Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Light?

Buddy wants to mount a light on his Ar's, what do you guys like? price doesn't matter to him, he's setting them up for his Wife and Daughters.

Thanks in advance.

One thing I'd avoid, are those with a wire running to a pressure switch. I've got two mounts. One of them has the wire and it broke after not long. If I'm to hang a light on one, I'm going with a regular flashlight mounted on a rail with a regular on/off switch, usually a tailcap type. Plenty of good, powerful flashlights available on Amazon to fill the bill. A mount isn't hard to pick up.

Wire to the trigger? Never seen such but the light needs to be operated by the offhand only. Pressure switches are prone to breaking from what I hear, I’ve never used one so can’t know.

Gunner, I like Streamlight lights, prefer 1000 lumens or more. The ProTac HL is mounted on a Thorntail 45 degree offset mount on this rifle.

I have a Streamlight TLR1-HL on a Mossie Tactics FSB mount on this gun.

I have another TLR1-HL with a red flip up lense cover on my pig gun but I haven’t used it yet, it’s mounted directly on the top rail. All are activated with my offhand.

Mounting the lights at 11:00, 12:00 or 1:00 as close to the muzzle as possible will reduce the shadow of the barrel and not get in the way of shooting from a rest or barricade.

I use a TLR-VIR II in conjunction with a Sionyx Aurora digital NV unit; white light output is reduced to accommodate the IR illuminator and laser. The TLR-1 HL is a great all-round unit that I wouldn't hesitate to reccomend. Personally, I just use the rocker switch and mount at 3-o'clock (southpaw).

TLR-1 HL on AR and 870.

Since price does not matter a Cloud Defense OWL. Doesn't get any better

Depending on its use you need to consider the difference between lumens and candela. Lumens tell you how much light is being projected. Candela tell you what the light it doing. More candela gives you more throw (distance) but not so much spill (close up).

There are good tape switches, but they're not cheap. But good lights aren't either.

If price isn't an object I'd look at OWL and Modlite.

Yea, they make some nice lights. Great options when you are spending someone else's money.

I have surefires and Modlites. I really like the beam on the Modlites better. Tape switches are fine if you buy quality. I don’t hate the Streamlight’s but I’ve seen their tape switches break more than the others. The important thing about set up is making sure you can activate it with your support hand using your normal grip.

I like a light on my social justice AR rifles. A Surefire on one, a Streamlight on another. Both do the job

The guys here suggested that I try a light. Finally got a couple Streamlight ProTac rails and mounted one, using the tape switch, for now, on an 11.5" pistol. The momentary feature seems like it will be handy, with the Eotech. I sure likeTWR's mount solution in the top picture, and that would have worked nicely on this one where 90 degrees left didn't. Less spill seems like a good goal. Hmmm.

Many Thanks everyone, did talk to bud yesterday, he said all the shooters are right handed, i directed him to this website and thread, i do like TWR's top picture setup myself.

A simple thumb push at the bottom of a light on the way to closing one's grip should do them fine, Thanks again for the suggestions.

Pressure switch on the top. Brightest light you can get while keeping the gun handy.

In my experience if it gets shot and thrown around a lot, the light will eventually die.

Spares are good.

While playing around with the top gun and this gun, both have Sionics pencil barrels, the weight of the light on the 15” hand guard out front makes a huge difference. Something else to think about.

Streamlight TLR1-HL 1000 lumen light mounted on the top rail. The flip up front sight clears the light once the red cover is flipped. Of course this is a hog gun and I don’t see the need for flip up sights but they came built into the rail so it matters not.

Why don’t you mount the light below the barrel, it doesn’t make sense to me to put it in your line of vision

It's not in my line of vision, I'm looking over the lights and I shoot with both eyes open. Placing it on the bottom doesn't work well when shooting off a barricade or even a bi-pod. That's why I really prefer 12:00 and the TLR type lights, also my thumb is on top of the rail, not under it and I don't like pressure switches as noted. But years ago that was the only place I could mount a light (6:00) and hunting at night it was always getting banged around on something. Okay when walking out to retrieve a dead coyote that sometimes ain't so dead but when you're up in the killing chair, you forget it's under there and they usually get banged around on the shooting rail.