I love flashlights, I have a lot of them. Just bought two more headlamps at Costco this weekend (110 lumen with Duracell for only $10!!!). Started thinking though that flashlights during a shtf scenario (financial collapse, earthquake) will only be of limited use. Flashlights attract a lot of attention is my thinking, and attention is probably not a good thing. This is where my mind wondered. What do you guys think?
Are flashlights an overated prep??
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I don't consider flashlights to be over rated, but you need to put them into perspective. Mostly they are just a convenience, but occasionally they are a dire necessity. If you need to treat a casualty in the dark, conduct a navigational map check, or find something critical that you just dropped into the night... a light can be pretty important.
On the other hand, military personnel routinely move through the dark without using lights. Just using their eyes and ears. It's actually very easy to do. Most folks never bother to try. You can walk all night and never need to break out a light. I have done exactly that countless times, across many miles, and while traversing all kinds of terrain. It's even easier if you have a night vision device for occasional scanning, but that mechanical aid is not actually necessary.
You won't see an infantry platoon walking through the woods shining flashlights in the dark. Their eyes are no more magical than yours. You don't "train" your eyes to achieve better night capability. You just practice using the senses you were born with. Most people aren't comfortable in the dark because they have spent most of their life avoiding moving through it. When they did, someone taught them they needed a flashlight. Flashlights have been around for a half a century or so. People somehow managed to get by without them for millennia. Comanche warriors preferred to conduct raids, long distance movements, and mounted warfare at night. They didn't have flashlights.
You were born with natural night vision capability. Not the great capability possessed by an owl or cat... but enough to competently wander across a darkened landscape. You just have to get out and move without a light. After a little bit of practice, you'll wonder why you ever thought you needed a flashlight in the first place. Using your sense of hearing also plays into successfully moving in the dark. You can hear things at distances you cannot see at night.
For low cost, an LED headlamp is probably the most useful light you can carry. Negligible weight, hundreds of hours of use on one set of batteries, and hands free. If I carried only one light source, a headlamp would be it. Whether for hiking the back country or just checking a fuse box in a darkened house. If carrying a second light, it would be a high lumen handheld tactical light... to punch through the dark and identify targets (or pathways) at a distance.
My comments from a previous thread about night time hiking/movement:
http://www.survivalistboards.com/showpost.php?p=5842493&postcount=23
On the other hand, military personnel routinely move through the dark without using lights. Just using their eyes and ears. It's actually very easy to do. Most folks never bother to try. You can walk all night and never need to break out a light. I have done exactly that countless times, across many miles, and while traversing all kinds of terrain. It's even easier if you have a night vision device for occasional scanning, but that mechanical aid is not actually necessary.
You won't see an infantry platoon walking through the woods shining flashlights in the dark. Their eyes are no more magical than yours. You don't "train" your eyes to achieve better night capability. You just practice using the senses you were born with. Most people aren't comfortable in the dark because they have spent most of their life avoiding moving through it. When they did, someone taught them they needed a flashlight. Flashlights have been around for a half a century or so. People somehow managed to get by without them for millennia. Comanche warriors preferred to conduct raids, long distance movements, and mounted warfare at night. They didn't have flashlights.
You were born with natural night vision capability. Not the great capability possessed by an owl or cat... but enough to competently wander across a darkened landscape. You just have to get out and move without a light. After a little bit of practice, you'll wonder why you ever thought you needed a flashlight in the first place. Using your sense of hearing also plays into successfully moving in the dark. You can hear things at distances you cannot see at night.
For low cost, an LED headlamp is probably the most useful light you can carry. Negligible weight, hundreds of hours of use on one set of batteries, and hands free. If I carried only one light source, a headlamp would be it. Whether for hiking the back country or just checking a fuse box in a darkened house. If carrying a second light, it would be a high lumen handheld tactical light... to punch through the dark and identify targets (or pathways) at a distance.
My comments from a previous thread about night time hiking/movement:
http://www.survivalistboards.com/showpost.php?p=5842493&postcount=23
Astronomy - Practical tips for night movement:
1. Be cognizant of your natural night vision (takes about 30 minutes for your eye's rods to generate maximum Visual Purple) and avoid erasing it by exposure to white light. If you just need a utility light to check something (compass, map, pack contents, etc.), try to use a filtered light. Red, green, or blue/green.
2. Protect your eyes. Wear goggles or wrap around glasses. Clear ballistic wear, shop goggles, ski goggles, dust goggles, handball goggles, sky-diving goggles, safety glasses, sport glasses. Try to use something with a head band that won't come off when you walk into a wait-a-minute vine, eye-ball high twig or branch, or even a wire.
