossy ano) solarforce L2m and make it all smooth and soft and round.
[quote=Boaz]
Always carry a spare
My backup is an HDS
Well… I dont like the current malkoff drop ins. I still like the older ones with the Khatod TIR lens. Its a smooth, edge-less wall of flood with a medium sized spot in the middle. I haven’t found a drop in yet with this beam pattern. Its reliable, rugged and simple. They used to be efficient in terms of Lumens per watt, but I think there are others now that top it.
I think I could buy a bored 6P if I could get it for say, 2x price compared to Solarforce.
For it´s expensiveness, I think it would just sit on shelf and that would be waste…
I still have to wonder if you’re buying a Surefire that’s bored out for 18650, why not just get an L2P?
You don’t have Surefire’s warranty once you machine out the body, on top of that you’re not going to be dropping a surefire module in it, so honestly the only thing left that’s Surefire is the bezel and tailcap; two things which are usually the first to go when people start modding their Surefires.
For example. One guy pulls out his 6P and goes look at what a great light this Surefire is. It’s got a Leef body, stainless bezel, milled cooling finned head, custom tailstanding tailcap, McClicky switch, AR lens, Nailbender module, and 18650 battery. Second guy, what’s left that’s Surefire? First guy. I spent $700 on this light. I don’t want it stock.
Why buy Surefire then?
Oveready does give some warranty, Surefire does have colicky switches in there defender series 6p. The only two parts in a 6p that could fail are the tailcap and the dropin. If you broke the lens they’d probably replace that for you too for free. I got a replacement tailcap for my Surefire A2 eventhough I’m not the origional owner.
There warranty is incredible 
As far as machining, materials and build quality are concerned, SolarForce meets and exceeds $ureFire standards.
Ever since the advent of the L2P, there is absolutely no pragmatic approach in buying a $ureFire.
Still, there are reasons why people prefer them over Chinese SolarForce lights: $urefire not only is the inventor of the P60 design, but an American company, apparently producing in the United States only, and has been a government contractor for years. Although none of that has any effect at all on brightness and reliability per se, things like that all build up a reputation which goes a long way.
And, since a lot of law enforcement agencies and the military issue $ureFire torches to their policemen and soldiers, and todays media portraying their fancy equipment on the telly and in movie theatres, $ureFire lights are being introduced to the general public. “Whoa, cool flashlight, I gotta have what they have on CSI!”
I have seen 6Ps on the duty belts of the Met in Camden and Brent, and even with mounted police in Frankfurt, Germany. The company formerly known as Laser Products, LLC has made it well past the borders of the US, and is present with LEOs in mostly every western country, it seems. SolarForce torches, however, are still a rare sight.
I don’t think people still dislike Chinese products, as Fenix 2AA seem to be popular with the police as backup torches. I have seen them clipped to the protective vests, often, above the nametag.
Hey! I think I saw Scaru walking in the background in that video!
An important thing to remember is that this is a discussion about a discontinued product versus one still available.
Surefire has abandoned the P60 format. Parts for repair under warranty are still there …for now. There’s a huge base of lights in service so it probably still makes sense to build/stock parts versus giving away whole new lights as a replacement for a warrantied light…again for now. Still the new and NIB market will dry up.
Then the discussion will largely be comparing used Surefire in less than pristine condition against Solarforce.
I suppose some of these heavily modded SF’s are SF’s like this is a ’36 Ford. There’s essentially nothing at all left of the original. I can, though, see how it can be fun.
I just got my first SF today, a NIB C2. I have to admit it does feel like a very high quality piece of work. Whether it’s really worth that much more than my Solarforce L2T—one of my favorites—I can’t really say at this point but, yeah, I like it.
mgscheue, you are quite right - most of those still-so-expensive 6Ps in the hands of flashaholics are modded with every fancy name in the book, be it McGizmo, Overready, Malkoff; you name it.
And yes, the C2 is nice, no doubt about that! I wouldn’t have bought mine if it hadn’t been offered for a vewwy, vewwy fair price on eBay. I strongly recommend to keep a close watch on eBay, sometimes you might be able to make an awesome deal on pricey $urefires. Blimey, 30 bucks for a new C2 just because the packaging was torn is a bloody good deal IMHO!
I’ve wanted a C2 ever since I talked to a policewoman who happened to have one, one evening on the job last year (I successfully convinced her of a SolarForce L2r, by the way, and was glad to hear she did not spend a whole lot of silly money on that C2).
$ureFires are no evil tools of the devil; yet, the old incandescent P60s are just outdated, and surely more than just a wee bit overpriced when compared to Solarforces of even better quality.
Very few reasons to buy a $ureFire P60-style torch, these days. One would be nostalgia, another one to show respect to the company which invented the P60 design. I can’t think of any other reasons, though.