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HKsig wrote:I have a Nitecore P36 LED flashlight that's 2000 Lumens. It'll light up a room better than daylight and whoever is in front of it will be impacted by it. also has a strobe feature that will dazzle 'em.

Is there any objective source--like ISO maybe--to validate quoted lumen ratings? Lately, the claims have gone into the thousands, seemingly overnight. I have a light that claims 700 lumens, yet it's no brighter than my 120 lumen Surefire. Go figure.

As to the strobe feature. Had low-light a class a couple of years ago where we were strobed in a black room. Definitely disorienting, even nauseating.

Then, after a recovery period, we got to strobe the other guys. Guess what? In a dark room, the strobe-er is almost as disoriented as the strobe-ee. Not good. Stands to reason.

I discount any light that has umpteen modes. Looks good on the sales flyer, not good in real life. Under stress there is no way you can click through several settings to get the one you need.

I want my light to have a tailswitch that activates instant on/off. Nothing else. No strobe, no SOS signal, no low-medium-high settings. That may be fine for a household light, but it is definitely not fine for one intended for self-defense.

I'm not a fan of weapon-mounted lights on handguns. On my ARs setup for CQB, yes, absolutely. But I have lights on none of my handguns.

A few reasons. As has been noted, you have to point the gun at the target to illuminate it...and that can be a very bad idea. If your 10-year-old daughter went into the kitchen at zero dark thirty for some milk and dropped the glass, causing a noise alert, lighting her up with the muzzle of a .45 pointed at her is a very bad idea.

As to aiming the muzzle and light toward the ceiling, also a bad idea. If a threat is in the room and armed, you just sacrificed a couple of very valuable seconds while his gun trains on you and yours is doing a "Charlie's Angeles," pointed at the sky.

My low-light training--and I believe in it and practice it--is this: illuminate, verify, deluminate, shoot, move. Should take about one second. (An aside, avoid the cheap LED lights flooding the market. Make sure yours is combat tough and has a tailswitch that allows immediate on/off response. The hazard of a constant-on can be deadly.)

I simply don't think that can be done appropriately and quickly enough with a handgun-mounted light. I can be proven wrong, but that's my opinion.

Another issue is weight and natural point of aim. If you don't carry and regularly practice with a handgun that has a mounted light, when urgently called to use it you may find that it points very differently than the handgun you carry every day. And few carry a handgun with a mounted light in their every-day kit. Extra weight; extra concealment concerns.

In low-light conditions, I like having my Surefire in my offhand. I'm right-handed. If approaching a doorway on my right, I do not want to have to shift my handgun to my left in order to flash the room. Ain't gonna happen.

Plus, a good handheld light should be sturdy enough to serve as an impact weapon. A force multiplier in extreme close quarters conditions.

Disclosure: due to an old football injury to my right elbow, I shoot in what is already a modified Weaver stance. So the Harries technique is second nature to me.

Your mileage may vary. Whether you choose the Harries, Ayoob, Chapman, or FBI technique, practice is paramount. But a handgun is a for-purpose CQB instrument. I can see a laser, but having a light mounted on a handgun, as a civilian, has never made sense to me.