{"id":4446,"date":"2014-10-06T07:00:15","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=4446"},"modified":"2014-10-06T07:00:15","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T12:00:15","slug":"making-the-tactical-flashlight-practical-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2014\/10\/06\/making-the-tactical-flashlight-practical-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Making the Tactical Flashlight Practical Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"flash1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is amazing to me the speed in which technology moves. And whats more amazing is it is not just the technology that we see and hear about everyday like computers and cell phones, but the technology advancements not readily apparent to most everyday “sheeple” types, like in flashlights. Being kind<\/strong> <\/em>of a tech geek since I was a kid, I have always loved flashlights. As I have aged, that love and fascination has not ended, much to the chagrin of my better half! “Do you really need a drawer full of flashlights!!??”<\/em> she ask me frequently. “But honey, they are soooo<\/em> cool!!”<\/em> I reply with a sheepish grin as I strobe her in the eyes with 200 lumens!<\/p>\n

You know it was not that long ago (10 years or so) that if you wanted a really cool “tactical” flashlight with some serious lumens you were looking at dropping $100 or more easy. And whats worse, you were also looking at \u00a0making a costly future investment with having to continually feed the thing CR-123 Lithium batteries (that are typically made by the same company making your flashlight, imagine that!) for the rest of its life at $2 or so each. And to add insult to injury, these costly batteries would die on you at the worst times! This unfortunately, was the sad predicament of most of us who wanted a really “cool”, “tactical” “powerful” flashlight.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to today, and technology has delivered us out of this quandary by “taking a step back to the past<\/em>” and leaving behind the expensive and unreliable lithium battery and going back to the tried and true alkaline. Now, with the introduction of the CREE LED,<\/a><\/strong> a $50 small handheld flashlight today can produce over 600 lumens, have a strobe and emergency beacon feature, and all of this from the power of 2 AA Batteries! That was unheard of 10 years ago. Another great advancement has been the resurgence and re-invention of affordable Rechargeable Flashlights. During Hurricane Ike, if I had not had the two Streamlight rechargeables with the 12 volt Car Chargers, me and mine would have been “poorly illuminated” to say the least! Electricity was out for 18 days, so juice was at a premium! Like all those little things we take for granted, \u00a0you just don’t know how IMPORTANT <\/strong>something like a flashlight is\u00a0until you need it badly!<\/p>\n

So as responsible CO’s, \u00a0let’s be pro-active in how we approach flashlights from now on. Do like I did, and make it a POINT<\/strong> to have in your inventory several good, reliable and affordable flashlights that ONLY<\/strong><\/em> run off Alkaline batteries (preferably AA or AAA) or can be Recharged from a wall outlet and 12 volt outlet (car cigarette lighter).<\/p>\n

Finding your NEW Practical Flashlight<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Check out my link to County-Comm<\/strong>.<\/a> I cannot plug these guys enough. Besides having really practical, neat EDC and Prepper Gear, they carry an awesome line of Maratac Flashlights.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>I own several of these and all of they\u00a0have ran like a champ with ZERO<\/strong> problems. You also will want to check out Fenix Flashlights.<\/a><\/strong> Fenix was one of the first to use the CREE LED<\/strong> in the U.S. and the quality you get for the price, just like with Maratac, is amazing. Just be sure you look for the models that use AA or AAA batteries. Those pesky CR123 Lithium models are still out there, waiting to take a bite out of your Prepper and Weapon Budgets!!<\/p>\n

As for rechargeables, you are going to have to be prepared to spend a bit more $ on these, but rest assured in that it is a WISE & PRACTICAL<\/strong> investment into you and your family’s well-being and safety. The ones I have had success with so far are again, the Fenix<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0Streamlight<\/a><\/strong> and 5.11<\/strong> <\/a>Lines. Make sure to purchase the 12 volt car charger if one is not included, as I said before, this is a literal lifesaver if you have to go “Off<\/em> the grid” <\/em><\/strong>either voluntarily or involuntarily!!<\/p>\n

In closing, if the last few weeks have taught the CO anything, it is IT PAYS TO BE PREPARED!<\/strong> I bet there were a whole lot of you out there, like me, thanking God above when this Ebola thing hit that you had taken the time and money to invest in some “PREPARATION<\/strong>“; and not only in gear, but also mindset and planning.<\/p>\n

The often overlooked aspect about Preparation is the PEACE OF MIND<\/strong> it gives the CO and his family. And when you make a smart, financially practical preparation decision like the one we just discussed above, your PEACE OF MIND<\/strong>\u00a0and your STATE OF READINESS<\/strong>\u00a0gets bumped up a few notches!<\/p>\n

Stay Alert, Stay Illuminated, Stay Armed and Stay Dangerous!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is amazing to me the speed in which technology moves. And whats more amazing is it is not just the technology that we see and hear about everyday like computers and cell phones, but the technology advancements not readily apparent to most everyday “sheeple” types, like in flashlights. Being kind of a tech geek…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[84,118,65,10],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}