I just got a s&w bodyguard 380 and I was wondering if someone can explain the reason for a pulse laser as opposed to solid on.
for those of you who dont know the bodyguard has a laser built in with a button that cycles with a push from solid on, to pulse/strobe, to off.
I assume it has something to do with low light shooting.
I’m not sure what the official answer is but it can be easier to pick up and make it more distinguishable.
I’m guessing this, kinda like a strobe going off to get your attention. It also helps battery life.
Yeah, a primary reason touted for the pulse aspect is the human eye picking it up quickly…but the same can be said for any bright, collimated light printing on a target.
Pulse will result in longer battery life and greater diode longevity, but that’s more of a fringe benefit to something that of dubious use.
Think about all the discussions one sees about the supposedly insurmountable disorienting effect of strobing flashlights…? Relates, at the conceptual level.
What can happen with a pulse laser is that BLINK you see the pulse your eye is drawn to it as it would be with a continuous-wave laser, but then the pulse goes away for a split second and BLINK there it is again but it’s now in a different spot because you drifted a bit while it was off and your eye goes to it’s new position, but then the pulse goes away and BLINK…
…and so on. Think about that while standing still and shooting, then add the possibility of YOU moving, then of the possibility of you AND the target moving. The distance the laser’s print could shift while it’s off grows with each.
Unless one trains extensively to compensate for it, there’s a very good chance of one’s groups opening WAY up because you’re sending more time tracking the dot than you otherwise would with a “normal,” continuous beam. With a continuous beam, you see the fall of the beam the entire time and have a better handle on any drift, wobble, or whatever you care to call it.
Pulse works very well on ocular-interruption lasers for biological effect, as a communications aspect in the IR range on mil-grade MFALs (even then, only the illuminator strobes, NOT the aim laser), as an anti-cant indicator on other, similar devices…but the idea that it makes a better aiming laser than a continuous beam doesn’t really fit with the way the human eye works.
If one wants a better chance at picking the beam up quickly AND being able to aim with it as best as possible within that shooter’s skillset, a green beam continuous-wave laser (530nm, +/- about 15nm wavelength) provides the best answer, from a purely biological standpoint.
This is not to say that one can’t make a pulse laser work for them,…absolutely untrue…but to say that it’s superior to a continuous-wave red laser, or any green laser as an aiming device is only true within a verrrrrry narrow POV that’s pretty limited to acquiring the thing in the first place.