Urban Survival Firearms - Reader Question on Tactical Lights

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received a reader comment on the artivcle pertaining to Lights for other Handguns,...."Anonymous asked,......What about the battery life/supply for these lights? Do you have rechargable 123s or AAs, AAAs, etc hooked up to some type of solar pannel charger?"

UrbanMan replies: Typically, battery life on the tactical lights powered by the DL123 Lithium Batteries, sometimes called Surefire batteries, is about 20 hours of run time. If the flashight is a duel bulb and LED model like the excellent Surefire A2 Aviator, which has three small red LED light and a 60 lumen white light bulb), then when the batteries run down far enough, the white light will not come on but the red LED's still work. I still those bateriesi n a couple of these to use as map, signalling, tracking or navigation lights.

DL123 Batteries are not rechargeable. That's whay I have many more AA and AAA flashlights, than I do have tactical lights, in order to replace my DL123 powered tactical lights when I run out of stocked batteries. I have rechargeable AA and AAA batteries that I can recharge off a 110/115v outlet, 12v vehicle battery or from a Solar Panel. See this post for more on Batterys and Solar Recharging Systems. You are just not going to get the lumens, in a small package, from anything other than the DL123 3v powered flashlights.

Every person needs a red lens low powered light in order to read maps at night, work lock combinations, etc, without destroying their night vision nor giving away their position. I prefer the excellent little Photon red lens Micro Lights with an LED bulb for that. An alternate color would be blue, that works well to. These Micro Lights can be carried anywhere and are amful handy. I think I own about 12 o4 14 of them, one key chains,...in the un-used ashtray of my truck,..tucked inside a belt keeper on my gun belt,...lots of different places. And with 12+ hour battery life, and replaceable batteries, it lasts a long time. Cheap enough to have several for your Survival Bug Out Bags or kit you carry on your body.