The best flashlight for CCW is a SureFire 9P. Man, that thing is BLINDING, yet its so tiny. Like the size of a medium carrot.
This is THE FLASHLIGHT TO END ALL FLASHLIGHTS!
Use a regular flashlight when you're outside in the dark, and you feel like you're going blind. You look directly into the flashlight, thinking, "crap, maybe the batteries are going dead". But use a SureFire 9P, and you feel like a sun god! The amount of light it puts out is itself a friggin' weapon! "Please, please, stop shining the light in my eyes! I'm dropping my gun now, just for the love of God, turn off the light!"
(Seriously though, I've heard LEO's talk about how they can use their SureFires to "temporarily blind and disorient a perp". I guess it's the next best thing since rubber hoses, because it leaves no incriminating evidence at all for those pesky IA guys to find. )
Anyway, back to the 9P. The other major plus it has is that besides being "bright", the light the 9P flashlight puts out is AMAZINGLY UNIFORM. No dark spots, no rings, nada. I'd heard people say that, but I always thought "yeah, whatever man". But seeing is believing. It really does makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE.
I did a comparison with a monster 2 million candlepower flashlight (it's the size of a child's Snoopy lunch box), versus a 9P, inside a dark 30'x30' room. The 9P kicked ass! It was only about 90% as _bright_ as the 2 million light, but it was a lot more _useful_. Ie, I could see a much larger area with the 9P. The 2 million candlepower puppie had all sorts of light spots, dark spots, rings, etc., so I had to move it back and forth to really see. But the 9P you could just hold still, and see the entire area, because it was "smooth" light, with no spots, rings, etc. They must've spent a lot of computer time designing its parabolic reflector and lens....
The SureFire manual actually explains the difference between "lumens" and "candlepower", and explains why a candlepower rating is what manufacturers tell you when they have a sucky flashlight.
Okay, where do you get this 8th Wonder of the World?
Botach. Being a cheap SOB, I spent a lot of time trying to find the cheapest possible price. Botach was significantly cheaper than anyone else. (If someone finds a cheaper source, please let me know!)
But the real sweet part is... Botach just put all of their SureFire's ON SALE, so they're even cheaper!!!
I almost fell out of my chair. I immediately ordered another seven, yes SEVEN, of those 9P's. Hey, one for the nightstand, one for the car, one for the wife's car, three or four for Christmas presents -- crap, maybe I should've got MORE than seven...
The Botach 9P sale price is $64.00:
http://store.yahoo.com/botach/surfir9p9vol.html
Yea, $64 is an insane amount to pay for a flashlight. :barf:
I thought. That's why I only bought one 9P initially, and I debated with myself for nine months before I even got that one. I thought it was part of the 'tactical' hype surrounding so many other LEO/SWAT/SEAL/ninja-wanna-be products. Boy was I wrong.
After comparing the SureFire 9P to all my other flashlights (3-D Maglight, 2 million candlepower monster, etc.), there's no contest.
By the way, if you _do_ want to impress your ninja friends, then you'll want to get the SureFire 9Z. It has some funky body shape that allows you to grasp it in some wierd way that some people now think is more 'tactical' than the way cops have been holding their 9P's. :barf: It is the successor to the 9P. And it costs more, of course. And it's called a "Combat light", whereas the 9P is called a "Personal light". Hell, you may as well wear a dress if you're going to carry a 9P like a girlie man
SureFire's ad says that a 9P is as bright as seven (7) 2-D cell maglights. I now believe them.
Hell, the 9P seems to be as bright as my friggin car's headlight! I sh*t you not. Okay, so its a small Japanese car. But still!
The 9P takes lithium batteries, which I soon discovered are obscenely expensive (like $6/each at Safeway, and the 9P takes three of them!). :barf:
But then a buddy clued me in to an "industry secret" (shh, don't tell or the JBT's in the black helicopters will come get you), which allowed me to get Duracell Litium Ultra batteries for $2.50/each!
Here's the scoop: SureFire has a contract with Duracell, because each SureFire flashlight ships with Duracell batteries included. Duracell wants to maximize their own profit, so they forbid SureFire from selling Duracell batteries directly to customers as replacement batteries: any Duracell battery shipped from SureFire has to have a SureFire flashlight with it.
So some hero at SureFire designed a flashlight that takes twelve (12) Duracell lithium batteries, but only uses $0.25 worth of parts. It's called the Surefire 12B. The "flashlight" is a total joke. But it comes with 12 batteries. Score!!!
Botach even advertises the 12B thusly: "the 12B serves as an extremely affordable source of batteries for OTHER lithium powered flashlights". Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more (as they say on Monty Python).
The 12B was $35, but it too is on sale, for $30, which means $2.50/battery. They have a shelf life of 10 years, so I ordered three 12B's. Forget Y2K, I'm ready for Y3K! The 12B is at: http://store.yahoo.com/botach/dur3vollitba.html
Damn, I've been sending so many people to Botach, they should pay me a commission, so I can get sunglasses like these
BTW, the navigation for the Botach web site sucks ; that's why I posted the exact URL's. Fortunately their web site is the _only_ thing that sucks about them.
P.S. yes, I tried to use every possible smiley in the post. Don't worry, I've got it out of my system now. It won't happen again. I promise.
P.P.S. before I committed to paying the bucks for my first SureFire, I saw a SureFire counter display in a gun store. I turned on their 9P and shined it around, and thought: "Okay, big deal. I'm not impressed. What moron would waste money on one of these?" That's why waited so long before actually getting one. I think SureFire should stop making those displays , because they actually cause people to NOT buy their flashlights. It's impossible to tell how good a flashlight beam is in bright daylight. They all look... flaccid.
