I decided to go for a walk with my BTU Shocker tonight. I'm out in the farmland, so I just walk along a dirt road (no street lights, maybe a dozen houses). Walked about two miles or so. I took the BTU Shocker, My SinkPadded XM-L2 HD2010, and the Convoy C8.
Before we get to the sightings, I have to say this; the BTU really is impressive. I've had it for almost a month and all I did before this was take it out for beamshots. Well let me tell you, this thing can really light up a field. Shining the HD2010 out there is nice; it reaches well (80kcd), and there's enough spill to see 20-30 yards anyway.
Snap on the BTU and it a far-reaching wall of light! You can see everything out to 50 yards at least, with the spot reaching past useful unaided vision.
OK on to the 'encounters'. I walked along with lights off and just turned them on in bursts.
My first run-in was a petrified raccoon. Turing on the BTU and saw the poor guy scurrying for a telephone pole. He got up about 20 feet and stayed there. He was still there when I walked back by about 15 minutes later.
As I got further along in my return, I heard something in the corn stalks. On goes the HD2010 and I get four shiny eyes staring at me about 25 yards away. I turned on the BTU and they took off running. Every once in a while they would turn around and look. At about 300 yards or so, they stopped and looked back before going over a hill.
Definitely a fun walk. Now that things have thawed out a bit and the blinding snow has melted, I'll be doing it more often. :)
One day I’ll get me a monster like the BTU. For now, my SRK works well agains the neighborhood cats. Damn things like to claw my wife’s convertible. |( One click and they are runnin’ like scalded little kitties. The ones that don’t…well…there might be some PETA people ’round here…so I’ll refrain from comment
C8 in jacket pocket, BTU in left hand, HD2010 in the right. I thought the BTU would be too heavy to carry for over two miles. It was not a problem at all. The lanyard helped when I wanted to free up a hand.
I will be taking different lights each time I go out.
I like to take the lanyard and wrap it three times around the handle and then slide it down over the head. It makes a perfect handle that way. When you carry it like that it doesn’t seem to way anything at all.
Nothing to do with PETA, but I just care about animals and wildlife. People? Sh**, if people can't take care of themselves by now..... But animals? Yep, they get the raw deal every time.
If I put the town I actually live in, only you and Bort would recognize it Toronto is the closest major city, about 40 minutes south’ish of me.
Ditto, When carrying without a need for quick turn on, this is the best way.
Yup, but not with a thick jacket. Anything like a sweater or shirt and it will hang on the shoulder quite nicely. A bit high so you need to unshoulder it to turn it on, but carrying this way is fine.
Well, that’s a good question. I have been troubled by my BTU, because it’s throw is not as high as I recall reading. I’m getting a consistent 81kcd. I’ve measured it at 12ft and 20 ft, getting identical numbers. My recently modded HD2010 (XM-L2 T6 on copper SinkPad, 4.5A) out-throws it at 86kcd. Measured output is 2328 lm which I think is about right (I suspect it’s a little higher; the hole in my sphere isn’t quite big enough for the BTU).
This throw level doesn’t bother me at all in practice since it performs great in the field. I just wonder if there is something wrong or if this is the stock throw for the BTU. I recall reading 100kcd+ for the BTU but I could be mistaken. I need to go back and check that.
Mine is the XM-L U2 CW, standard 3.8A driver, measured series emitter current is 3.65A.
In about a week or so, this will all change anyway; XM-L2 U2, copper SinkPads, driven as hard as I can get the driver to go. I have a spare DRY driver on the way if the stock one doesn’t ‘behave nicely’.
