You will often read that most critical incidents happen in low light situations and there are many options to help you deal with low light, including night sights, lasers, gold beads… But I believe that the most important addition you can make to your compact or larger*** concealed carry or home defense gun is a white light.
Like night sights or a laser, white light can be used as a rough sighting system, where if you light them up with the center of the beam the bullet should be pretty close, and it helps you identify your point of aim by making it possible to see the outline of your sights. However, a white light can do something nothing else can… Identify your target!
Once you have made the decision to carry a light the question comes down to which one.
This 4 common weapon light comparison can help you decide what is right for you…
Surefire x300
This particular light has been my home defense light for the past couple of years. At 180 lumens it is almost too bright for use indoors, but by bouncing the light off of a wall or ceiling you can provide enough light identify that the crash you heard was the cat knocking a flower-pot of the counter or your kids dropping the container of milk.
The x300 is designed for throw (not spill) and has a definite hot spot in the middle of the beam, this can easily be used for crude aiming but the spill is still sufficient to help you see what is going on around you.
The switch is stiff enough that it won’t be bumped on automagicly (I love that non-word) and can be molded into a kydex holster so it is held off. It can be manipulated by rotating it either up or down for constant on or pushed towards the front for momentary on.
Like all traditional pistol lights, the x300 does add considerably to length of the gun and will protrude past the muzzle on anything smaller than a Glock 34/35. This will cause a little soot on the lens, but if you are doing enough low light shooting for it to be an issue I urge you to move.
Unlike any other light in this test it never takes tool to install, uninstall or change the batteries (2 CR123’s).
Streamlight TLR1s
The TLR1 has always been the “working mans” response to the x300 and without getting into a purposely destructive testing I can’t say there is any reliability/performance advantage between the 2. There are however a 3 usability differences worth noting.
1) The TLR1 does secure to the gun with the use of a screw. I found that 2 full turns was the difference between not-coming off and easily removable and I could usually accomplish this with just my thumb because of the bumps on the screw head; however if I were going to mount it permanently on a pistol of rifle I would snug it down with a screwdriver.
2) This light has a defined hot spot just like the x300 and could be used for rudimentary aiming, but it also has a very hard edge at the edge of the beam. I’m not a big fan of that because it promotes target fixation/tunnel vision. No good.
3) The TLR’s switch can easily be rocked in either direction; with down via a right handed shooters trigger finger being constant on and down via the thumb a momentary on. This took a bit of getting used to because of my familiarity with the x300 but it is certainly doable. This particular model however was the TLR1s and the “s” stands for strobe. To activate the strobe required 2 quick touched of the momentary light and the strobe stayed on as long as switch was pressed.
Unfortunately there was no option for the strobe to swiched on and required a double tap on the light every time if you wanted to use it intermittently.
Crimson Trace Rail Master Tactical Light
While the Crimson Trace Rail Master is still slightly wider than my Glock it is the 1st of the 4 lights that doesn’t significantly extend past the muzzle (it is actually slightly shorter) so it is considerably smaller than the other 2 options. While it is much more concealable, it’s smaller size does affect its performance.
1) It uses a single CR2 instead of dual CR123’s like the bigger lights, which only powers it to 100 lumens versus the 180 and 160 in the previous options. I don’t believe this to be an issue though because splash in doors isn’t as bad and it is still past my 80 lumen minimum for a tactical light. It just won’t light up a room quite like the Surefire when pointed at the ceiling.
2) The smaller reflector combined with the large LED makes for a floody light with no discernible hot spot. These means it isn’t as good as the larger lights if you are sighting with it, but it still works for all the same reasons we can use the larger diopter on the AR rear sight.
The home run on this light for me is its activation. The Rail Master uses 2 paddles that can be activated with either the trigger finger or the support hand and is user programmable to be “Constant On”,” Momentary On” or “Strobe Only” (btw, this is cool enough to deserve both its own post and YouTube video).
One note of caution that might just be my issue… I find that I always want to manipulate the lights with my trigger finger, which works fine for constant on modes, but turns out the light when I want to press the trigger with momentary modes. If you are going to train to use a momentary light, practice activating the light with your support hand.
Crimson Trace Light Guard
The Crimson Trace Light Guard uses the same LED, reflector and battery as the Rail Master, so its beam is indisquishable so the only way to know I didn’t reuse the image is the better sight alignment and worse grip in this photo.
The features that set these lights are apart are the thinner form factor on the light guard and the activation method.
The shape of the Light Guard makes it resemble a Taser and doesn’t increase the width of the gun at all. This means it will not change the way the gun carries for anyone that carries on their hip, although it could complicate appendix carry a bit.
It also uses the instinctive activation that Crimson Trace has made famous with their lasers. This means there is no constant on option other than just gripping the pistol and there is no option for Strobe (Although that would be nice… a switch inside maybe?).
I am convinced these are all great lights and I can see a use for all of them, but most likely my x300 will live on the rifle, the Rail Master will become the home defense pistol light and the Light Guard could be the ticket for the CCW pistol.
How would you use these lights? Tweet me @BalloonGoesUp, message me on Facebook or leave a comment below and let me know what you think. If you liked it share it with your friends, and don’t forget to subscribe to the new newsletter!
Ron is the Founder and President of When the Balloon Goes Up! He competes regularly in IDPA as an ESP/Expert, his focus is on concealed carry, home defense and analyzing equipment to find “Gear that Just Works!”
