I’ve seen several posts on here (I also see the question all over CPF) about using a polytac as a mounted gun light and asking about the switch, if a tape switch will work or what options they have.
I hate tape switches, I’m very hard on my rifle, I bang it around in the woods, I don’t put it in its case on the quad when I ride, it gets dropped, and on and on… Cheap tape switches are weak and expensive ones arnt much better, the wire gets snagged and I’m not going to buy the surefire switch that closes 500% the price of the polytac.
I’ve just picked up a polytac HP for my AR and I love it but the switch wasn’t ideal (I replaced a TLR-1 with the polytac so I’m use to the paddle style push up with my index finder for light) UI. I wasn’t to keen on havin to retrain my finger to push forward so I started looking for an answer.
What I did was to get a 12mm tall boot with nub (factory boot is 8mm) and installed that but it didnt help, actually it made it worse. I ended up cutting the nub off and cutting down one of my daughters erasers to about 5mm thick and the exact size to fit in the boot then put it all back together like normal. Now I’m able to apply just a very tiny amount of upward force to turn the light on momentarily in the exact same motion I’ve built into my muscle memory! It still works just fine pushing straight in and will click on just the same but the upward force is what I was really after.
I am extremely satisfied with this mod, it really made the light 100% more usable. I hope this thread can help some other people who choose the polytac as their weapon light, the HP version is really an amazing light, it provides the throw I was after for a rifle mounted light without being so bright it’s no blinding indoors.
I don’t have a way to host/post pictures but if anyone is reading this and wants to do it themselves I can try to walk them threw it. Just for clarification I used one of those little hand-held erasers, not the one on the end of the pencil, it has to fit perfectly and fill the boot or it WILL NOT work. If you want to try it you can email streamlight and get a spare tail cap/switch to mod, just incase it goes bad your light won’t be down while you wait for another. It’s really simple tho and takes 5 minutes.