People seem to be laboring under many incorrect ideas in this thread, but I'll address a couple:
Folks, the idea that the use of a white light makes you a "target" is dramatically overblown in many of these discussions. There are guys out there who were infantry umpteen years ago and they learned that in night ops you don't really want to have unnecessary light or sound because it makes you a target.
What's true for an infantry platoon on patrol in a jungle somewhere is not true when you're considering doing room clearing as an individual or as a member of a team in an urban environment.
White light does give away your position and does draw attention...but the fact remains that before you pull the trigger on something you need to be able to clearly identify a threat. Unless you are part owl or are wearing NODs at the time, that means you need a white light.
Period. Used with sense you can minimize the white light's function as a bullet magnet just in case you're in one of those rare situations where you're facing a bad guy on the street who just opens up on a light. Everybody who is killing bad guys in Iraq and Afghanistan (and in Pakistan) is doing so with a light mounted to their rifle, and usually with a light mounted to their handgun. Clue.
Now as for the idea that the white light is an aiming point for bad guys...it's not. Really. Bad guys are not going to be shooting with pinpoint precision at a white light in 99.99% of circumstances. They are going to be shooting in the general direction of the light. This means that having it mounted to the weapon isn't really any more dangerous than having it in the FBI position. If the bad guy is inclined to shoot at you when you engage the light, he's likely going to pump a lot of rounds in the general area of where the light is.
Originally Posted By jda182:
Does anyone think it is a significant advantage to have a light/laser combo on a weapon (like a TLR-2) for a HD/night stand gun over just a light? not necessarily for aiming purposes of the laser but for the possibility of it being a deterrent, the scare factor of the bad guy seeing the laser on his chest.
Weapon mounted lights are certainly very useful. Lasers are also extremely useful. Unfortunately combining the two into one unit does not typically result in a "Hey, you got chocolate in my peanut butter!" moments. Every combo unit I've tried sucks because the controls suck. You can set it to have the light only, or the laser only, or to do both...and generally this is a switch somewhere on the unit that has to be set and then the main on/off control for the unit does whatever that selector tells it. The problem with that is in a dynamic situation where you're dealing with different lighting conditions you may want just the laser or just the light or potentially both...but there's little chance you're going to be able to fiddle with that switch and get it right in the dark under stress. A separate activation for the light and the laser would cure some of that, but nobody makes such a control yet.
As for the TLR-2 specifically, the units I've tried have a serious problem with washout when the light and laser are used together. I have a hard time seeing the laser dot as it tends to get lost in the hotspot of the light. It's been a while since I used a TLR-2 so they may have improved the strength of the laser, but I bought one and tried it out for a couple of days and then sent it right back for a refund because I found it to be utterly useless. I was stuck relying on the sights because I couldn't reliably see the laser when the light was engaged along with the laser.
Combo units are a good idea in theory, but until they can work out the controls I have no use for them. I greatly prefer something like a CT laser on a handgun with an X300 mounted.
I'm in the process of buying a light for my nightstand gun, i have night sites and a stand alone sure fire, but want to have a light on the gun so i can quickly grab one thing and have both gun and light, just curious if ppl think it is worth it to spend more money to get say the TLR-2 over the TLR-1