Need a light

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Perhaps the analogy to a .30-06 wasn’t the best but I think it illustrates that whatever the military uses is going to be popular and available for a long, long time. CR123s were/are mostly used in tactical lights used by the military, LE, and to a smaller degree the civilian population of those who needed (or wanted) bright, compact lights. Obviously a CR123 is never going to be as “readily” available as a AAA or AA batteries that are used in a myriad of other devices but CR123s are still available at many hardware store, home centers, and even drug stores. For those of us on the platform, we’re buying likely buying in bulk anyway.

At this point and probably into the foreseeable future, CR123s are going to dominate the weapon light market. Given the situations where you are going to need a weapon and a light, my preference would be for the best light available regardless of the batteries it used. Of course, you can forego the weapon mounted light and just use a flashlight in your off hand. That would give you at lot more options for lights and battery platforms.

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The only DECENT AA cross compatible Pistol/Rifle light I know of is the WL1 from Insight and I believe it is discontinued (I could be wrong). It drives a 150 lumen light for about 90 minutes. This is not any better than a TLR1s or a X300 and these are industry standard lights. The downside to the AA type lights is that they are physically longer than the CR123 lights. While this may not be an issue for someone running a rifle or a M1911 with a 5″ barrel, it does pose issues for someone running a g19/VP9 size handgun, which is why the CR123 lights are so popular. I personally don’t see CR123 as a dying battery format, especially as there are benefits to the smaller form factor of the weapon lights and the lower cost of the cells we are seeing. All my quality weapon and hand hand held lights are either CR123 or AAA, which works just fine for me. I am dying to try a XC1 AAA light at an upcoming lowlight pistol class and see how it performs.

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