I have a Streamlight Pro-Tac, 350 lumens. I got if for HD, indoors. It works fine in that role. I have never tried it outside.
Here is my issue: It is not identifying the point of aim, a red dot or the See All Nite Sight or even irons illuminated with my current light do that fine. What about outdoors, at some distance, where someone is rattling around in an out building, or the chicken coop or with my car parked outside or home invaders just skulking around—is that light enough?
My biggest fear is not shooting someone. It is not getting shot myself. My biggest fear is shooting the wrong person. This could be a family member arriving after a cross country trip in the middle of the night, a neighbor looking for his dog, or even my wife—remember the Blade Runner shooting where his girlfriend woke up and went into the bathroom and then and only then did the Blade Runner wake up and think she was an intruder—what a nightmare.
All the red dots in the world are not going to help me with identification. Night vision goggles, and night vision expense are out.
What is the real identification range of some lights out there? Is my current white light enough? If not, what do you recommend?
You haven’t tried it outside? Like walking out your door during any point of the six-eight hours of darkness every single day, just to shine it around and check? Your situation is going to be unique to you - no one has the same house and property so no one can really say if it’ll work from your house to the chicken coop. That being said, the easy (but not cheap) answer is to just get the best “distance” light there is, which IMO, is a SureFire DF model.
I guess it depends on where you live, your size of your property and the laws in your state. Anything outside and I’ll just call the cops. Outside my house is not an immediate threat to me
Yes, the light is attached to the AR.
A “distance” light is what I was asking about, thanks, I’ll check out the SureFire DF.
Calling the cops at my summer cabin would be 1-2 hour wait.
I have an old P60 with a Malkoff 450 lumen head in it on a rifle with iron sights and I can tell you making hits at 50 yards with it is as easy as shooting in the daytime. And shooting steel at night is fun…
Go out and look around is the best advice. No matter what you get though, the range you can see will vary with conditions. Moonlight, porch lights, fog, rain, humidity, and other stuff will cut down on how far the light will help you see.
If using a red dot, keep the intensity up a bit. If you have it dimmed down to negate bloom in low light the dot may wash out when you hit the light.
I took it out on the porch and shined it around a bit in the dark. The identifiable range, that range that I could positively ID who that person was if I knew them, is about 30 yards with this light. I don’t think that is enough.
Not sure the id face with the naked eye at 100 yards is exactly the level of id that is needed for your scenario since it sounds more like a distance to target estimation, but good info never the less.
Well, that matters of course. Family and friends “look” a certain way and move in a recognizable way. They also dress in a way with which I am familiar. Now, I am not just talking for myself here, I think we all understand these things. But, some someone I do not recognize has a gun or a rifle and is attempting to evade the light, well, the grand jury indites that one. John Shrek is talking 100 yards for facial recognition but he is talking daylight. At night, it would be great to be able to shine a light on someone at 200 yards and see weapons in their hands----or am I dreaming?
Using a light, I doubt you could discern a pistol at that distance and not real sure about a rifle. And even less sure on being able to judge if they are a threat justifying shooting them short of seeing muzzle flash.
That is getting over in to the details of some of the recent police shooting homeowner incidents where the officers involved got major get out of jail free cards (at least so far) that you aren’t likely to get.
If you might need to use this weapon light in the house, don’t get carried away imagining how you might use it outdoors. Really powerful lights, light colored walls and confined spaces do bad things to night-adapted eyes.
There are a lot of highly qualified people trying to dispel that as internet rumor you know. That and advocating a proper technique for avoiding what consequence there may be.
Being able to get enough photons at 200 yards to see a rifle is much more difficult than most people expect. It generally requires 3 plus lux on target to be able to identify it. A Malkoff Hound Dog and Elzetta Charlie with AVS Head, which are going to throw MUCH better than even a 1100 lumen ProTac HL3, only deliver 2.7 and 1.97 lux on target respectively…at 100 yards.
Most manufacturers specify the throw distance of their lights as the distance at which the lux is a basically useless .25 lux.
What’s the furthest distance at which you need to positively ID a person?