That is the sort of test I appreciate. I LOVE that Propoly Luxeon!

There are lots of marvelous machines out there that make the darkness more bearable when the night wind rustles the bushes out beyond the campfire's light.

BUT! What practical good is it, if it will light up the whole world...for maybe 2 hours, and then must be recharged or have the batteries replaced @ about $1.50 each? It is possible to modify an inexpensive, commonly available light so it will run 10+ hours on a set of 2 AA batteries, with good light output. I recently got my son a military issue angle head light for camping, and dropped a LED bulb in it. Reasonably bright, rugged and long run time.

Hunters already have enough ironmongery hanging on their persons, so small and compact is very welcome. Reliability and longer run time, even if not the brightest spark in the forest, is very good, as is reasonable light output.

For that, you don't need the late$t high-zoot TACTICAL offering, merely a good, rugged, reliable light that will continue to shine, even if you are 4 hours from camp, and it is raining, and a wild animal has run away with your shoes, and you can't hear your buddy screaming any more!

Might I be so bold as to suggest Something as pedestrian one of the "supermarket lights? AA, C, or D cell. Makes no difference. Cheap, and you can carry 2, one as "back up" for when your primary fails, as it surely will.

Not much "Gee Whiz" factor, but a spare bulb and a pair of extra batteries will be enough to get you out of most situations, or provide comfort, in case you have well and truly done a dumbheit.
You won't go wandering over a cliff in the dark! (Don't ask!)

Buy whatever you can afford, and tickles your fancy, but realize that there are less expensive alternatives out there that will serve extremely well.

And will avoid the inevitable question: "YOU SPENT HOW MUCH FOR A FLASHLIGHT?"

The whole idea is to have it when you need it, be able to feed it with easily available batteries, and to carry spares. Murphy is real !

For years , my standard flashlight has been: (with apologies to Louis Prima and Keeley Smith , who perform it best)

That old black Maglight has me in its spell;
That old black Maglight that shines so well...

Till next time.

Sniper,
Here is one that is small, inexpensive and output 28 lumens and will last for four hours on 4 AA batteries.
Much better than those LED lights that only shine 25 feet.

PRINCETON TEC 40

This light is very popular with divers, inexpensive at about $19 it run on four AA batteries (included) for about five hours (in my experience it is more like 4 hours).
It uses a 4 watts halogen bulb and will output 28 lumens; the life of the bulb is about 30 hours.
You can substitute a Krypton bulb for 4 cells and the run time will almost double.

The body of the light is very light as is injection molded in one piece with the head screwing into the body to cap the light.
The switch is activated by turning the head, so two hands are needed to switch the light on, unless you have a very strong grip and fingers and can turn the tight bezel/switch with them.

Because the body have two flat surfaces it stay very well on any surface and have an advantage over conventional round flashlights that tend to roll off from inclined surfaces.
Those flat surfaces was that gave me the idea of putting a self stick length of Velcro in it and sew the matching male part to a baseball cap, it is a handy place to stick your light when you want your hands free.
I have a few of those caps in the cars and lights to go with them, just in case I have a flat tire or I need to work under the hood with my two hands, it come handy recently when I had to hook the buster cables on my battery and the other car’s battery.



My lights are about two years old; the new Princeton Tec 40 is somehow different in that it comes with a rubber over-coat, still a very handsome light.

They are a class 3 light, so waterproof to 100 meters, one of mine was used by my brother in law to look for the lost engine of his boat in 100 feet of water.

Some of my Tec 40’s have a smooth reflector (mirror finish) that is a good thrower, others newer Tec 40’s come with a stippled reflector that have a very pleasant beam and are more flood light and less throw.

Here is a beam shot to my deer and bear target set up at 26 yards and with the camera at 12 feet from the deer and 18 feet from the bear.
This was taken with the light that have the smooth reflector, the intensity at the target is not that much with the Stippled reflector.



I like the little Tec 40 and I have given a few away to family and friends that were in need of a reliable light for carry in a pocket or keeping in a glove compartment.

I put one of the PT 40 in a BIG glass of water for several hours, without any issues, and this is a light that have 4 years old gaskets.



