I am not the first person to mention this online. I originally read about it on the excellent Black Bear Outdoors site on Youtube, where experienced the same issue.
The Olight Odin Mini appears to be the perfect "light-system" for the little Norinco, and I recently researched / looked-at many others. I ordered one and it arrived today. It required a sharpened pry-bar (actually, a KA-BAR BK-2) to finally open the box, but I was impressed. I read the instructions and carefully mounted it on the T97 ... at the very front lower left-side M-lok slot on the hand guard.
And, unfortunately noticed a repeat of what BBO had noted ... when the flashlight and mounting bracket are in your hands, the motions attaching them ... and then separating them ... are both slick and smooth. However, when mount-and-flashlight are then properly M-Locked onto the T97's M-Lock slot ... the flashlight can no longer be removed. Something internal jams up. A design flaw, or sloppy Norinco tolerances ... I don't know.
It's certainly not a deal-breaker ... because the Olight is such a perfect match to the little rifle. It only takes a minute or two to loosen the two Allen bolts (with the little wrench that you haven't yet lost) and quickly attach/remove the mount/flashlight. They even supply two extra nut/bolt pairs ... with the bolt already Loctited! ... in case you drop one into the grass.
Like, how often do you really need to remove the flashlight from its bracket? And the occasional recharging can still be done awkwardly (even with the short charging cord) with your rifle snuggled up to the iMac on your desk. The image is Very Albertan ... and a great conversation-starter for when folks arrive for a supper party. Breaks the ice ... talking about the issue of pre-dawn coyote raids on your kids' chicken coop ... :
Hint/Warning - Maybe keep that magnet-end of the charging cord away from your external hard-drives / thumb-drives. Or maybe they're no longer affected by magnetic fields??
I do remember that "magnet monkey-business" scene in "The Big Easy" ...
The Olight Odin Mini appears to be the perfect "light-system" for the little Norinco, and I recently researched / looked-at many others. I ordered one and it arrived today. It required a sharpened pry-bar (actually, a KA-BAR BK-2) to finally open the box, but I was impressed. I read the instructions and carefully mounted it on the T97 ... at the very front lower left-side M-lok slot on the hand guard.
And, unfortunately noticed a repeat of what BBO had noted ... when the flashlight and mounting bracket are in your hands, the motions attaching them ... and then separating them ... are both slick and smooth. However, when mount-and-flashlight are then properly M-Locked onto the T97's M-Lock slot ... the flashlight can no longer be removed. Something internal jams up. A design flaw, or sloppy Norinco tolerances ... I don't know.
It's certainly not a deal-breaker ... because the Olight is such a perfect match to the little rifle. It only takes a minute or two to loosen the two Allen bolts (with the little wrench that you haven't yet lost) and quickly attach/remove the mount/flashlight. They even supply two extra nut/bolt pairs ... with the bolt already Loctited! ... in case you drop one into the grass.
Like, how often do you really need to remove the flashlight from its bracket? And the occasional recharging can still be done awkwardly (even with the short charging cord) with your rifle snuggled up to the iMac on your desk. The image is Very Albertan ... and a great conversation-starter for when folks arrive for a supper party. Breaks the ice ... talking about the issue of pre-dawn coyote raids on your kids' chicken coop ... :
Hint/Warning - Maybe keep that magnet-end of the charging cord away from your external hard-drives / thumb-drives. Or maybe they're no longer affected by magnetic fields??
I do remember that "magnet monkey-business" scene in "The Big Easy" ...
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