Episode 5: What is the best tactical flashlight?

In this episode of Flashlights and Stuff I talk about the type of
blog post I hate the most. It’s the “Best Tactical Flashlight”
post. Reading them is a waste of time. And I’ll reveal what the
best tactical flashlight is. So… let’s get started… in 3,2,1.


First, I want to be completely transparent. I’ve had tactical
flashlight blogs. My first blog was pretty successful. I made my
money from Amazon affiliate links. In fact, before Google
penalized my blog (along with thousands of others) for “thin
content” I was making as much as $700 a week in affiliate sales.
I had the requisite “Best tactical flashlight post” just like
dozens of other blogs. I was sort of pissed when Google did this
because my reviews were about flashlights I actually owned and
all of the photos were ones I took myself. Regardless, my blog
was toast at least from a monetary perspective.


So that was about 5 years ago and life goes on. Here’s the deal.
If it can make money on the internet it will rear it’s ugly head
again. So the “Best Flashlight blog post” is all over the place
and 90% of them suck. And here’s why you should ignore them.


The person who wrote the blog post doesn’t even own the
flashlight. How do I know? Because they use stock pictures from
the manufacturers website. Or the one that totally pisses me off
(because it’s happened to me) they’ve stolen a great flashlight
photo from another persons Flickr feed or site.


The flashlight’s description is basically a re-write of canned
manufacturer marketing crap. No description of the flashlight’s
UI, build quality, etc.


Another red flag (at least to me) is the lack of beam shots. When
I typically take pictures of a flashlight I include some beam
shots as well. I mean the whole point of buying a flashlight is
to illuminate something.


So before I talk about what the best tactical flashlight is, just
know most of these best tactical flashlight blog posts are just a
regurgitation of content you can get by going straight to the
manufacturers website. If you are going to “buy” a flashlight
from a link to Amazon or some other vendor via a blog post ONLY
do it if the person owns the actual flashlight. Google needs to
scrub this crap, but based on what I’m seeing it appears their AI
is too stupid… so the good flashlight blogs are lost in the midst
of the get rich quick passive income hustlers that create blogs
about stuff they know absolutely nothing about.


So now… back to the question at hand… revealing the best tactical
flashlight. The best tactical flashlight is the one you have with
you. That’s it. Plain and simple. It doesn’t matter what brand it
is, how many lumens it pumps out, or how many features it has. It
just needs to work and be dependable. You can have the most
expensive, newest, or brightest flashlight on the market, but if
it’s not with you it just doesn’t matter.


I personally believe you need to consider multiple flashlights
for your given situation. For example a small everyday carry
flashlight like the Fenix E18R or the Thrunite T1 are really
great to have with you at any time. My point is this… they are so
small and easy to carry you should just automatically put in in
your pocket any time you go out.


You can check out the Fenix E18R at FENIXLIGHTING.com and the
Thrunite T1 at THRUNITE.com. And of course, listen to my podcast
episodes where I review both.


Sometime you need more light than you can get from a super small
EDC light. But, you still want to be able to slip it into your
pocket. That’s where the mid-size tactical flashlight comes into
play. These are typically 1000 to 2000 lumens lights. Fenix,
Nitecore, Klarus, Olight, and others all make lights in this
category.


Typically, these flashlights have easy to understand user
interfaces, additional lighting modes (like SOS) and many come
with dual tactical tail switches and crenelated strike bezels. So
the flashlight actually has some non-lethal self defense
capabilities. There are a ton of excellent choices in the
mid-size tactical flashlight category to choose from.


If you don’t have a mid-size tactical flashlight I want to highly
recommend the Nitecore P12 GT or P12GTS. I think the P12GT is an
excellent flashlight, an extremely bright flashlight due to the
LED it uses and the one I suggest to folks looking for an
economical flashlight in this category.


You can go to nitecorestore.com to see the P12GT and P12 GTS.


Another flashlight I really like in this category is the Klarus
XT11GT. It has 2000 lumens of output and is incredibly bright. It
has a ton of throw so the beam pattern is highly centered. In
other words if you need a flashlight that can definitely
illuminate things from a long distance away I’d suggest the
Klarus XT11GT. A big plus is a dual tactical tail switch which
makes it easy to access the strobe capability with a single touch
plus it has a nicely pronounced crenelated strike bezel. Couple
those self defense features with the incredibly bright, narrow
beam pattern and you have a great non-lethal self defense tool.


The XT11GT is a bit bigger than the Nitecore P12GT, but it can
still fit in the front pocket of a pair of jeans.


You can go FLASHLIGHTZDOTCOM , that’s FLASHLIGHTZ with a Z at the
end not an S to see the XT11GT.


The last category of flashlight is a full-sized tactical
flashlight. I define full size as any tactical flashlight too
large to comfortably fit in the from pocket of a pair of jeans.
It means you’ll need to carry it in a holster on a belt or
clipped to a tactical vest or clipped to a pack.


If I was going to get a tactical flashlight in this category I’d
definitely consider Olight’s latest version of their Warrior
model tactical light. I have a friend who has an earlier version
of the flashlight and uses it all of the time. He says it’s
worked without a single hiccup. Olight’s latest version offers
2250 lumens of output and a range of 600 meters.


Check out OLIGHTWORLD.com to see the Flight Warrior X Pro.


I’ll reiterate… the best tactical flashlight is the one you’ll be
sure to carry with you. Hopefully, this overview of tactical
flashlight types will make it easier for you decide what type of
flashlight you need. Next week, I’ll be talking about flashlight
user interfaces, side switches, tail switches, and dual tail
switches and how to determine which is best for you.


Lastly, I know the world feels pretty crazy right now. So hang in
there, stay healthy and let’s remember to be kind to each other.
I hope this podcast has been a few minutes of distraction during
this crisis.


Visit the website: flashlightsandstuff.com