Quote Originally Posted by Shao View Post
Yep... Lumen ratings are a selling point. The extra light is nice but in a lot of cases, I'd rather have longer run-time. Who wants to be changing batteries all the time? You hit the nail on the head, brother - the 200 lumen Surefire head on my 870 is plenty enough, maybe overkill in many situations. It all depends on the beam profile though. Flood is great for illuminating a large area and would be better served within a squad - a more focused beam can be better for an individual shooter - allowing a point of reference of aim even - and often allowing greater useful distance.

Everyone is talking about mounting their lights at 12 o'clock - well I don't believe that these new ULTRA output CREE XM-L units will work as well in that mounting position - the spill back could blind the shooter as well as the perp/opponent. My two cents.
whatever "spill-back" you get isn't going to be 1/10th as worrisome as being IN FRONT of that light...