I'll probably be going with an inexpensive light like a Surefire G2.
Be aware that the G2 is a great light, but it is not designed to withstand recoil as it doesn't have a recoil dampening lamp assembly. Buying such an assembly for the G2 would put you in the price range for a better flashlight. I personally have an Inova T3 on my shotgun. It's an LED flashlight, so there is no filament to break under recoil. The end-cap loosened under recoil the first time I shot it, but a drop of Blue Loc-Tite solved that problem. The T3 is more of a thrower than a wide-spill beam light, so some folks have mentioned that it contributed to tunnel vision when on the range. My experience has been that it puts out enough (80) lumens to give you enough light bouncing off of interior walls to light the room, so you will have enough light for your peripheral vision to pick up movement of other threats. There are a multitude of cheaper flashlights that will serve the same function, and will withstand recoil based on their design. Between my Inovas and my Gladius, I'm definitely drifting away from incandescent lights towards LED's. Check out
The candlepowerforums for more info if you need it.
On to the 'mounting solution'. I've tried a couple of cheaper methods as buying a Surefire forend will likely cost more than the shotgun. First, I tried this
forend with 1913 rail which gives you a common platform for a variety of mounting options. Once I had that in place, I got a couple of Leupold 1" scope rings and clamped my T3 in place as such:
Placed in such a manner, I could press the tailcap switch with the knuckle of my index finger with minimal effort. The mount stayed in place (again with loc-tite on the scope rings), it was solid and cheap. My only problem with it was how much it hung down from the rest of the gun. Back to the drawing board.
Solution #2 was to try
mounting clamps that are essentially re-sized magazine tube clamps. (A search of Midway's website for 'TacStar' will yield all of their available sizes.) I bought two and clamped my T3 to the barrel, off-set just enough to overlap the pump by about 1", which put the switch right in front of the end of my thumb when gripping the gun. Though the clamps were well made, clamped as advertised, and placed the light in a good low-profile place, the problem I ran into was that under recoil, the whole light assembly's inertia held it in place long enough to slide just a bit towards the muzzle. After about 10 2 3/4" buckshot shells, the clamps were up against the front sight's ramp, stopping their movement, and I could tell the light had been starting to slide foward within, even though the clamps were tightened to right before they began to bend and were loc-tite'd in place. The light ended up about 2" foward of where it had been mounted with the switch out of reach. Back to the drawing board.
Solution #3 was based on the learned concept that a mount that depended on friction to be held in place just wasn't going to beat shotgun recoil. I went back to my original design, but modified it. One of the drawbacks of the original design was that it was fixed, so even if I didn't need the light, I was stuck with it. This was easily fixed by purchasing a
CAA Light/Laser mount. I slid the light into place, locked it in, and velcro'ed the tape switch in place. In the event I don't need the light, I can easily slide it off the rails. This is what is still on my gun now:
Hopefully this walkthrough will save you some time and effort!
-Teuf
