Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Surefire X300 LED Tactical Weapon Light Review and Test

Surefire X300 LED Tactical Weapon Light Review and Test

There are the inexpensive weapon lights and flashlights that happen to have a picatinny rail adapter and there is the X300 LED Surefire weapon light.  I have tested more than a few weapon lights and in my opinion the X300 is the billet aluminum pinnacle of weapon attached lighting.  
FINISH, FIT, FEEL, FEATURES, & FUNCTIONING


FINISH, FIT, & FEEL
Like all Surefire products the fit and finish is perfect with a durable hard anodized finish on the billet aluminum body.  The polymer parts are all fit tightly and appear to be built and designed to take a beating.  The unit is a light 3.8oz with batteries and adds very little weight to a rifle, handgun, or shotgun it can be attached to and of course a ton of utility.  The design itself is low profile and smooth with rounded edges to prevent snagging.
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The rail tensioning is adjustable and if you have all the rail retention screws really snugged down, attachment requires lots of grunting, some swearing, and beads of sweat to “slip it on”. The Surefire X300 was so tight that the integrated rail lock really is it not needed however the rails can be loosened via the rail retention screws to customize fit as I did.  The idea is to loosen the screws enough to slip it on and off the weapon as needed, but tight enough to prevent wiggling around.  The upside of course is that once it is mounted it is not going anywhere regardless of handgun, shotgun or AR recoil.


FEATURES
The SureFire X300 LED weapon light features a high-efficiency LED that generates 170 lumens of brilliant white light for a 2.4 hour run-time on two supplied standard 123A Lithium batteries. The beam is typical Surefire beam style with a tight focused beam for rifle length engagements gradually flooding to the lighting edge for peripheral room-to-room ambient lighting. Unless you have been a cave dweller, you should know by now that LED lights, such as the one on this Surefire X300, are the most durable, recoil-proof, and highest output option with no filament to burn out or break. The Surefire X300 is sealed with a O-ring and gasket and is water resistant to 22 meters though I only did a dunk and 1 hour soak test and saw no breaches of the seals. 

FUNCTIONING
Attaching the Surefire X300 to any standard 1913 picatinny or universal pistol rail is straight forward with the supplied adapters but as noted above may require a little tuning with the retaining screws. Moving the X300 weapon light from a Glock to a rifle will require swapping the adapters which as expected is a 5 minute job and not a instant swap to the other adapter. The switch provides both momentary and constant on with a simple finger touch to the end of the cap or flip of the ambidextrous switch.  Optional pistol grip and other switches from Surefire provide a variety of remote operation for shotguns, handguns, and rifles.
Everyone seems to like their lights mounted in different places however I typically mount mine on the forend strong side so as I grip the forend with my left hand I can toggle and control the light without having to change my typical grip.  The Surefire X300 was completely un-obtrusive and ergonomically easy to operate.

FINAL THOUGHTS
The Surefire X300 is a durable, small, and lightweight high output LED weapon light that delivers a class leading 170 lumens.  The X300 is designed to survive the rigors of military and law enforcement and is compatible with nearly every rail equipped shotgun, handgun, and rifle.  There are less expensive weapons lights however they will be less durable and less powerful and most likely a bit bigger as well.  The Surefire X300 LED Tactical Weapon Light is a value for the performance, design, and compatibility to move from weapon to weapon as the need arises.

SUREFIRE X300 TACTICAL WEAPON LIGHT SPECS

Max Output170.0lumens
Tactical Runtime*2.4hours
Length3.6inches
Width1.4inches
Bezel Diameter1.0inches
Weight w/Batteries3.8ounces
Batteries2123A
MSRP$275


SOURCES

Shop the complete selection of Surefire Lights at Brownells.com 

Surefire
http://www.surefire.com
http://www.surefire.com/X300-LED-WeaponLight

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