Help Request: Flashlight Strategy - How Many / Types / Upgrade Plan?
Flashlights are one area of my gear preps that have lacked over the years. I want to be more intentional with my money and gear because as time goes on, money may be harder to get, and gear may become more important. I also tend to go a long time between going to Surefire's website, maybe 3 to 4 years between getting interesting over what was announced at SHOT, and I miss a lot of "new" things. For most gear, that's just fine, but I feel like flashlights are one area where new things come out regularly that are worth exploring.
I'll start by describing what my current "arsenal" of flashlights looks like:
Big C and D Cell Maglights I upgraded them with malkov LED modules about 5 years ago. I keep one 3-D in the car, one 4-C in my bedroom, and have a 2-D that's a spare at home in my emergency blackout / power outage box. My idea is that I like them for nostalgia, for impact weapon optionality, and for the batteries, since in a grid down scenario, having lights that can work off many different battery types means I am more likely to keep some lights going. I also added "Bust-a-cap" glass breaking tailcaps because it seems worthwhile and are unobtrusive. I really really like these, even though logically I'm probably better off with just 2-CR123 cell surefires and using a kubotan style strike with the bezel if needed.
Handheld Compact Lights I have one 2-CR123 Surefire frankenstein that started life with maybe a 60 or 120 lumen bezel and got upgraded with a slightly more powerful one hand-me-down from a Scout weapon light. Seems to be a good strategy, the bodies are the same as 2-cell Scouts, and every 5 years or so, I buy new heads for my Scouts as the lumens double due to new tech, and then put the old bezel on my handheld. I keep one in my nightstand and one in my car. I should have a third in my travel bag, but sometimes borrow the nightstand one for air travel. The one in my car is actually some cheap 2-CR123 Inova that is 10 years old by now.
Weapon Lights Almost all of my long guns have their own surefires on them. Even spare AR uppers have their own surefires. I don't have that many guns, but maybe 6 long guns with weapon mounted lights in total. Mostly older 2-cell Scouts but a couple 1-cell scouts. As a civilian, I don't feel undergunned with even a 200 lumen light. People 10 years ago weren't getting kilt on the streets because 1000 lumen lights didn't exist yet so I'm probably okay with a 1-cell scout. I do have two handgun lights, an older X300 and a XC1. I have an IWB holster that fits a G19 plus XC1, and the reason I don't EDC it is because I'm lazy and EDC a G43. I do like the idea of having an XC1 + Holster available, because perhaps I would use it in some scenarios. I haven't been on a date to the movie theater in years, but maybe I would go out of my way to carry that there. Or perhaps if some kind of antifa thing were happening in my neighborhood at night, I'd try to avoid and shelter in place, but if needed to move about, might put that G19-XC1 in my waistband.
Headlamps I really really like my Surefire Minimus headlamp, first generation. I bought two and keep one in my toolbag and one in my nightstand. I take it with me when I roadtrip travel by car, and once we had a hotel power outage at night (covering many city blocks), needed to switch hotels to go to one across town, and the headlamp saved my butt since I was able to pack all of my shit and be the first one out of the hotel. I love that it's a single CR123, durable, no external wires, intuitive, twist more for brighter light.
Keychain Light I have an Arc AAA light on my keychain that's really old, maybe 13 years at this point. It's the only light I EDC other than on my phone. I don't EDC a Surefire 2-CR123. I'm a bad person. But it's all I've needed to get by, and never once in those 13 years did I wish I had a Surefire on me. I only use the keychain light about 4 to 5 times per year. I don't lose my keys under my couch, and if I did, I'd grab my maglight in the bedroom. I don't need to shine a bright light into my parked car in a dark parking garage because that doesn't happen, I've parked in parking garages maybe 3 times in the last decade and all were well lit. I bought a Surefire AAA light about 5 years ago and put it in my air travel bag. Uses the same batteries as my Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones.
I think I have my bases covered, except I know I should carry a bright 300+ lumen light as EDC, because everyone smart says I should, and it makes sense, but I've never needed one, ever in my life, and I don't like carrying a bunch of shit.
Back to the purpose of the thread, I'd really like to know:
What lights make up an appropriate "Arsenal" of lights, how do you determine which ones to pick, and what is the upgrade strategy?
If you had infinite time and infinite money you could keep track of tactical blogs, social media, SHOT show, and buy every new light that is an incremental upgrade. What's something more reasonable? Suppose right now I decide I have the money and interest to upgrade all my stuff. I'll buy the newest Surefire heads for my existing Scout bodies that output the highest lumens. I'll buy three of whatever the "Best" 2-CR123 Surefire handheld light is, one for my car, my nightstand, and my travel bag. When do I decide to upgrade? Going from 200 lumens to 1000 lumens is probably worth it. That's like how the Supreme Court views porn, I know it when I see it. But can I make a plan now, rather than just excited by the newest shiny thing in the future and throwing money away because of the urge for a temporary dopamine rush?
That's part of the reason I stopped paying attention, because I was getting too into things that didn't matter. And I don't really need 6 long guns with the newest highest output Surefires. Perhaps two of them can have the newest one, and maybe I have a rotation down strategy. My main two ARs can have the newest heads. And then I pass down the two heads I took off (which were the best heads from 5 years ago) and put those heads on my next two long guns, that are backups to the primary. And then rotate those heads down to the next two long guns which are like if my third cousin comes by to defend my home Red Dawn style and he needs a loaner. Not worth putting the newest best heads on the loaner guns, just lucky to have any lights on those.
That seems to work for the Surefire long gun WMLs because the scout body is standard and even third parties like Malkov make heads for them.
The bid daddy maglights are probably fine with my 5 year old Malkov LED upgrades. Probably some newer one exists today but I'm not too excited to throw money down on it.
Headlamps, perhaps the upgrade strategy there is every 3 to 5 years, I buy the newest iteration of the SF Minimus, which I love my original. And then I take one of my legacy units and add it to a location that lacks a headlamp. Like I don't keep one in my car right now, just in my nightstand and toolbag (very handy for handtool based work), so maybe I buy the newest SF Minimus for my nightstand and put that nightstand one in my car, since an old unit with lower output is better than nothing and it doesn't take up much space in the glovebox.
I'm rambling and this post got long. Tell me about your lights and how you choose to upgrade them and what you do with the old ones.
