Price £74.95 (inc delivery and batteries) From: http://www.taclight.co.uk

Tested by: Jack Baxter

As a long-term user of the superb Klarus XT10, I’ve got to admit I was a bit unsure as to what a new model could offer. The XT10 gives a 470ANSI Lumen beam for over two hours, with a unique User Interface (UI) that allows instant access to the variable frequency strobe whether the torch is on or off. No memory means that the flashlight always turns on in full-power mode – a regularly requested feature by police and military users.

The XT11 is an evolution of the 10, with the exact same UI, a very similar (but slightly beefier looking) 24.3mm diameter body (perfect for rail mounting) along with IPX-8 dust resistance and 2m waterproofing. The difference is with the output – Klarus have managed to squeeze out a huge 600ANSI lumens, with only a tiny drop in output.

The other change of note is the new, removable stainless steel strike bezel – besides looking fantastic, this tough head can be unscrewed and replaced with a range of Klarus filters – I’ll certainly be investing in the red one, as these are great for preserving your natural night-vision, but green, blue and a white diffusion are also available.

So what’s it like in use? First impressions are of a very well-made piece of kit, and my excellent experience of the XT10 just boosts my confidence that this is a quality lamp. The beam is whiter than the 10′s, and the tweaked reflector design gives a slightly better spread. It’s hard to see any difference in the long-distance reach of the beam, but the XT10 already gave a very good mix of spread and throw.

With the XT10 remaining available, you now have a choice of two rail-mountable, high performance, tactically orientated torches – the 10 costs £62.95, which is superb value for money given the performance… however, the addition of the stainless bezel, compatibility with filters and the higher power makes the £12 premium of the XT11 worthwhile.

If you’re in the market for a flashlight with this kind of performance (and it’s great both on and off the field, so no problems justifying it for the household budget!), I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending the Klarus range. I’ll be using this torch rigorously for the next few weeks, so expect an update, and a full comparison of runtimes and performance (yep, I’ve built a data-logging rig to test them) in an issue of Airsoft International soon…

Package includes:

• KLARUS XT11 Tactical Flashlight
• Removable stainless steel bezel
• Removable body clip
• Removable anti-roll tactical/ combat ring
• KLARUS heavy duty holster with belt loop and D-ring
• Lanyard
• Spare O-rings
• User Manual with 24 Month Warranty
• 2x CR123A Batteries FREE

Specification

• Dimension: 148mm (Length), 34.9mm (Head), 24.3mm (Body)
• Weight: 132g (without battery).
• Finish: Tough, sealed body with HA Type III anodising.
• Reflector: Orange peel to provide a smooth, flawless beam and good throw.
• Lens: Toughened, ultra clear glass

Runtimes (based on 1x 18650 Battery):

1. High Mode: 600 ANSI Lumens (2.3 hrs)

2. Medium Mode: 150 Lumens (7.3 hrs)

3. Low Mode: 10 Lumens (295 hrs)

Strobe Mode: 600 Lumens (4.4 hrs)

I blogged recently about the innovative holster from Crye Precision, the GunClip. The ability to holster a weapon either on a MOLLE platform or a belt, with both a light and a suppressor is a rare commodity and a feature afforded by very few products out there.

Crye in Tan (left) Clone in Black (right)

The GunClip allows you to do both with it’s unique and Patent Pending design that retains the gun and encloses it with a poppered plastic flap. It’s compact, secure and lightweight. Unfortunately it’s only available for specific models of Glock hand guns presently, but it is compatible with airsoft replicas. Game on!

Not longer than a month after we picked up the real deal Crye Precision product, we noticed a clone had popped up on popular Hong Kong site, ebairsoft.com. It looked remarkably similar and a price of under £10 delivered. Curiosity had to be satisfied and an order was placed so we could perform a side by side comparison. Around 10 days later, the clone GunClip landed.

First things first, once you get the clone product out of it’s packaging you’ll be hit by a pungent, headache inducing chemical smell, presumably part of the plastic moulding process. This wasn’t present with the genuine article and leads me to believe that there’s definitely a different plastic used. This suspicion is backed up by the fact that the clone is a good deal more flexible than the Crye product, and may well stretch and lose its retention capabilities.

The clone bears the poorly disguised logo of Crye Precision, and narrowly avoids trademark infringement by reading “Crye Drecision”. Other than that small difference, the integral popper on the clone isn’t quite as positive or robust feeling as the real deal, leading me to think it might not hold up to repeated use. For £10 though, you’re probably not expecting the world, but given that it could mean your valuable gun dropping out never to be seen again, it is an important factor.

The shape of the clone product is identical but the finish is a good deal rougher. Mould lines and flashing are far more pronounced than on the real item and the item looks like it is produced to slightly rougher tolerances.

The rear portion of the GunClip allows you to loosen it off and adjust it to fit MOLLE webbing and belts and on the Crye product, small notches allow the adjustment to work in a stepped fashion, and provide a position friction fit when the locking screw is tightened. These notches are not moulded into the clone, and as such, there’s a good chance it may slip open over time, and drop off of belts or webbing.

Despite the fact the clone is pretty cheap, I do feel it’s a rather cheeky knock-off… It’s so similar, I’m sure that Crye Precision themselves will be making attempts at contacting the manufacturers. Overall though, I think it is lacking the overall quality of finish intrinsic with the genuine article and it would probably fail long before…

You can buy the Crye Precision GunClip from Level Peaks Associates.