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Post by Gimpalong on May 31, 2011 7:25:30 GMT -5
I'm going to break You can pick up a surefire G2 for like, $40 and a 30mm scope ring for a few dollars and slap that bad boy on your gun. Assuming you have a light already because it's useful to you, a brighter light will be much better. Remember, a light on your gun isn't used for lighting your path. It's used as an extension of the weapon. If your opponent has been sitting in darkness for a few minutes, and then you flash him with a light that produces the fury of 1000 Suns, you can shoot him 10 times over while he whimpers in the corner about his burned corneas. And that concludes the section on functionality...lasers don't work and are dangerous if they do... Honestly, it's a little concerning to see someone advocating the use of extremely powerful lights to blind other players in what amounts to a fancy GAME of army, while simultaneously arguing that lasers are dangerous (presumably due to their effect on the unshielded eyeball). Flashlights are a useful and necessary tool for CQB, but just as we concern ourselves with maintaining the proper CQB velocity for our rifles we should also be concerned with the lumen output of our flashlights. Surefire G2s usually put out 65 lumen (iirc). It's one thing to be flashed with 65 lumens and quite another to be hit by the 200, 300 or even 1000 lumens that some tactical lights can generate. On Topic: As far as flashlights go, you should also consider whether or not you are actually going to use it. I rarely play indoor CQB matches and play in lowlight conditions equally rarely. For me a flashlight takes up space and adds weight for no additional advantage or gain. That said, I also play with a bone stock G&P M733 with no rails or optics... Just to repeat what Avenir said, because I think it does bear repeating, "function over form. Always." If your rifle works for you and you like it then why worry about what a bunch of anonymous people on the interwebz think? You did, however, ask for suggestions and should be prepared for the typical MiA flurry of responses. |
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Post by Knief on May 31, 2011 9:29:50 GMT -5
I was going to apologize for accidentally implying that the use of dangerously bright lights was acceptable. But then I re-read what I wrote, and you know what? If you couldn't read the tongue-in-cheek tone from phrases like, "the fury of 1000 suns" and "whimpers in the corner about his burned corneas," the internet might not be the place for you. I don't think anybody else reading this assumed that I was 100% serious about hitting a player with a light so bright that he would be reduced to crying through his permanently damaged eyes. Nor did anybody believe that a readily available light capable of producing the equivalent of the power of 1000 suns even exists.
Then I did some research, to make sure I wasn't being an asshole. Let's start with what I suggested, a surefire G2 that puts out an advertised 65 lumens (80 if you get the LED versions). Have you ever accidentally looked at a normal, light up your living room style, bare incandescent light bulb? Maybe while painting a room, or in a garage or something? I know I have a few times. It hurts, you see spots, but your eyes recover in a few minutes and an hour later you've got no residual effects. If that was a 100 Watt bulb (common), it was putting out over 1700 lumens. I don't think too many people are using tac lights that can put out that much light. In fact, the brightest surefire weapon light I can find on their website is listed at 500 lumens. I'm sure somebody makes one brighter, but I doubt anybody here is going to use it. Most lights used on the field, even those wielded by the guys with the means and drive to replicate real kits, are probably in the 200 lumen neighborhood. Even so, that 500 lm light has less than 1/3 the power of your bare 100W light bulb. If a player was forcing another player to stare at his light, you might run into a problem. However, any player confronted with a light that bright is going to close his eyes (instinctive) and shield himself with whatever cover he's got available (so as not to get shot). Nobody is going to be exposed to that light for an extended period of time. So just like when you accidentally looked at that 100W bulb, the affected player is going to see spots and feel uncomfortable, but ultimately be just fine.
Furthermore, the comparison between a laser and a light bulb is a stretch at best. Lasers are dangerous because of their focus and the wavelength at which they operate. Many can cause permanent eye damage before your blink reflex can even be triggered, including those green ones that you see on the field from time to time (usually in the 4-5 mW range). Any incandescent light bulb that can fit on a gun just can't do that. The little red laser pointers (1mW-ish) require prolonged exposure to cause damage, so they're less dangerous but also less useful. You can't see them outside during the day at all, or at long distances in anything but a dark indoor environment. So I previously advised against those because they're not very useful, rather than because they're dangerous. The green ones that you see from time to time are the dangerous ones that I was referring to.
Long story short, I stand by what I wrote in its entirety. I wasn't advocating the use of dangerously bright lights because 99% of what's available isn't dangerous. I didn't tell him to find the biggest brightest light he could, I told him to get one that's brighter than what he has, then suggested the relatively low powered Surefire G2. The "fury of 1000 suns" bit was clearly an insincere overstatement, and I don't have a lot of sympathy for anybody who couldn't pick up on it given how subtle it wasn't.
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