This is THE FLASHLIGHT TO END ALL FLASHLIGHTS!
Use a regular flashlight when you're outside in the dark, and you feel like you're going blind. You look directly into the flashlight, thinking, "crap, maybe the batteries are going dead". But use a SureFire 9P, and you feel like a sun god! The amount of light it puts out is itself a friggin' weapon! "Please, please, stop shining the light in my eyes! I'm dropping my gun now, just for the love of God, turn off the light!"
(Seriously though, I've heard LEO's talk about how they can use their SureFires to "temporarily blind and disorient a perp". I guess it's the next best thing since rubber hoses, because it leaves no incriminating evidence at all for those pesky IA guys to find. )
Anyway, back to the 9P. The other major plus it has is that besides being "bright", the light the 9P flashlight puts out is AMAZINGLY UNIFORM. No dark spots, no rings, nada. I'd heard people say that, but I always thought "yeah, whatever man". But seeing is believing. It really does makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE.
I did a comparison with a monster 2 million candlepower flashlight (it's the size of a child's Snoopy lunch box), versus a 9P, inside a dark 30'x30' room. The 9P kicked ass! It was only about 90% as _bright_ as the 2 million light, but it was a lot more _useful_. Ie, I could see a much larger area with the 9P. The 2 million candlepower puppie had all sorts of light spots, dark spots, rings, etc., so I had to move it back and forth to really see. But the 9P you could just hold still, and see the entire area, because it was "smooth" light, with no spots, rings, etc. They must've spent a lot of computer time designing its parabolic reflector and lens....
The SureFire manual actually explains the difference between "lumens" and "candlepower", and explains why a candlepower rating is what manufacturers tell you when they have a sucky flashlight.
Okay, where do you get this 8th Wonder of the World?
Botach. Being a cheap SOB, I spent a lot of time trying to find the cheapest possible price. Botach was significantly cheaper than anyone else. (If someone finds a cheaper source, please let me know!)
But the real sweet part is... Botach just put all of their SureFire's ON SALE, so they're even cheaper!!!
I almost fell out of my chair. I immediately ordered another seven, yes SEVEN, of those 9P's. Hey, one for the nightstand, one for the car, one for the wife's car, three or four for Christmas presents -- crap, maybe I should've got MORE than seven...
The Botach 9P sale price is $64.00:
http://store.yahoo.com/botach/surfir9p9vol.html
Yea, $64 is an insane amount to pay for a flashlight. :barf:
I thought. That's why I only bought one 9P initially, and I debated with myself for nine months before I even got that one. I thought it was part of the 'tactical' hype surrounding so many other LEO/SWAT/SEAL/ninja-wanna-be products. Boy was I wrong.
After comparing the SureFire 9P to all my other flashlights (3-D Maglight, 2 million candlepower monster, etc.), there's no contest.
By the way, if you _do_ want to impress your ninja friends, then you'll want to get the SureFire 9Z. It has some funky body shape that allows you to grasp it in some wierd way that some people now think is more 'tactical' than the way cops have been holding their 9P's. :barf: It is the successor to the 9P. And it costs more, of course. And it's called a "Combat light", whereas the 9P is called a "Personal light". Hell, you may as well wear a dress if you're going to carry a 9P like a girlie man
SureFire's ad says that a 9P is as bright as seven (7) 2-D cell maglights. I now believe them.
Hell, the 9P seems to be as bright as my friggin car's headlight! I sh*t you not. Okay, so its a small Japanese car. But still!
The 9P takes lithium batteries, which I soon discovered are obscenely expensive (like $6/each at Safeway, and the 9P takes three of them!). :barf:
But then a buddy clued me in to an "industry secret" (shh, don't tell or the JBT's in the black helicopters will come get you), which allowed me to get Duracell Litium Ultra batteries for $2.50/each!
Here's the scoop: SureFire has a contract with Duracell, because each SureFire flashlight ships with Duracell batteries included. Duracell wants to maximize their own profit, so they forbid SureFire from selling Duracell batteries directly to customers as replacement batteries: any Duracell battery shipped from SureFire has to have a SureFire flashlight with it.
So some hero at SureFire designed a flashlight that takes twelve (12) Duracell lithium batteries, but only uses $0.25 worth of parts. It's called the Surefire 12B. The "flashlight" is a total joke. But it comes with 12 batteries. Score!!!
Botach even advertises the 12B thusly: "the 12B serves as an extremely affordable source of batteries for OTHER lithium powered flashlights". Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more (as they say on Monty Python).
The 12B was $35, but it too is on sale, for $30, which means $2.50/battery. They have a shelf life of 10 years, so I ordered three 12B's. Forget Y2K, I'm ready for Y3K! The 12B is at: http://store.yahoo.com/botach/dur3vollitba.html
Damn, I've been sending so many people to Botach, they should pay me a commission, so I can get sunglasses like these
BTW, the navigation for the Botach web site sucks ; that's why I posted the exact URL's. Fortunately their web site is the _only_ thing that sucks about them.
P.S. yes, I tried to use every possible smiley in the post. Don't worry, I've got it out of my system now. It won't happen again. I promise.
P.P.S. before I committed to paying the bucks for my first SureFire, I saw a SureFire counter display in a gun store. I turned on their 9P and shined it around, and thought: "Okay, big deal. I'm not impressed. What moron would waste money on one of these?" That's why waited so long before actually getting one. I think SureFire should stop making those displays , because they actually cause people to NOT buy their flashlights. It's impossible to tell how good a flashlight beam is in bright daylight. They all look... flaccid.