Video Transcript
Product Overview (00:00):
What I've got here is one of the best (if not the best) budget rifle lights on the market. This is the Protac HL-X. Now there's a few different versions of this particular light, but this is the one that's 1000 Lumens, 27,000 Candela. This is also—a lot of folks don't realize this—This is technically a dual fuel light. It will take an 18650 as well as CR123s which are included in this. Streamlight does have a 18650 rechargeable battery that you can purchase and obviously there's lots of other ones out there. Potentially use at your own risk of course, because the last thing we wanna do is put an IED on our rifle. So let's go ahead and talk about this, mounting this to two different rifles and the accessories that come with it, but this does arrive as a full kit. There's a lot of nice accessories inside of here. So let's go ahead and open this up.
Unboxing and Contents (00:48):
So we have our frustration free packaging (not really). So we've got the light and then as you'll see here, there's a lot of miscellaneous… We're just gonna separate it all. Instructions, nobody ever reads those. We have all the accessories right here. You get a couple of zip ties for attaching the included pressure pad to whatever weapon you are using. And there's also these two little nifty—they're kind of nifty, still kind of have to use the zip ties—little rail retainers that actually are going to hold your pressure switch in place on a rail either on the side or the top rail into standard Picatinny. But you generally have to use the zip ties anyway to keep everything nice and you know, actually retained to the rifle. So they're kind of… Kind of a moot point. There's two smaller zip ties as well, if that's something you might need to use. And then there is some adhesive tape, if you actually want to adhesively attach this to your rifle, to your rail section or to, you know however you're needing to mount this. And as you'll see the pressure switch itself is going to replace the push rear cap. You have a standard push rear cap right here and that's going to replace and then the pressure switch itself has momentary function on the top and then constant button similar to the SureFire SRO-7 but that's basically what you have right here.
Battery Installation (02:23):
Installing the batteries is super straightforward. Just gonna take the rear cap and this is great, cause we're gonna add the other one anyway. Rear cap comes off. Both CR-123s that are included… It should… It should be indicated on here which direction (it's not). We're going to assume it's a male end first. And now we're gonna take our pressure switch rear cap, this one right here. Because that's what we're gonna use on this particular rifle. Thread that back on. I was right. And there we go.
Mounting Options (02:57):
We have a nice little package ready for… It's going to attach obviously with Picatinny ready to go. It is important to note though that while this does come with a standard 1913 Picatinny mount with thumb screw, which is a great mounting solution. It's very, very standard out there. Worked on a lot of guns. This does take scout mounts. The scout pattern with the two little screw ports here on the bottom. They're drilled and tapped into the light itself. So they have built that out. So you could take your Arisakas or even a Lightbar, some of the other mounts on the market. Especially if you wanna direct M-LOK this light, you know, to your M-LOK rail, that is something you can do. And that's something that I really appreciate that Streamlight went ahead and did.
Mounting Options - Continued (03:39):
So as far as mounting this to the quad rail, super simple, it's just a standard Picatinny section. Got my Daniel Defense quad rail right here. Let's assume I just wanna mount it on the left side, tighten that down. I can hand tight… I can take a Flathead screwdriver in there and really make sure it's it's on firmly. And then I can mount my pressure, switch to the top. I could even do it potentially in the indent of the rail. And I've got one already set up right here, this one with a Lightbar. So we went ahead and replaced the standard Picatinny mount on the HL-X, attached it to a Lightbar. You could see right here, it mates up to the scout pattern. So I can push the slide even further if I need to, or if I'm running a suppressor on, you know, a different type of weapon. And then I have the pressure pad attached with the two little Picatinny sections that are included, which don't hold the pressure pad very tightly. So they have the zip ties on top anyway as well. And this keeps it. It's not gonna go anywhere that's for sure.
Strobe Options (04:42):
And so to activate the light, it's just gonna be a really simple thumb is going to activate momentary or I can tap once for constant and go hands free. If I needed to. It is also important to note that this has the strobe enabled by default out of the package using the Streamlight ten-tap procedure. You can disable the strobe feature, which I highly recommend, especially if you're using your light momentarily primarily. So we've got strobe enabled right now. We're gonna go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, hold down. And strobe is now disabled. So even if I tap on this, just going momentary, turning it on and off very quickly, my strobe is not going to turn on. I am now in full control of the light, and that is something that is very important. I can still have constant if I need to, but I'm set.
Conclusion (05:33):
If you're not real interested in using all of the stuff that comes with the pressure switch itself, and you want something a little more straightforward, a little more possibly durable as well. We do have the cloud defensive polymer rail section holder thingy. I'm sure it has a name that is escaping my mind right now, but basically the pressure switch is going to slot directly into that. It's a nice tight fit, so it's not gonna go anywhere. And then you're just going to use a torx key to loosen the two screws right here. And then that's just gonna bolt on the top of the rail. So you don't have to worry about zip ties. You don't have to worry about electrical tape. You don't have to worry about the stuff that Streamlight includes, which is, eh, these aren't great. They work. They're not great. So now I can kind of have you know, something a little more durable a little more straightforward. And this is a really solid setup right here. If you have any other questions about this particular light or any of the other lights that we offer, go ahead and shoot us an email [email protected].