3. Wear light gloves for gently moving thorny vines, tree branches, fencing, or other obstacles out of the way. Hold anything springy in place for the person walking behind you until he or she has a chance to grasp it for themselves. Nothing like pushing a dead branch out of the way and then allowing it to whip back into the face of the person behind you. "Buddy-" is only half a word...
4. Move slowly and deliberately, especially in pitch black forest and undergrowth. Feel the next place with your forward foot while keeping weight on your rear foot. You may not see that your next step is off the edge of an erosion gully, arroyo, boulder, or stump hole.
5. I was taught the following by a platoon sergeant who had been a Lettered Ranger Company recon guy in Vietnam. He showed me this technique while we were in the night jungles of Panama... and it works:
a) As you slowly move through a darkened landscape, glance down at the ground immediately in front of your feet.
b) From your boots, scan the ground ahead of you out to about 12 paces with just a glance.
c) Look back up at your direction of travel and continue to move. Your brain will absorb a "snapshot" of the footing and terrain you just scanned. You can then move without looking at the ground...your subconscious/short term memory will guide your feet without you having to look down continuously or think about exactly where to place them.
This technique is important if you have threats to your well being (like the possibility of being ambushed at any second). You need to be able to scan your surroundings without walking with your eyes glued to the ground. Again: Scan the ground from your feet out to 4 yards quickly (just a second or two)...and then get your eyes back up into the threat zone... and trust your feet.
6. When moving through thick stuff at night, bend low or squat briefly to look under vegetation. You'll often find clear tunnels of visibility and even horizon back lighting of breaks through the foliage. The same process that allows you to see objects or people silhouetted against a hilltop or horizon at night, will allow you to see under the vegetation as you get your eyes closer to the visual horizon.
7. Trip Wires (and wire fences) in the dark: Grab yourself a long (3-4 ft) strand of light, thin, and very flexible weed stalk, green branch tip, or tall grass stem, etc. and use it to sweep your path in a vertical motion. Hold it pointed in front of you like a dowsing rod and make gentle passes from ground level to just above head high. If there is a wire, the stalk will bend against it (without disturbing it) and you'll feel the resistance. You can do the same thing while wearing Night Vision Devices (which are notorious for failing to pick up tripwires or game fences).
8. If you believe there is a possibility of someone having emplaced IR security devices or beams in your path (across trails, gates, bridges, fence lines, or unattended structures) , any cheap Level 1 night vision monocular will detect beams or emitters.
9. If you have a Tritium compass like the OP (you do... don't you?), it can be used as a night signalling device. Especially good when you travel in a party and the first guy is picking a path through some particularly thick and dark obstacle. As he moves a few meters ahead and finds a way through, he can use the compass to signal everyone else forward...instead of everyone bunching up close behind him then getting stuck in the crap together.
The face of the compass can be moved vertically (up and down like a head nod) to indicate "Safe", "Clear", "Begin to Move", or "OK"... or horizontally (side to side like a head shake) to indicate "Danger", "Not Clear", "Halt", or "Not OK". Moving the glowing face of the compass in a circular motion could mean "Move to Me" or "I Found a Good Bivouac/Rest Halt Location Right Here". Same signals using any small flashlight, LED keychain light, etc.
10. Nicotine degrades your night vision. Just something to be aware of. Vitamin A deficiency also weakens your night vision.
11. Campfires absolutely kill your night vision. If you wander away from a fire into the dark, go slow and use a headlamp...or wait several minutes (5-10) facing away from the fire for your night vision to regenerate to minimally useful levels. If you are moving past or approaching folks gathered around a camp fire...they can't see you out there in the dark. Not until you get close enough to reflect light from the flames. They can see everything around the fire. They can make out almost nothing beyond the radius of the fire's light.
12. In a military or SHTF context...If you are suddenly illuminated by an aerial flare (pop-up or parachute flare up in the sky)...freeze. Someone is scanning the illuminated area from a distance and looking for movement. Any movement. If you suddenly get illuminated by a ground flare (the kind attached to the trip wire you just hit)...get out of the light and dive for cover. Ground flares are covered by fire and someone is about to fill that spot with bullets or grenades.
If you see headlights coming at you as you cross a road and you are just on the edge of the treeline, roadside brush, or ditch, move to closest cover or concealment if you have a few seconds. Other wise, slowly crouch down and freeze. Driver's eyes are focused on the cone of their headlight beams. They will usually miss you, even if you are exposed in the open, as long as you freeze. Close one or both of your eyes as the headlight beams come into your field of view. Don't stare at the lights...saving your night vision and avoiding reflection from your eyes. Human eyes don't have a reflective layer (like a cat or an owl), but they will still shine.
13. If you hear a droning propeller driven aircraft in the night sky and happen to look for it with that $100 Night Vision scope from Walmart...and see a giant spotlight beam of light coming down from the sky...and then don't see it with the naked eye...there is a gunship overhead sweeping for targets with an IR illuminator. If you are in the circle of IR light...you are about to be dead.
