Weapon Mounted Light?

[Smith]

OK flashlight guru's and true operators, I have a question for you. When mounting a flashlight on a rifle what kinda beam are you looking for? Is it better to have a great spot, flood, or a good mixture? I have an Ultrafire C1, which works really well, that I may use on my MSAR STG or I may go with something else depending on input. It has a really good spot and decent flood. Now I'm not going into combat or anything just for general purpose and because I can.

Also, my Ultrafire has 5 modes (hi, mid, low, strobe, SOS). I feel like a single hi mode would be better, but I like the strobe feature and could really see how that could be useful. I really only use the hi and strobe anyway. BTW it's a fast strobe.

Ratings on the Ultrafire are 230 lumens (realistically around 200) and takes (2) CR123 or (1) 18650 batteries. Runtime is well over 2.5 hours (18650) and around 1.5 hrs. (CR123). Any thoughts on batteries?

Not my gun, but I'm gonna mount it like this.

Edited May 29, 2010 by Smith

[56FordGuy]

I would opt for flood over a spot. Odds are the light won't do you any good shooting great distances, but would be more efficient to light up the entire wall of a room at one time.

[luvmyberetta]

The light in the picture is a Surefire G2. I have one of these mounted on my Mossberg 12 ga. and it is extremely bright. It will more than light up a large area & temporarily blind anyone in the dark & it was less than $40, but of course there are larger brighter lights out there that can cost hundreds. You will probably be happy with nearly any light as long as you make sure you get a quality light with high lumens output & designed for use with firearms. A lot of the ones you see at gun shows & ebay won't hold up being jarred around by weapon fire. You want something that you can depend on.