Yes.
I was in the stone age until recently. I still had 2 AA cell incandescent Maglites for around the house, one or two first-generation LEDs which were woefully low lumen but at least had some form of intermittent and click-on the tail cap for a combat two hand wrist cross. I had a non-functioning 2 D cell Maglite that needed to go to the local Ace and see if I could get a conversion LED. Also, I wanted to upgrade the 5 D cell âbatonâ that was the pride of its day and such a waste of electricity to light conversion equipment today.
About five years ago I discovered the First Light Liberator STT. The STT is a 500-lumen rotating lamp assembly that you use on the outside of your off-hand, so you can still use both hands for anything you might need to do. It provides you with a beacon, strobe, a low power walking light, and a document lamp for reading maps and identification documents without glare. This system runs on 2 x CR-123 Li batteries. It is a highly flexible system that allows you to obtain a two-hand compression grip as if you werenât holding a lamp at all.
At this point, with Crimson Trace laser grips and tritium night sights on my weapons, I was pretty happy and stopped looking. I could light in close, at an extended distance from my body, around corners, and illuminate my workspace with ease. The only downfall of this design is something Iâd thought would be good; The STT has a lock switch to prevent inadvertent battery draining. The trouble is the lock function is an active logic circuit. If I engage it for more than a few hours, the battery drains quick time. If I forget and leave it locked overnight, it is guaranteed to drain the batteries dead.
Two years ago, after starting down the path of a timepiece hobby (an obsession for a while to be honest), I discovered a watch/tactical lamp combination called the Surefire 2211 Luminox edition. Three hundred lumens for an hour, 60 for four, and 15 for up to 13 on a rechargeable lithium battery. The torch hangs on the wrist, the combination is light in weight, points where you want it, is easily activated, and to change intensity. The watch is a quartz movement, moderate water resistance, and has tritium ampules to light the watch face and hands in the dark. So far, Iâm not recharging more than once every one or two weeks and usually have not dipped into the reserve warning level, which is presented to you by an orange LED âon activationâ lamp. (Shows green when the battery has sufficient charge.)
This year I decided, based on a new offering from a ânew to meâ Company: âOlight,â that I wanted to try a pistol mounted lamp+green laser combination. Because they were new in the market, the Company was offering excellent sale prices and âspiffsâ at given purchase levels.
Since then, Iâve mounted a Baldr Pro on my P226 and have one of their Warrior X Pro âtacticalâ lamps. Impressive performance, but I havenât tested the mounted Baldr in live-fire yet.