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NODs are better for the single searcher X1000!!!!

Once you go with a SureFire lite in search mode, you are stuck with it for the duration since your own night vision is shot. A goblin seeing that beam sweeping the living room or barn and yard will get in a shadow and wait in ambush for "flashlight man" to pass by before shooting him in his backlit back.

Keep the SureFire light, if you MUST use it, for a one second ID and blinding burst RIGHT before you shoot him, AFTER you have found him in stealth mode.

I cannot think of a better way to get dead than to go looking in the dark for armed criminals by sweeping far out ahead of me with a bright light, practically yelling out "HERE I COME! GET READY FOR ME!!!!"

IMHO, tactical gun lights are ONLY for SWAT Teams who are rushing in on shocked and dazed perps who have just been awakened by flash bang grenades. THEN they make perfect sense. If they are used by the single property owner, he must be VERY disciplned, and NOT give in to the temptation to announce his coming with a light search. He must save it for the last second to ID and blind before shooting.

All just my humble opinion mind you, based on no personal experience shooting bad guys. Your mileage may vary.

I was wondering when someone was going to mention something like that. My son bought low cost LED nightlights to put in strategic areas in his house but my house is so lit up from the outside I don't need anything inside. If you have to go outside to check on anything, outside floodlights are the answer. Flashlights are like Murphy's law on tracers. They work both ways.

I thought of a gimmick a couple of years ago. It was a "light grenade". Push the button and throw. Two or three seconds later the high intensity light comes on. After the section is cleared, just pick it up, [you can't lose it] shut the light off and repeat.

Bad guys with guns, in the darkness, should not be searched for with a visable light in your hands! This practice will not lead to a fulfilled life!

LONG before the era of night vision scopes, there were only two flashlights permited on the wrong side of the wire..

The Corpsman and the guy with the radio/map had a light...
Everyone carried batteries -- but ONLY these two lights..
We actually used red plastic inserts to hide the light and protect our own night vision.
Yes, I said map....this was pre-GPS!

The only "SAFE" illumination is the one YOU hang high in the sky --- to light up the whole freaking place and blind the stupid bastards that stare at that star shell as it slowly drifts to earth...while you keep your eyes DOWN and scan the area for targets...

I would think that walking around with a visable light, looking for a bad guy -- would be like asking to get killed..
Just an old fart's opinion...

Happy New Year folks!
Semper Fi

Thucydides gives an account in his history of the Peolponesian wars of a group (I think they were from Plataea) who attacked a Theban army in the dark.

The Thebans lit torches and set out to hunt them down. The Plataeans simply waited in the dark and using the light of their enemies torches to locate them killed them.

I guess those people 2,500 years ago already knew not to use flashlights improperly.

BTW I could be mistaken on the identities of the combatants as I am going on hazy memory but the basic story is true.

If I might add my humble $.02 worth. Clearing a house or a room is probably one of the most difficult tasks that a lone individual can face. If you show a light you have identified yourself and your position. If one is talking about the defense of one's own home one is talking about a place where one knows where everything is without the benefit of light. An intruder does not know where the furniture is placed and is more likely to bump into something and divulge his position with that sound.

If one absolutely must go looking for the source of that bump in the night is worth the money for some good night vision googles or monoccular. As a boater I have found them a great boon for navigating narrow channels on moonless overcast nights where there is almost no ambient light. They are also priceless for seeing what has awoken my hound in the middle of the night. I can quickly tell if it is racoon or the porch or a coyote in the yard, or a potential intruder.

As for .30 carbine a .38spl revolver is a very good means of self defense that will very likely serve you very well. Unless one is willing to devote the time to throughly master a semi-auto pistol so that working the safety is absolutely a conditioned response, and one is willing to do the necessary maintainence faithfully there is very little advantage in the quick reload for the opdinary citizen. A whole lot of the people on this website have shot for 20 or 30 years so we talk about our tastes and preferences as though they were gospel they are not. The only absolute truth about handguns for self defense is a .22cal short that hits the target exactly is a whole lot better at stopping than a .50cal hand cannon that misses the target. I also note that more than one shooter has had their night vision limited severly by their own muzzle flash in the dark, Thus a .38 spl that does not have as big a muzzle flash as a .357 magnum may be a better choice for hime defense in the middle of the night. Just my humble opinion.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown