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Hi there,
so, to cut a long story short, I need a flashlight, a powerful one, able to withstand shocks, waterproof and which can last for a long time with a single load. and also capable of red light.
But I know nothing in flashlight, and there are tons of them !!!

What do you use ? Particularly those of you who are in the military or the Police ?

Over here police have always used maglite, sturdy, last for ever, can be used as a hammer or club if desperate.
No idea if they do a red one but you can probably get a filter. The red is to maintain night vision?

You probably need to play with a few and decide just how powerful you need it to be, that'll narrow the field a bit so you can get comparisons within the scope of what you actually need.

I have a few and I like my maglites the best, but they're all in the 150-200-ish lumen and 100-150m beam distance range. I consider that reasonably powerful, but it depends on your usage, I'm sure some people would consider them piddly.

police around here usually carry a big mag lite...myself personally for hand free us I like a head lamp. One push of the button and turns to red. Great for hunting and fishing when you want your hands free. When I was in the military we used night vision so flashlights were a no go.

Mag lite are pretty solid.

I have a small one and if anything like big ones there solid things indeed.

As a dedicated backpacker, I say the big D-cell Maglite with the heavy milled aluminum case is the best one. Sure it's heavy as hell, but it doubles as a hammer, stake-puller, bludgeon, lantern in combination with a water-bottle, and if all that hasn't pierced the waterproof shell, it makes a fine replacement high-beam on a car too.

It's all-in-all a great flashlight too.

I'm particular to LedLenser products myself, but that could be an effect of MagLite being somewhat slow to take up the new technology. It took years before I saw any Maglite products with LEDs and by then I'd given up on them.

Back in the days on my security job there was a choice of using the company-provided MagLite (heavy, unwieldy and weak) or the little LED flashligt (light, handy, powerful) my boss gave me as a gift. So something heavy that needs a stupid belt loop or something light that fits in a pocket and still gives more light? You can guess what I prefer to lug around on a 12-hour nightshift.

If you know nothing about flashlights you really should try to find a store that lets you handle a few to get an idea about how easy they're to use AND carry. A big tough light is useless if you can't be bothered to take it along.

If you can get it and afford it. Surefire. 3 deployments, and lots of use at home. Bright, Sturdy, comes in many variations to meet your needs. Only draw back is the special batteries. I would stock up in advance.

I totally misread that title and had to do a double take.

 Easy E wrote:
I totally misread that title and had to do a double take.

I saw an "e" as well, but it was early in the threads life, and didn't want to take it to a dark place right away.

 Chiashi_Zane wrote:
As a dedicated backpacker, I say the big D-cell Maglite with the heavy milled aluminum case is the best one. Sure it's heavy as hell, but it doubles as a hammer, stake-puller, bludgeon, lantern in combination with a water-bottle, and if all that hasn't pierced the waterproof shell, it makes a fine replacement high-beam on a car too.

It's all-in-all a great flashlight too.

The heavy D cell is regarded as a effective improved melee weapon..
If it's solid as small ones....

 Chiashi_Zane wrote:
As a dedicated backpacker, I say the big D-cell Maglite with the heavy milled aluminum case is the best one. Sure it's heavy as hell, but it doubles as a hammer, stake-puller, bludgeon, lantern in combination with a water-bottle, and if all that hasn't pierced the waterproof shell, it makes a fine replacement high-beam on a car too.

It's all-in-all a great flashlight too.

I'm... I'm not an ultralight backpacker, but holy crap that's a lot of weight to drag around on a hike.

I use a lightweight LED flashlight I got for about 5 bucks. It's got a sturdy aluminum casing, uses two AAA batteries, and weighs about 4 oz. I have a D cell maglite too, but it stays in the car.

 daedalus wrote:

 Chiashi_Zane wrote:
As a dedicated backpacker, I say the big D-cell Maglite with the heavy milled aluminum case is the best one. Sure it's heavy as hell, but it doubles as a hammer, stake-puller, bludgeon, lantern in combination with a water-bottle, and if all that hasn't pierced the waterproof shell, it makes a fine replacement high-beam on a car too.

It's all-in-all a great flashlight too.

I'm... I'm not an ultralight backpacker, but holy crap that's a lot of weight to drag around on a hike.

I use a lightweight LED flashlight I got for about 5 bucks. It's got a sturdy aluminum casing, uses two AAA batteries, and weighs about 4 oz. I have a D cell maglite too, but it stays in the car.

Me neither and for me way too much. Albeit I'm not fittest guy around on a block but for 30km per day for few weeks in a row I want to lighten up my previous load. Albeit I don't really need flashlight all that much. I have light headlamp plus my usb charger doubles up which should be okay. If I'm still out there by 5pm something has gone wrong and I still have 2 hours or so leeway before it comes dark.