Adventioneering

Why do we win wars? We have the best flashlights. My first SureFire was a A2 which was basically an incan with a 3 LED red backup. It was great; the incan had great throw and you could use the LEDs for reading, maps, protective illumination (handy around burning man so you’re not a darkwad, I’d just wander the playa with it hanging around my neck). The problem with my A2 was simple: I lost it.

A period of mourning later and some serious research, I ended up buying a C2L. I promptly replaced the engine with a Cree XP-G drop-in from ThruNite producing something under 300 lumens, thereby creating a Fenix flashlight for three times the price. I chose the C2 over the M line because the shock isolation bezel causes some heat dissipation problems for the brighter drop-ins, and the C2 gets you into a smaller head more suited for heat transfer. And it does get hot.

The real benefit to running SureFire over a Fenix or a lot of the competitors is the P60 drop-in engines are so common, that you are basically future proofed. New LED coming out tomorrow from cree? No problem, you’ll probably be able to pickup a drop-in for thirty bucks. Additionally, the SureFire flashlights (if you are careful) are completely modular.

None of this helps my weapon situation though, and I was lucky to find a great deal on a used surplus M951 system. This provided the millenium series shock bezel, a picatinny barrel, and the clicky tail w/ remote as well as the IR filter, very handy for… I don’t know what. Now I need nightvision goggles.

In the above kit I now have an incan P60 (useful for throwing IR-only w/ the pictured filter), a P60L medium intensity LED, and the high-intensity Cree. I’m shopping for a ridiculous trophy drop-in (>1000 lumens) and meanwhile everything you see in the picture is interchangeable. Thinking about going with some of the higher-cap rechargable (2700mah ea) cells, and there are a few people making barrels that fit that, or else I can get these bored out.

In terms of the ThruNite this dropin has a great, affordable, clean throw, is super bright, but be aware it’s a bit bigger than the standard P60 engine that SureFire produces. It fits fine in the C2 head (although it doesn’t screw down 100% of the way, but this has no impact on waterproofness or anything else), and it’s tight bordering on not working on the M951 barrel adapter. Your mileage may vary!