Kind regards
Watchmaker

WOW!!!!
And all that I want to do is to see something in the dark.
Cattails soaked in kerosene used to work before lumens were discovered.
How many soaked cattails ablaze equal one lumen???

Eric

THE SUREFIRE M-6, 500 LUMENS TACTICAL LIGHT

Hi guys,
Here is another of my tactical lights. This beauty is light, relatively small and VERY powerful, and it comes with two lamps; 250 lumens for one hour and 500 lumens for 20 minutes.
THE GOOD NEWS:
In reality, when using fresh 123’s batteries of Surefire brand this light puts out 650 lumens for the first 6 minutes, this is really an outstanding performance as at 650 lumens the light is very white.
After that, the small 123’s start feeling the problem of coping with the high amperage lamp and settle to the 500 lumens output for a little more time, but you can see in the beam how the sag on the little batteries affects the output.

I have had three of the M-6’s and I am very familiar with them, they are very sensitive to what batteries they like, performing quite well with the Surefire brand, but dropping down and with reduced run time with the Battery Station brand, (at least in my experience).

THE NOT SO GOOD NEWS:
Sometimes in a warm summer night when I use the light, I can expect it to shut down after about 11 to 12 minutes of running due to the overheat protection of the batteries.
Yes the batteries will shut down the juice when very hot to avoid reaching the melting point, it is very disconcerting to have the light going full blast and all of a sudden you find yourself in complete dark.
It will no happen often but it had happened to me three times last summer (I am an above average user of powerful lights).

The light that I use for the beam shot is not my own but one that a neighbor of mine received in the mail the day I was delivering to him a Borealis 1050 lumens flashlight.

This great guy will start a conversation with, hi, I am Effie and I am a flashaholic, the day I visited him we spend hours talking and looking at his lights.
The batteries in the Surefire box, were fresh, I am sure because I deflowered the tough plastic wrapping with my trusty Ken Onion’s knife.
The guy have a one room house with garage in his big back yard, (for his teenage son’s to have his privacy) and that is what we used as a target, it been 27 yards away from the end of the porch where we shoot the beams of the lights and placed the tripod and camera.

As we needed another light to test it against, we used the Borealis 1050 lumens light, this being a top of the line model with the Quick Detach Swivel and the black hard anodized bezel with the glow dots.
Of course the Borealis been a bigger light made in the 3 D format and weighting at 28 oz. and with 12 ½ inches in length, overpower physically and in lumens output the M-6, but we didn’t have anything closer to the 650 lumens of the HOLA lamp of the M-6.
And here are the beam shots

SUREFIRE M-6 HOLA lamp (650 lumens on fresh batteries, 20 minutes run time)





BOREALIS 1050 LUMENS RECHARGEABLE (50 minutes run time)



And here the lights side by side before the shoot out.






THE ONLY REAL PROBLEM:
It is the cost of the batteries, Surefires are close to a couple dollars now with shipping, it hurts my pocket to pay that much when the light uses six of them every twenty minutes and I don’t use the light as much as when the batteries where going for a dollar each.
For the law enforcement sector, when the Agency pays for the batteries, it is not problem, but for us simple civilians like me, even that I don’t have a mortgage anymore, I have a kid with a foot in College and I have to watch out my wallet, paying $36.00 per hour to run a powerful light it is not longer fun.

It is the top of the line of the portable Surefires and at $400 it is well worth the money due to the great and precise machining and finish and the good design specially made for tactical situations.

Cheers,
Watchmaker

How much do your kerosene soaked cat tails cost Eric?

Well Tracker, I haven't quite figured that one out yet.
I have a professor at the University of Minnesota interested in my cattail lumens.
He wants me to hold a burning cattail under a large running buck at night, and take a picture.
He will then do a five year study on it and let us know the cost.
I also haven't figured out how to put the burning cattail into a jug of water and still keep it burning.
I'll get back to you on that.
Rest assured Tracker, when I get the pictures of that running buck at night, I will post LOTS of them for you guys.

Eric

I knew I could count on ya to do this thing the right way buddy. High five.

tracker wrote:

How much do your kerosene soaked cat tails cost Eric?

