Permission to speak freely.
I’m just an old guy, and maybe I’ve seen things go south a few times too many.
I was already some years into this craze before I became a member of this beautiful forum.
And got my first first Li-ION light after I owned a dozen or so CR123A and NiMH lights.
With protected batteries.
Most of you react very enthousiast on a legitimate question of a fellow member.
And advise him to buy some kind of magnificent pocket rocket for his future better half.
I would have suggested a 4*AA light and give her “my-first-little-handgrenade” a bit later.
There are things you can’t be too careful of, girlfriends are one, and Li-ION batteries another.
This has served well for a couple or three years now. Rechargable LED collars They sell on Amazon. Good quality but built in cells. Nothing a good modder couldn’t replace but I haven’t had to yet.
Those led collars are a must if you have a black dog…. black dog + night = no dog
I used to have a collar and another one I sorta weaved into her harness, didn’t look pretty but worked well enough. They were the all round light up ones rather than the bike light flashing single led type, which is next to useless when they run into any sort of brush or they are running towards you (head blocks it).
Gets quite amusing when there’s several dogs in a field running around - like mini ufo’s flying around lol!
That’s where lights with multicolor led’s like the Fenix CL05 come in handy (RGW + blinkies).
Or the Playfox K1 where you can put RGB rubber caps over the front end.
EDIT: Never had a grey dog? Mine can teach Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Beckett a trick or two.
Next you’ll want a wife-walking light for your dog… mount a headlamp on the critter! You can never have too many lights.
I like the idea stated above of a 4AA light. The Nitecore EA41, for example. Two switches on the side, one for on/off and the other to click through the 5 light levels. Feels solid in the hand and easy to operate with plenty of runtime. 1000 lumens, plenty of throw (9 football fields) and plenty of useable spill. $43 (sale!) directly from Nitecore.
For a flashlight… I tend to grab my Nitecore SRT7 GT most often to walk the dog. Has the blue red police mode which slows the speeders down (after they pass you though ). Other colors for visibility. A little over your budget. There’s a NIB on fleabay right now though - 70 bucks OBO + shipping. But, can’t beat the Emisars. A lanyard is needed (for me) to hang the light on the wrist while collecting the ‘deposit’, after finding it with the light. D4V2 with short tube is my second choice.
A headlamp with beacon mode (“strobe” every 2s, 10s, etc.), but with a single wraparound headband (not the 3rd over-the-head strap) used as a 2nd collar. And the mount should be like the RJ02, ie, secure, not the crappy C-clip type that drops the lamp when you look at it wrong.
It’d be like a little low-flying MD80 scooting around the field. :laughing:
I never thought I’d say this about a light by Energizer, but that light looks really nice! lol
Would be the perfect flashlight to give a non flashaholic.
Forget my pm. It’s not nw. Though I wonder if I should disagree with the guys suggesting not to give a muggle a li-ion light. Would a rechargeable olight with magnetic charger be considered dangerous for her?
Those are great, unless you have a dog with a coat that puts a Persian cat’s to shame.
When I take them to the off leash trails at night, they wear a sport harness like this one. Theirs has a holster on the back that holds an 18650 light in beacon mode. It bounces off the back of their head, and works well enough if they’re within 100 yds in the woods. I’ve been thinking about getting a cheap right angle light like the Convoy H1 to see if that works better.
Not recommended: With a shorter haired dog, I tried the glo toob AAA and NiteIze “”slap band”:Amazon.com lights. The glo toob is great - if the dog is heading towards you. The slap band kinda works if you loop it around the collar - until the dog runs enough to let it slip to the bottom of the collar. Then it’s invisible from some angles or in tall grass.
A Li-ion light with onboard charging and LVP like the TC15 or FC11 is no more dangerous for the average person than a smartphone.
If the end up wanting a slot charger and some spares, then they need a bit more of an education, but it’s still mostly just a matter of buying good stuff and protecting the batteries from short circuits when dealing with single-cell lights that have LVP.
4xAA is four charger slots, or worse, they use alkalines and have a ruined light a few weeks later when the batteries leak. There aren’t many people I know who I’d want to give that to.
Have had the flashlight itch scratched by this forum for nearly a decade now. Have had black Rottweilers for even longer! Started walking the dogs at night due to the heat initially and the habit has stuck. Dog walking is by far the most use I make of any of my flashlights. Starting with a Trustfire R5 and an UltraFire C1 (both long gone), I have been amazed at the usefulness, amount of light, and runtimes these modern LED lights have. Thought the silver C8 was about as good as it got for a dog walking light…
It was only a few months ago that I discovered how great a right angle light with a clip is for an even better EDC and dog walking light. My current dog walking light of choice is an ArmyTek A1 and while I can and do sometimes just clip it to my coat, I can also mount it in the headlamp band without even removing the clip! Far and away the best dog walking light I have.
Clearly my opinion on this is not in the mainstream. Have made a couple of posts since this discovery and by an large the idea seems to be jus a big whatever in the flashlight enthusiast community. So be it. I am just very thankful that I made this discovery and I will continue to enjoy handsfree light from my EDC. Let the purists hold their lights as they pick up doo doo;) I don’t have to do so;)
The neighbor up the road swears by Ruffwear dog lights. Her dog likes to wander. Mine is a pansy, she goes out the door, does her business and gets back in. Wimpiest Pit Bull ever. No fences out here. Anyway the neighbor lady said they are USB rechargeable and last a long time between charges. I don’t know what her idea of a long time is but she is well over 80 so she might be on to something.