Any of you have first hand experience with it? Just from looking at the specs, it doesn't have the power of the traditional WML, but the compactness of it makes it appealing for concealed carry.
Any of you have first hand experience with it? Just from looking at the specs, it doesn't have the power of the traditional WML, but the compactness of it makes it appealing for concealed carry.
I don't believe its waterproof. If so that seems like a deal breaker for me.
Last edited by JConn; 12-24-2011 at 01:21 PM.
Evil requires the sanction of the victim. - Ayn Rand
I had the Glock model arrive from CT yesterday, with the M&P model to follow.
I found it to be pretty flimsy. It comes as two halves you assemble around the triggerguard and rail using two very thin allen screws. I was afraid of stripping the threads in installing it once. The whole unit has to be disassembled to change the battery.
It's definitely not waterproof.
The activation button was bulky and forced me to take a lower grip, making the gun feel awkward. I had a hard time not activating the light with any decent grip, two-handed or single.
Finally, the light didn't seem bright enough to bother with. It is rated at 100 lumens, but was noticeably dimmer and less focused than the Viridian C5L.
I'll get some photos up when I can.
Thanks for theinfo on the Light Guard I was thinking of ordering one to replace the surefire 200 W/ DG Switch on my G-37 but after your post I think I'll Pass and stick to the surefire WML.
Thanks Again, Bob F.
Thanks. That's just the info I needed.Originally Posted by SCBradley
Maybe I'm weird but I carry a 19 w/ an x300 and don't mind the extra width. It is also a proven quality piece of equipment.
Evil requires the sanction of the victim. - Ayn Rand
I've not played with the Light Guard except to finger one at SHOT, but a comment on the brightness:
How bright does it need to be? What do you expect it to do? It's designed to be a very compact low-profile light. It's not supposed to blind people, it's supposed to provide adequate illumination to identify a potential threat at normal "CCW" distances. If it does that, then I'd say CTC did the exact right thing by bucking the trend toward eyeball-melting lights and instead provided something that met the need of a WML without the bulk and weight.
If the switching sucks or the Light Guard is too fragile, agreed, that sucks. But unless the light won't let you see what you need to see, it's bright enough.
I've played around with a bunch of different models of lightguard, and it's not fragile. I dropped a loaded M&P while running through a wash in Arizona at night with one on it, and it held up just fine.
As far as the brightness goes, it's bright enough to see a target at 10 yards and get hits on it, I agree with Todd - how much brighter does it need to be? I actually prefer the fact that it throws a wide cone of light instead of a narrow beam; I'm not trying to hunt Muhajadeen in caves in Afghanistan, I'm trying to see what I'm shooting at in my house at 0200. In fact, one of the cool things about the way the light is set up is that you can illuminate something with the weapon light WITHOUT pointing your gun at it. A nice feature if the weapon light is your only light.
I'll surrender to practicality on the brightness issue. On fragility...
As a consumer, if I'm paying $100+ on a WML, and I can choose between:
1. Two plastic halves that don't mate all too well, held together by two very fine thread pitch screws, which screw into roll pins with threaded inserts punched into the plastic.
2. A machined aluminum housing, with a battery compartment sealed with a rubber gasket.
I won't be choosing 1 without some serious convincing.
I may be overly harsh, and I'm going to wring it out for at least a few weeks, but when I find myself thinking "please don't break" when I'm installing something, confidence isn't inspired.
Last edited by SCBradley; 12-25-2011 at 06:12 PM.
I've heard a lot of complaints about the light output on the Viridian C5L as well.
It too is a small reflector 100 lumen LED.
While it's no where near the light output of my Surefires or Streamlights, when my wife ran it during a night match it was more than enough light to identify and shoot targets out to 35 yards in pitch black outdoors.
The trend towards high output long throw lights is the wrong way to go on handgun lights IMO.
The majority of the time a handgun mounted light will be used indoors and/or inside 25 yards.
As an experiment I've stayed in my darkened bedroom until my eyes were fully adjusted to the darkness (30 minutes or so) then kicked on my C5L.
The light output from the small reflector 100 lumen LED was enough to temporarily stun myself when it reflected off my white painted walls.
I've done the same experiment with a 225 lumen Surefire and it was significantly worse.
I think some of these smaller lights are a step in the right direction for handgun mounted lights.
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