ElyBoy wrote:

Well Tracker, I haven't quite figured that one out yet. I have a professor at the University of Minnesota interested in my cattail lumens. He wants me to hold a burning cattail under a large running buck at night, and take a picture. He will then do a five year study on it and let us know the cost. I also haven't figured out how to put the burning cattail into a jug of water and still keep it burning. I'll get back to you on that. Rest assured Tracker, when I get the pictures of that running buck at night, I will post LOTS of them for you guys. Eric

Oh, you guys. You are being very cruel and nasty picking on watchy.

Watchmaker has a genuine interest in the capabilities of torches and lights, and I'm sure that some find it helpful. Any law enforcement members amongst us would be most interested I'm sure.

Not that sure though that I would spend as much money on a light as some do though.

watchmaker wrote:

paying $36.00 per hour to run a powerful light it is not longer fun

Now you guys go back to pickin' on Bushy and me....it makes for an interesting day.


Cheers, Vince

This has been kinda fun though Vince.
I suppose that when you heard about the kerosene soaked cattails, it reminded you of days that you Aussies would shove them up kangaroo rear ends just for fun.

Eric

ElyBoy wrote:

This has been kinda fun though Vince. I suppose that when you heard about the kerosene soaked cattails, it reminded you of days that you Aussies would shove them up kangaroo rear ends just for fun. Eric

Yeah, I know mate.....and I'm sure that watchy has a damn fine sense of humour just like the rest of us. I just feel left out cause you guys stopped takin' the pee outa me.

I believe that cattails are similar, if not the same as, our bullrushes....they certainly look the same. There is no way I would even think about pokin' something up a roo's butt......be a bit like stickin' yer head into a wood chipper, only more painful. But, you have planted some seeds, hm, feral cat.....running across a paddock at night, yeowling..... could be a source of light...or at the very least a good laugh.

No, no, that is not nice....bad Vince...be nice.


Cheers, Vince

yeah Vince...cattails=bullrushes, personally I was just trying to offer my encouragement to Eric to carry on those much needed experiments. This is how we learn, right?

And come on....when have I ever picked on you or Bushy??

MAGLITE 3 D

I have received some e-mails and PM’s asking me to do a beam shot of the maglite 3 D, a light that is very popular in the law enforcement circles and with outdoorsman.

The light is billed as outputting 39 lumens; this is true with fresh high quality D batteries; however as alkaline batteries sag a lot under load, this output is maintained for only seven minutes, when it drops to 75 % of the output.

After one hour, the light is doing 50 % of the output (or close to 20 lumens).

Yes, I know this is probably a surprise to many fans of this light, so here is a chart that will explain graphically what I just wrote.



Here is the beam shot, from 26 yards and coming from the second story window, as always my deer and bear are at 12 and 18 feet from the camera.

Maglite 3 D 39 lumens (fresh, new batteries)



And here as a way of comparison, the
BOREALIS 1050 lumens (made on the same 3 D body)



Cheers
Watchmaker

thought you couldnt hunt after sunset???? so what do you need these over the top torches for????

ever think of building your fire bigger???

Tracker that was good ..... ever think hunting in the daylight?.... hahahahaha
thats my man!

Vince you cant hunt in the dark there can you??? I know some spot shot roos but is it legal??

keetoowah wrote:

Vince you cant hunt in the dark there can you??? I know some spot shot roos but is it legal??

Hi Keetoowah. Yep, it is quite legal to hunt at night over here. I spot light rabbits whenever I go hunting. The best time to hunt rabbits is dawn, late afternoon/dusk and at night. Whilst rabbits aren't technically nocturnal critters, they feed at these times which is why its the best time to hunt them.

Professional Roo shooters do most of their hunting by spotlight because again it is the best time to hunt roos. As with rabbits, roos aren't technically nocturnal but they are more active dusk to dawn. They lie up, rest, sleep during the heat of the day and come out at dusk to feed.

You can spot light deer at night here in Queensland, legally, because they are feral......but the purist hunters won't do it, only those that are going down the feral eradication path.

Wow, there is a massive difference between the Maglite 3D and the BOREALIS 1050 lumens. When you say "(made on the same 3 D body)" I am assuming that the actual torch body is the same?

Cheers, Vince

wow Watchmaker quite informative. thanks for sharing???