Light, Laser or Combo for EDC?

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  • obijohn

    Master
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    Mar 24, 2008
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    Terre Haute
    My main gripe with lasers that are near the muzzle is that the lens will get dirty pretty quick. In our low light class, we've witnesses that type of laser stop projecting after shooting for awhile. Just something to be aware of.
     

    VERT

    Grandmaster
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    Jan 4, 2009
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    Seymour
    For a dedicated Home Defense gun I see little disadvantage. For a gun that I am going to carry around all the time I would personally not like the extra bulk of a light and laser. That is really up to the individual to decide. For me it is just the gun, spare magazine and handheld light.
     

    Bigtanker

    Cuddles
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    Aug 21, 2012
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    Osceola
    Maybe the new Shield 2.0 with the built in Crimson Trace laser. Adds very little bulk.

    With and without the laser.
    MP-2.0-feature-670x446.jpg
     

    hpclayto

    Expert
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    22   0   1
    Nov 8, 2008
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    Lasers are dumb, lights are not. The TLR 6 is tiny and easy to carry. A TLR 4 on a big gun is a different story.
     

    obijohn

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    Mar 24, 2008
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    Terre Haute
    The laser can certainly be your ally in low light conditions. Even more so as your eyesight degenerates with age. The technology is mature enough, try one if you have the resources. I understand traveling "light", no pun intended, but if the technology makes you more effective, go for it. Light, laser, red dot, if you can carry it with acceptable discomfort, carry it.
     

    Vigilant

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    Jul 12, 2008
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    Plainfield
    If you use the firearm's light to search, you could be breaking one of the firearms handling safety rules.
    If I’m searching my house, I won’t be violating any of the three, four, or twenty rules, with a WML, if it goes bump in the night, it ain’t supposed to be there.
     

    cedartop

    Grandmaster
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    Apr 25, 2010
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    North of Notre Dame.
    I'm thinking of getting a TLR-6 for my XDs and a TLR-4 for my XDm 4.5. Any draw backs to light/laser combos?

    Of course there are drawbacks. Do the benefits outweigh them is the question. I think that answer is different for different people. One of the big considerations is training and practice. Like most things people don't give a whole lot of thought to that. You often hear that one reason for not adding a WML to your EDC is that you don't want to point your gun at anything you don't want to shoot. Very true. There are ways to search with a WML without covering things you don't want to, but they must be learned and practiced. Most won't bother. Is threat ID important, it is, but that is what your handheld light is for in most cases. Why would you have your gun out and pointing at someone if you haven't already identified them as someone who needed a gun pointed at them. There are exceptions to this of course, LE and .mil or in your home, but as a general rule, we avoid pointing our gun at someone to ID them.

    Other drawbacks. As mentioned by Nate, bulk is definitely one. Batteries, new holsters, crud accumulation are a few more. A real biggie here is type of activation. That of course again comes down to practice and training.

    After reading a study Karl Rehn put out about using a RDS on a pistol, but concluding that a laser was more valuable I decided to try one out. Again, good points and bad. Among the good are low light and compromised position shooting. Drawbacks to the laser that I have found are similar to those of a WML. One I have found is the activation method. I chose grip activation. I think this is the best method overall but in my application on my G43 it poses a pretty big problem. It adds size under the trigger guard. On a gun where grip is already compromised the last thing you want is even less grip on your gun and effectively a higher bore axis. Another problem I have found is I have to remove the unit to change the batteries (which the green laser eats pretty fast), this of course means rezeroing the unit. Which leads to another issue, distance under bore. There can be quite an amount of offset present with your laser. In most cases it goes the opposite way of what you are used to if you often shoot an AR15 platform mechanical offset of your sighting system). You have to figure out where to zero your unit for and then accept the fact that you could have significant POA/POI issues.

    These are a few things to consider.
     

    genXer

    Plinker
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    4   0   0
    Mar 1, 2010
    95
    6
    I have a TLR6 on my EDC Shield, honestly it there was no real noticable difference in weight or feel while carrying it. Mainly I just bought it for the light, not really a laser fan and actually have the laser turned off so only the light comes on. For the year that I've had it I've never had any problems or issues with it.

    FOAalrQ.jpg
     
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