{"id":3877,"date":"2014-09-11T12:08:13","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T17:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/?p=3877"},"modified":"2014-09-11T12:08:13","modified_gmt":"2014-09-11T17:08:13","slug":"review-keltec-cl43-flashlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/?p=3877","title":{"rendered":"Review: KelTec CL43 flashlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the things I picked up at the NRAAM was one of KelTec’s CL43<\/a> flashlights.\u00a0 The folks at the KelTec booth were nice enough to give me one for review.\u00a0 This particular one was used as a demo by one of the guys working the booth.\u00a0 When I received it, the batteries were pretty much already dead and needed replacing.<\/p>\n

\"20140911_111954_7_bestshot\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The CL43 is the larger of the two flashlights KelTec makes (the smaller being the CL-42).\u00a0 Both are rated at 420 lumens, but the CL-43 holds 3 CR-123A batteries, while the CL-42 holds 2.\u00a0 This obviously causes the CL-43 to have a longer run time (listed at 3 hours 35 minutes vs 2 hours 25 minutes).\u00a0 Neither of these flashlights have adjustable brightness modes.\u00a0 You can purchase a gun mount kit from KelTec that will work for both lights.<\/p>\n

KelTec went with a rather unique design of having the third battery next to the other two and the power button on that extra lump facing the same direction as the lens.\u00a0 This means that you end up holding the light like a pistol.\u00a0 At first, I thought this might be a bit awkward, but it works well.\u00a0 It makes for a compact package that is pretty comfortable in the hand.\u00a0 The button is in a convenient place, more so than the traditional end cap button.\u00a0 It also means that you can hold it comfortably even after the light has been on for a while and the actual lamp has heated up (standard with high powered LEDs).<\/p>\n

KelTec claims that the design also allows you to hold the light and your pistol in the standard double handed pistol grip while operating both.\u00a0 I tried this out briefly.\u00a0 While it sort of works, I would think you’d need a lot of practice for it to be comfortable and effective.<\/p>\n

Of course, this thing is ultimately supposed to do one thing, and it does it pretty well.\u00a0 The 420 lumen lamp is sufficiently bright for most situations.\u00a0 For those (like me) that are a little fuzzy on how bright that is, your average 40watt incandescent bulb is 450.\u00a0 In a small room, it’s bright enough to substitute for the ceiling light if you shine it against the ceiling.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, not everything is wonderful with this flashlight.\u00a0 First off, the switch for the flashlight appears to be mechanical.\u00a0 This means that there can only be two modes: on and off.\u00a0 For a $140 flashlight, I would really expect an electronic switch with multiple modes.<\/p>\n

Oh… and then there’s the killer issue with me.\u00a0 I carried this flashlight in my pocket for a couple of months when this happened:<\/p>\n

\"20140716_110436\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s a penny firmly stuck in the lens of the flashlight.\u00a0 Apparently the lens is exactly the same diameter.\u00a0 I’ve tried to pry it out, but so far I’ve only succeeded in gouging the penny.\u00a0 At this point, I’m thinking it’s either dig through the penny or replace the lamp, since the lamp appears to be a sealed unit (not uncommon).<\/p>\n

So… unfortunately, I’d really like to recommend this light, but I just can’t.\u00a0 As WizardPC stated when I showed him the issue “wow, a $140 flashlight defeated by a penny.”\u00a0 $140 is also a bit much to drop on a pocket flashlight putting out 420 lumens, but not out of line for a weapons light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things I picked up at the NRAAM was one of KelTec’s CL43 flashlights.\u00a0 The folks at the KelTec booth were nice enough to give me one for review.\u00a0 This particular one was used as a demo by one of the guys working the booth.\u00a0 When I received it, the batteries were pretty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}