Which SureFire Flashlight?

[CrossedRifles]

Right now I have a Fenix TK15, which has been flawless, but after getting into firearms, I want to have something with possibly the same amount of lumens and that attaches to my AR-15. I've heard many great things about SureFire but most of their flashlights are below 337 lumens. Does Fenix exaggerate the amount of lumens of the TK15? SureFire flashlights are triple the price and are low on lumens so that confuses me.

What's the difference between the Millennium and Scout SureFire lights?

What are the differences, and what do you prefer? LED or Incandescent?

My budget is anything below $600.

[rero360]

If you go onto their website you can check out their whole product line. As to the whole differences in lumens, I have no idea, it may be that different companies have different evaluation standards for determining the outputs.

I have two surefires, a 6p and a 120 lumen scout light, both incandescent. I'm considering getting another scout light with a LED lamp down the road as I believe they tend to get better battery life and while I've yet to blow a lamp I think the LEDs are more durable, I carried the scout light on patrol every day in Iraq on my rifle as beat the crap out of it.

[pdugan6]

Well with that budget which is huge why not get the best. I have the e2d setup and it works great and is a blinder!

http://www.surefire.com/M620C-ScoutLight

Or you can save a few hundred bucks and get this one with a vltor mount.

http://www.surefire.com/maxexp/main.pl?pgm=co_disp&func=displ&strfnbr=6&prrfnbr=24960&sesent=0,0&search_id=2704740

mount with this

http://jabtac.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=396&zenid=rom9q0j0dh2ocfffmi73j266v0

[pdugan6]

i also have a fenix and surefire blows them away hands down.

[pdugan6]

yes i think fenix's lumen calc is ****. my fenix is supposed to be 200lum and is not even close to the brightness and concentrated light beam as my surefire.

[Tacticool]

I believe in Surefire. I had a Fenix TK11 for 18 months and died. Its been out in the elements, banged and bumped during hunts and finally only a dim output on new batteries. Its in my utility drawer now for household use. I wanted to put it through its paces to see if it was up to par.

LED's for long runtime over 2 hours and are shock resistant. Incandescent bulbs have a filament that can break and short runtimes like 20 minutes. Surefire screams QUALITY when you hold one. If the military uses Surefire so am I. If time comes when SHTF I want to know its going to work cause my life or the lives of my family may need it. Surefire is conservative with their stated lumen output. They measure lumens after the lens while other flashlight manufacturers rate the lumens at the LED. This is from what I've read on www.candlepowerforums.com . The Millenium is bulky but its built like a tank. On my other AR I'm going to throw on a E2DL handheld with a VLTOR mount. The M600C is the equivalent but like $300 more. For a $600 budget you can get a nice Surefire or two and its going to last. If you need warranty work, you don't have to send it to China like other makers. Surefire is here in the US of A.

[thetaxman]

Don't over do it on the lumens. You need about 1 lumen per yard to locate a threat and 2 lumens per yard to identity. Variable output lights make a lot of sense, but I wouldn't go nuts on a weapon mounted light especially if its for HD. You'll have so much light thrown back at you in a house it will almost become unusable.

If you need a big light then get a big light. Go real big and get a handheld spot light. Then have 2 identical smaller lights - one for weapon and one for belt/kit/bag. I use an 85 lumen LED Surefire and its perfect for 99% of what I will need to deal with.

[Bigbird19]

Most companies measure lumens right in front of the bulb where as surefire leaves their lights on for like 30 min and measure it at like(don't quote me) 30 feet. That's why the lumens are different, surefire is more practical measure

Its like measuring a cars speed in 0-60 vs HP. My dodge magnum hemi has 375 hp at the crank but only does 0-60 in 5:4-5.6 seconds where as amustang gt(pre 2011) has 300 hp at the crank but 0-60 is better then mine.. (reason being that the mustang is 1k pounds less)
Hope that analogy makes sense

[Soldier415]

I was a surefire guy for a long time, but after stopping by the Inforce booth at the shot show my surefires now sit in a drawer.

I'd recommend the Inforce 9VX with low profile weapons mount and pigtail.

The 9VX is a 500 lumen with hi, low and strobe. They do not exagerrate their lumens like most companies do. Inforce's parent company Emissive Energy Corp pioneered the technology used by most flashlights today.

Surefire claims 200 lumens and a long run time. Problem is you get the full 200 lumens for maybe 2 or 3 minutes and then it steadily decreases. After about 15 minutes of use you are down to 150 or so.

Inforce's 9VX has a proprietary power regulator, so it drops by about 5-10 lumens after a few minutes and then plateaus at that level until the batteries die.

Not to mention their rail mount is so simple it takes about 5 seconds to attach or detach the light from your rifle. Also it is carbon fiber so very light.

I carry the 300 Lumen 9VX daily and wont be carrying anything else. I was able to demo the 500 Lumen 9VX, which should be shipping to dealers/distributors now, at the shot show and its steady beam and strobe are the most intense I have ever seen.

I have carried Surefire, Fenix, O-Light and Inforce blows them all out of the water.

Check them out www.inforce-mil.com

[Soldier415]

Forgot to mention, the 9VX is $125

[nrvnqsrxk]

Not sure if you got your flashlight yet, but I've heard good things about the Scout and the L4 as combat lights.

[Bigbird19]

+1 for scout light

[tomd1584]

X series (200/300/400). I have a 200a and 300, and both are great. lightweight, nice tight beam, and the ability to be truly ambidextrous if mounted at the 12 o'clock position.

[OpticsPlanet]

A coworker uses this:

http://www.surefire.com/M962XM07-with-Throw-lever-mount

I was playing with it yesterday, and was very impressed.

Mark H.

[mindwip]

Fenix and 4seven now use ansi testing. Its a stanardized test for lums. Now you can compare flash light with this test, newer fenixs are all rated with ansi


Just an fyi,