Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Equipment Review - Surefire Helmet Light


This equipment review promises to provide more information than any other helmet light review on the web.  Really.  When reviewing flashlights, most product testers don't bother to deal with the basics, such as proper flashlight cleaning.  Even if they touch on the subject, they say something ignorant like "wipe with a soft, clean rag".  The Paratus Familia product test team went one step further.  We put the flashlight through its paces and tossed it in the washing machine - with a load of laundry.

Knowing that people would be using their Surefire Helmet light in all types of inclement weather, we allowed the flashlight to remain submerged in the washing machine all the way through the 45 minute heavy duty cycle.  When the spin cycle was completed we retrieved the light, dried it off with a bath towel and flipped the switch.  Eureka!  The light worked.  We were truly impressed!

O.K., so we didn't really mean to toss the flashlight in the washing machine - but sometimes these things just happen.  We truly were impressed that, being submerged for the better part of an hour, the light worked flawlessly.  That makes the Surefire a light worth owning!

The Surefire Helmet Light is just what it's name suggests.  It comes with a bracket that easily attaches to either a PASGT Helmet or a MICH Helmet.  It has 3 regular LED's and 2 blue LED's (specifically for use with Night Vision - the blue light won't disrupt your optically assisted night vision) and also has an infrared pulsing function that can only be seen when using night vision (which helps eliminate "friendly fire").  The Surefire helmet light uses one CR123 battery and has a long run time.

Light attached to the helmet
Light bracket
The light
The switches and battery compartment
Three white LED's
Blue LED's
Infrared
Once the bracket has been attached to your helmet, the light is easily removed for use independent of the helmet.  Master Hand Grenade regularly grabs his light, stuffs it in his pocket and heads out to start the generator in the dark.  However, when it is attached to the helmet, it provides great hands-free illumination.

Surefire helmet lights are rather expensive.  If you are looking for an inexpensive, every day light, this Surefire is not for you.  If, however, you are looking for a light to use when you are in full tactical gear, the Surefire helmet light just may be your answer.

10 comments:

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    1. They were designed for military helmets. Sorry.

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  2. One thing that I know about surefire is that the batteries run out quick.

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    1. That certainly used to be the case, but with the advent of LED's, their run time has increased considerably, making them much more cost effective to operate.

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  3. LOL at your test plan protocol and execution.

    Terry T
    Florida

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  4. "Knowing that people would be using their Surefire Helmet light in all types of inclement weather, we allowed the flashlight to remain submerged in the washing machine all the way through the 45 minute heavy duty cycle. When the spin cycle was completed we retrieved the light, dried it off with a bath towel and flipped the switch. Eureka! The light worked. We were truly impressed!

    O.K., so we didn't really mean to toss the flashlight in the washing machine - but sometimes these things just happen. We truly were impressed that, being submerged for the better part of an hour, the light worked flawlessly. That makes the Surefire a light worth owning"

    That pretty much made my morning. I have one of these. I really like the hands free part and that it is already attached to your dome. Great for little stuff where whipping out a real flashlight isn't quite necessary but you can't find that darn thing you just set down. Also the IR feature is very handy as it beats the heck out of blindly searching with your hands in the dark. As a nitche product do you feel happy with the value of these? I have one (didn't buy it) but really don't use it much except once in a blue moon for the IR. I am unsure how I would feel about it if I had ponied up the cash myself.

    On another note.

    I would be very cautious about keeping the IR flash on during practical use "to prevent friendly fire". From my professional experience it would be a very dangerous assumption to figure that NOBODY ELSE HAS NIGHT VISION. Cave dwelling Taliban sometimes have night vision. I imagine plenty of hunters/ sportsmen/ poachers have it also. You do not need a Gen III monacle that costs as mucch as a decent used car to see IR light. A piece of $300 night vision from sportsmens guide or cheaper than dirt can definitely pick up IR light. If that $300 night vision is attached to a rifle it could definitely provide effective area (minute of man or even SUV depending on the range vs precision)fire. Basically anybody with a $300 scope on top of a $200 sks could ruin your whole day.

    I would restrict the use of active IR to targeting (lasers), and far recognition SOP's or situations where there is not enough ambient light for NVG's to work otherwise.

    Example: Things have gotten really wonky. You hear gunfire coming from nearby at 1AM. Everybody wakes up, kits up and assumes a defensive posture at home. You decide to send a group to conduct a short patrol up around the hill which overlooks where the gunfire came from to see what is ging on. The patrol goes out and does it's thing. The patrol skirts around the hill all tactically to a nice overwatching position and sees the neighbors gutting a deer on the side of the road. Turns out neighbor boy isn't a very good shot at night and got a little over enthusiastic hence the dozen rifle shots in rapid succession. The patrol radios what is going on and heads back home. Before entering the house's field of observation/ fire the patrol radios that they are coming into the south east pasture headed towards the house and uses an agreed upon symbol (say 2 IR flashes answered by 3 IR flashes) then heads in. This should ensure that you do not have the dreaded friendly fire situation without the whole world knowing where you are all the time.

    For friendly identification at night I recommend very tight command and control and simple plans. You can have people strung out all over the place during the day and it works but at night it is how people shoot their own side. Also some form of communication like radios are even more important than usual. Everybody just has to know exactly where everybody else is and where they are going to a much larger degree than during the day.

    Sorry if I jumped onto an Army soap box there. If you have a handle on this stuff feel free to put in into the round file AKA garbage.

    Thank you very much for the enjoyable blog and have a great weekend.

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  5. gearing up just in time for...........THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE????

    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/miami-police-shoot-and-kill-naked-man-eating-face-of-another-man/comment-page-4/#comment-3461473

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  6. With my limited experience with Surefire I've also been quite impressed. I purchased a surefire G2X Pro last November, and at this point I never leave the house (usually not even the bedroom) without it in my pocket. The dual-mode flashlight works at 15 lumens for 'everyday' purposes, and at 200 lumens it lights the far end of our field better than my old maglights ever did, and it's small enough that it's always with me, ready to go. The 5D maglight was nice, but only if I actually had it with me.

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  7. Hi Enola! Greetings from way-up-North-Idaho. I'd like to get my husband a Surefire helmet light for his helmet (which he feels compelled to don when watching end-of-the-world zombie movies). Can you tell me which model it is? There seems to be a few.

    Thanks and God bless,
    a sister in Christ

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    Replies
    1. My guys do the same thing! The Surefire helmet light we have is a model HL 1-A-TN. Hope that helps!

      Enola

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