carbine light placement

[Little Creek]

I have no experience in this matter. I have an AR-15 that is evolving. I just put a 13" Troy VTAC Alpha rail on it. I have observed photos of the VTAC light mounted with the light hanging off of the strong side rail in conjuction with a vertical handgrip. The thinking is that you make a fist around the vertical grip with your supporting hand and that puts your thumb is a position to push the button on the rear of the flashlight. When not using the light, I suppose one is supposed to use the "thumb brake" position to prevent an accidental discharge of the light. Others think this is wrong and hang the light off the weak side rail using the same mount. There are so many choices, the mind boggles. I have a PolyTac LED. I was thinking of handing it off a VTAC mount (inexpensive, but not cheap). What do you guys think?

[Steve S.]

I think if an X300 meets your demands out of a light, and you don't mind the activation style; 12 o'clock is hard to beat. This depends on the rail.

Light placement for me depends on the rail. My ideal is 1 o'clock, but due to things line FSB on some guns I will have to run at 11. If the rail is too wide, it's back to 11 o'clock.

The ideal for me, as a righty, is something like a 6p or G2 at 1 o'clock with a thinner profile rail (not necessarily a tube; think DD Omega). This allows a solid thumb over bore grip.

For thicker rails and/ or a FSP being in the way, I like 11 o'clock in a Gear Sector offset mount. It allows me to tuck my thumb in under the light (on extended FSP rails) without getting burned by the FSP / gas block.

[JRas]

ended up with this, excuse the cellphone quality

[TCinVA]

I'm another on the 12:00 with an X300 and 11:00 with any of the other Surefire options list. On my 6920 I have a G2 in a VLTOR ring mount that's attached to the front sight base. I run my thumb over the top of the rail. The positioning places the base of my left thumb right up against the tailcap of the Surefire, which is adjusted for the sensitivity I want depending on the situation. On a range day in the daylight, it's run out to stop the light from working. On home defense duty it's set to respond to moderate pressure.

[l8apex]

+1 X300 at 1200.

[Tamara]

Ugh.

My dilemma here is that, until I get an upper for the second lower I have lying about, my current-and-only carbine is sporting fixed standard-length rails and no option to change.

I briefly tried a DD OFM and stubby VFG but A) it didn't work well with a fat G2, and ii) all that crap needed to come off the bottom rail any time I wanted to remove the barrel.

So for a while, I didn't worry about a light. The carbine is very much a "if someone's trying to force their way in the front door" gun, and there's enough lights left burning around the house at night that I just left a spare G2 stowed next to it in case it turned into a " someone's trying to force their way in the front door in the middle of a power blackout" gun and filed it under Stuff I'll Fix When I Get Around To It.

Then I get this invite to shoot a midnight 3-gun match. I suck enough without having to juggle an off-weapon light and a carbine, so I quick-like ordered a TLR-1S and the only place I found for it that isn't total accidental-activation-city is at nine o'clock, and even then I have to shift my grip a bit further aft than I've been using...

Attachment 870

*sigh* I need to be a good industry ho' and start pestering people for an upper with fashionably long handguards to T&E...

[TCinVA]

I have a mount that attaches to the front sight base that I believe was made by Midwest industries. It solves your problem.

[Tamara]

I have a mount that attaches to the front sight base that I believe was made by Midwest industries. It solves your problem.

Meet me out back by the B,S&T forums. I'll bring cash.

(It won't do anything weird like filling half the sight picture with the light bezel, or anything, right?)

[joshs]

Ugh.

My dilemma here is that, until I get an upper for the second lower I have lying about, my current-and-only carbine is sporting fixed standard-length rails and no option to change.

Tam, if the problem is the light pushing your hand farther back on the handguard than you would like, then you may want to try one of these extended light mounts from impact weapons components. I haven't tried one, but if stuck with a cabine length rail, it seems like a good option.

[Shawn.L]

I run a TLR-1 at 3 O'clock on a Troy tube. I have it placed so I can butterfly the switch with my middle and ring finger naturally in my natural grip location.

Kyle Defoor first turned me on to this during a class, and he wrote a blog post about the concept here
http://www.kyledefoor.com/2010/07/bu...round-gun.html

For a long time I tried just mimicking other guys set ups, or changing pices of gear and then trying to learn how to work with them. The notion of making my gear work with ME, and setting up accessories (or anything really) for my style, body type, ect really resonated .