14. Your natural night vision is generated by chemical receptors that ring the back of your eye. You have a night vision blind spot in the center of your vision (which is where your daylight/color receptors are concentrated). If you stare into the darkness at a particular point, after a few seconds, you will start to see a dark blob in the center of your field of view. Knowing this, you can better "see" things in the dark by offsetting your vision. Don't stare directly at an object...place it within your peripheral vision instead. Look at it out of the "side" of your eye. You'll be amazed at the improvement.
15. Wide field of view binoculars work almost as well at night as they do in the day. They have the ability to gather available light and transmit it to your eyes in a manner that far surpasses your natural night vision. Carry a set of pocket binocs (or a monocular) if you anticipate needing to see things in the night.
16. A lit cigarette coal can be seen for several hundred yards at night. Through a night vision optic, it will look like a road flare or exposed flashlight (even when cupped in your hand). Something to think about if you are ever pulling a sentry shift. Do I need to mention lighters, flashlights, illuminated watch faces, & cell phone screens?
17. At night, ice fog, heavy rain, or heavy snowstorms defeat many thermal observation devices. Good time to move unobserved.
18. At night, distant lights appear closer than they actually are. Especially out in the desert or mountains. That lit radio tower on the horizon may be many miles farther away than you think. Check your map.
19. Use the offset method of utilizing peripheral vision while walking (even down open trails). You'll be able to see your best path ahead of you and avoid rocks, ruts, or areas that aren't clear.
20. If you see reflected eyes low to the ground, it's usually small critters (cats, coyotes, raccoons, wild pigs etc.). If up in the trees, it's usually an owl...or monkeys. If head high it's often deer. Sometimes a black bear standing up to get a look at you and sniff the air. If the eyes are above head high and circle around you without lowering occasionally...it's Sasquatch.
Hope some of the above helps someone...
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Yeah it's called using one of these:
Yup, hurricanes kill the power...always.
If I wake up at 3am and need to pee...I need a flashlight otherwise I will find every wall and obstacle in the way of the bathroom...and using "sonar" to find the toilet is usually not appreciated by anybody that wants to use the toilet without urine being everywhere.
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It's one of those "iffy" things to be honest. In some situations, sure, flashlights can be more trouble than they're worth. In other situations, they're worth their weight in gold. It really just depends on the situation that you're in because as it has also been said, not every SHTF event involves "zombies."
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3,241 Posts
Plenty of instances of SHTF when a light will be a benefit. Power outage, extreme weather, earthquake, etc.
At night, in the woods, in combat? Probably not. Just figure the odds of each scenario happening.
At night, in the woods, in combat? Probably not. Just figure the odds of each scenario happening.
So, according to my neighbour...
There was an old man in Oklahoma who didn't believe in lanterns or flashlights as he made his last round of the outhouse at night.
So my old neighbour and his friends pulled a Halloween prank and moved the outhouse back about 5 feet.
The old man disappeared with a yelp and my old neighbor and his buddies disappeared with much laughter.
The old man was pulled from the mire the next day - a flashlight might have helped the night before.
:whip:
There was an old man in Oklahoma who didn't believe in lanterns or flashlights as he made his last round of the outhouse at night.
So my old neighbour and his friends pulled a Halloween prank and moved the outhouse back about 5 feet.
The old man disappeared with a yelp and my old neighbor and his buddies disappeared with much laughter.
The old man was pulled from the mire the next day - a flashlight might have helped the night before.
:whip:
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Are they overrated? Not at all. Sure, in some SHTF scenarios they are going to be trouble if used too much or used wrong. So is any piece of gear.
In most events and scenarios though, I think flashlights and such will be a boon.
Now, if you want to know how I feel about the people who believe the only one worth having is the latest super high cost tricked out tactical model, well then I would ahve to say many of those ones ARE over rated.
You need one that is efficient, gets the job done, and is durable. You don't need to spend $200 and up on a single light to get those three things.
In most events and scenarios though, I think flashlights and such will be a boon.
Now, if you want to know how I feel about the people who believe the only one worth having is the latest super high cost tricked out tactical model, well then I would ahve to say many of those ones ARE over rated.
You need one that is efficient, gets the job done, and is durable. You don't need to spend $200 and up on a single light to get those three things.
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Absolutely not.
I use flashlights on a daily basis and during the day!
When you go from outside into a building with no lighting at all there are many places that are pitch black even in the day!
You don't need super lights but you need enough! I have found 100-200 lumens enough! and anything over 300 lumen is too much!
I spend a lot of time in dark little dungeons in the bowels of all types of buildings, the two things I use most are my torch and about a dozen little rubber door stoppers so doors don't auto close on me!
