870 flashlight
- Thread starter Goose25
- Start date
I already have a decent Led flashlight, it is 1" in diameter and approx. 4" long. I would like to attach it to my shotgun incase I have to track a wounded bear at dusk.
not looking to spend a lot here, found a light attachment from MARSTAR, TACSTAR, and ATI.
what are your thoughts on these cheapo products?
not looking to spend a lot here, found a light attachment from MARSTAR, TACSTAR, and ATI.
what are your thoughts on these cheapo products?
- Location
- South Cariboo, BC
There are some decent mounts out there to attach to your barrel extension, I've used one with good results. The thing that you are overlooking here is the recoil. Weapon mounted lights are designed with shock isolation systems to protect the lamp and circuits from the violent recoil your 12 guage can dish out. A cheapo lamp isn't.
When you get a light, practice shooting with it. You'd be surprised how much of your visibility is lost to smoke from the first round. You need to know what to expect so you can deal with it in a stressful situation.
Now picture if you just fired that round at a riled up bear - and your light died leaving you blind.
Buy the proper tools in this case, going cheap here could cost you too much. I use surefire but there are other quality options.
When you get a light, practice shooting with it. You'd be surprised how much of your visibility is lost to smoke from the first round. You need to know what to expect so you can deal with it in a stressful situation.
Now picture if you just fired that round at a riled up bear - and your light died leaving you blind.
Buy the proper tools in this case, going cheap here could cost you too much. I use surefire but there are other quality options.
- Location
- South Cariboo, BC
Nice setup there geologist.
Goose25 said:
Personally, although I'm sure they fill a market niche, I would steer clear of TacStar and ATI products.
I have an aluminum tri-rail that I've mounted on the mag extension of my 870:
The rails are positioned at 3, 6 and 9 o'clock to the mag. With a light that has its on/off switch mounted on the rear of its housing, mounting it on the rail that's located on the left side of the shotgun (the same side as the shell carrier in the picture) puts it in a perfect position to be used with the thumb of the left hand without having to remove the left hand from the forend.
I don't recall where exactly I purchased mine ...but it was online from a U.S. supplier and probably cost about $25-$30. Just Google 'shotgun tri-rail' and you should come up with a source (the same tri-rail is being sold by several online retailers these days). This particular tri-rail is very well built and can be mounted on a shotgun barrel and/or the magazine extension in a couple of different ways (none of which require a gunsmith). I believe it also comes in two different lengths ...the one that I purchased (in the picture) is the smaller of the two.
To use this set-up with a 1" barrelled LED flashlight, all you would need is a scope ring (or perhaps two) to mount the flashlight on the rail. I wouldn't try using a flashlight with a regular incandescent bulb, since the filament would likely not survive the shotgun's recoil. Mounting a dedicated weapon light (SureFire, TLR etc.) with a standard Weaver/Picatinny style base would be a simple matter of using the rail 'as is'.
It's a good piece of kit.
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Nine said:
I like it on the HP9-1. It's brighter than my M3 (that's really not saying much) with diffuse blue white light that is good for my purposes ie. shots in the dark at less than 25m.
It is slower to put on and take off the mount as it screws on instead of clicking on like the M3. I like the fact that it is an LED since I will mount it on either the HP9-1 or my Guide Gun and LED's are better at handling recoil than Xenon bulb lights.
