Steiner/Laser Devices DBAL-PL

[JodyH]

Yea, it's a big ugly sucker, not suitable for CCW at all and its suitability for OWB is TBD.
With batteries it's 5.4 ounces and just squeaks in under the VP9 rail's "load limit" of 5.6 ounces.
But it also has a 400 lumen LED light and green laser as well as a IR illuminator and IR laser.


The white light is very nice, with a very bright center and a distinct flood light halo around that.
On our rural, very dark range I was easily lighting up targets at 50 yards with the spot and could see the entire width of the bay (approx 100' wide) with the flood portion of the beam.
The green laser was easy to see at 50Y against pretty much every background and at 50Y appears to be about <1" in size and very defined.
Using Gen 2+ NVG the IR illuminator brightly lit up about a 50' diameter area at 50Y, bright enough to distinguish details on the targets and slightly illuminated the full width of the bay.
The IR laser dot was very bright on the target and about 1" in size. It had a hot center and a slightly fuzzy ring around it, but that could be the NVG's as well.
I was seeing and hitting 8" plates no problem with both the white light/green laser and the IR Illumination/IR laser.

The lasers are co-aligned. I zeroed the green at 25Y and the IR was perfectly zeroed as well with no adjustments. At 50Y the difference in zero was negligible and within the dot as far as I could tell. I put the dot at the top of the 8" plates and was knocking them down with solid center hits.

Today at the range the green laser was visible to 35Y against a buff colored target. It was cloudy but fairly bright. I'm guessing on a white hot sunny desert day the laser will be visible out to 20Y or so (which is what my Viridian lasers are good out to).
This laser is supposed to be temperature stable from -40C to +65C and I couldn't tell any difference in it from my 23C house to the -4C it was at the range this morning. My Viridian on the other hand starts getting dim when the temps get around freezing.

I'm only at 250 rounds with the combination but the laser has held zero, the rail clamp has stayed tight and the pistol hasn't balked. So far, so good.
I'm headed to a different range around the 12th of December (New moon) to see how it does out to 100Y with Gen 3 NVG.

[El Cid]

Very cool and thanks for the write up. When I was researching this unit a while back it seemed the main gripe was the way the switches work. Any feedback on them?

[JodyH]

Very cool and thanks for the write up. When I was researching this unit a while back it seemed the main gripe was the way the switches work. Any feedback on them?

Very positive rubber "clicky buttons" at the top rear on each side.
If you're right handed your trigger finger turns on the VIS (white light/green laser) and support hand turns on the IR (IR/IR laser).
There's no strobe, no momentary and nothing is switchable or programmable.
Since that's the way I like to run my WML's it works perfect for me.
Some people are left handed, like options or momentary activation... they probably won't like it.

[1slow]

Thanks for posting about this.

How would this be on P30 9mm, P30L 9mm, USP 45, HK45.
Are there any weight vs. cycling issues.
I am used to X300, X400s with DG switch. Is anything like that available.
Pros, cons ? Anything else comparable ?

[JodyH]

Thanks for posting about this.

How would this be on P30 9mm, P30L 9mm, USP 45, HK45.
Are there any weight vs. cycling issues.
I am used to X300, X400s with DG switch. Is anything like that available.
Pros, cons ? Anything else comparable ?

Should work fine on the P30 and HK45. On the USP 45 it would depend on the rail adapter whether the buttons would be easily accessed or not.
It will not fit a HK45C and the VIS button is a bit of a trigger finger stretch when it's on a P2000.
I know it works fine on a P30L .40.
I wouldn't worry about the weight causing issues on a H&K, I would have concerns on Glocks especially the G22.
No remote switches are available and there's no port to plug one into so that's probably not going to happen.

I don't know of another pistol light that is "4 in 1".
If you have good NVG and want IR illumination and IR laser in addition to a standard white light and green laser it's about the only game in town.
With a street price of around $800 it's priced competitively for what it is.

Pros: "4 in 1" (vis/laser and IR/IR laser), sturdy as hell, built by a company with a solid reputation for quality mil IR lasers.
Cons: It's a big 5.4 oz. chunk of aluminum. Zero off the shelf holsters. You need $2500+ NVG to take full advantage of all it has to offer.

[1slow]

Should work fine on the P30 and HK45. On the USP 45 it would depend on the rail adapter whether the buttons would be easily accessed or not.
It will not fit a HK45C and the VIS button is a bit of a trigger finger stretch when it's on a P2000.
I know it works fine on a P30L .40.
I wouldn't worry about the weight causing issues on a H&K, I would have concerns on Glocks especially the G22.
No remote switches are available and there's no port to plug one into so that's probably not going to happen.

I don't know of another pistol light that is "4 in 1".
If you have good NVG and want IR illumination and IR laser in addition to a standard white light and green laser it's about the only game in town.
With a street price of around $800 it's priced competitively for what it is.

Pros: "4 in 1" (vis/laser and IR/IR laser), sturdy as hell, built by a company with a solid reputation for quality mil IR lasers.
Cons: It's a big 5.4 oz. chunk of aluminum. Zero off the shelf holsters. You need $2500+ NVG to take full advantage of all it has to offer.

As usual concise and accurate. Thanks loads.

[GJM]

Not a green laser, but the Crimson Trace military model, dual IR /red visible laser grips for the P226 are the single best laser grips on a pistol I have used. They work in regular holsters, and you can add a SF X series light with plenty of holster options.

http://www.crimsontrace.com/products...-sauer/01-6140

[JodyH]

If that combo worked on my H&Ks it might be interesting.
Right now the DBAL-PL is the only option.

[El Cid]

Anyone who wants one - it's on sale here for $599.

https://www.armsunlimited.com/LDI-In...-p/dbal-pl.htm

[JodyH]

I often use Arms Unlimited prices to get SWFA's 110% price match guarantee.