When you go from outside into a building with no lighting at all there are many places that are pitch black even in the day!
You don't need super lights but you need enough! I have found 100-200 lumens enough! and anything over 300 lumen is too much!
I spend a lot of time in dark little dungeons in the bowels of all types of buildings, the two things I use most are my torch and about a dozen little rubber door stoppers so doors don't auto close on me!
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LOL, you beat me to it, almost exactly what I was about to say:thumb:.
I personally put flashlights way, WAY up in the prep list, somewhere just below water filters.
The argument I read against them wasn't even close to rational ( you don't have to run around the yard waving your flashlight for all to see, it's very easy to cup your hand around the head of the light, allowing only a small beam to get thorugh, and as Mike said, black-out the windows.)
Stephpd made an excellent point: "Not all SHTF scenarios are where you have to worry about raiders. Just loosing power temporarily is a good example."
The odds of any of us ever being taken out by a sniper because of our flshlight is virtually zero, but power-outages are something we've all ALREADY seen many of, and we know for a fact, we'll all see more.
You can have my Surefires when you can pry my cold dead fingers off them !!!!
:
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I actually lol at this! :thumb:You can have my Surefires when you can pry my cold dead fingers off them !!!!
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I would say that they are only overrated when it comes to people buying TONS of them. I am a firm believer in QUALITY over QUANTITY. I think that a couple of maglites for the house, a quality surefire/fenix/streamlight tactical for EDC, a mini-mag and headlamp for the BOB are more than efficient. Spend the extra money on spare batteries. Again, if you have to roll out, your gonna want a couple REALLY nice flashlights than a trunk full of crap for both the weight reason and the rough use factor.
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Flash lights are definitely NOT overrated, but they are over used.
As Astronomy posted, you have a built in night vision, and while you don't need to train your eyes to become night proficient, you do have to train yourself to be proficient in the night.
IMO, #5 on his list is the most important. The strength of your peripheral vision paired your unconscious mind is often overlooked. You can navigate MOST terrain in even bleak circumstances with your naked eye.
However, some of the times when you really want to see, you don't want to use a flashlight to do it. In hostile environments, nothing says, "Here I am" like a bright beam of light. Simply look for the end not moving around much and shoot at it.
That being said, there are about a million other reasons to have flashlights, and that's why I would never suggest against carrying multiple.
Depending on how you use them, flashlights can be the difference between life and death :thumb:
As Astronomy posted, you have a built in night vision, and while you don't need to train your eyes to become night proficient, you do have to train yourself to be proficient in the night.
IMO, #5 on his list is the most important. The strength of your peripheral vision paired your unconscious mind is often overlooked. You can navigate MOST terrain in even bleak circumstances with your naked eye.
However, some of the times when you really want to see, you don't want to use a flashlight to do it. In hostile environments, nothing says, "Here I am" like a bright beam of light. Simply look for the end not moving around much and shoot at it.
That being said, there are about a million other reasons to have flashlights, and that's why I would never suggest against carrying multiple.
Depending on how you use them, flashlights can be the difference between life and death :thumb:
This is about the most sensible post in this thread, along with astronomys excellent post of cause about night vision.
Flashlights are a game changer but over reliance on them can be very dangerous. I live out in the country and frequently need to walk around in the dark and nearly always carry a flashlight but I rarely turn it on. The nights were you cant see at all are very few.
A couple of tricks to try. before going out in the dark, shut one eye for a couple of mins, you will be amazed how much better you can see when you open both eyes once out in the dark. If you need to use a flashlight for a brief time out in the dark, once again shut one eye to preserve the night vision in that eye
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Sure, anything can be considered overrated if someone overemphasizes something. So long as you don't blow all of your money on flashlights, I think that they're an important part of anyone's prep.
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Yeah I have heard bike riding in the dark no torch.What??
By the way
During a cyclone there is a lot of cloud cover. A blackout is seriously dark.
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21,491 Posts
Imagine having to tarp a roof or something.Yeah it's called using one of these:
![Image]()
Yup, hurricanes kill the power...always.
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2,113 Posts
Mine says the same thing. Even when I bought HER a very nice new tough Streamlight LED light for her car.
I've probably got 15 - 20 of them in total; some for extreme things like my Surefire, which comes with me on rescue squad duty or other stuff. Then the LEDs for long life and average light. Of course, the headlamp is useful on occasion. Then there's the emergency lanterns, (both LED and propane; which is maybe not quite a flashlight). Etc. Etc. And of course the solar crank Freeplay and Eton.
Yeah, I have a problem. But I'm still not as bad as most of the folks at http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forum.php
Though ok, yeah, I've got a login there, but it's been years. And besides, I can stop buying flashlights anytime I want.
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