If you've never owned a nice flashlight, you're in for something special at the price of a cheap light. It lights up 100 yards easy and it feels very sturdy. It will hang out past the barrel of an M&P full size and a glock 19 but not far enough to be an eye sore yet not so close that it gets dirty while shooting. It comes up short on a glock 34, but is in another sweet spot where it's not so short it shines on the barrel yet it wont get dirty because it's too far back.

My only complaint would give it 4* if it cost anymore than it did. The way it's turned on is best for a rifle, no matter what holster you have you will find it will flick on in the holster draining the battery. I fashioned a catch to the switch to prevent that and the problem is solved at the cost of having to take more time to use it.

I have to say, for $30, this light has done pretty well for me in the 3 weeks I've had it. I tried a few variants (Olight PL-2 Valkyrie, Olight, PL-1 II, Streamlight TLR-3, and Streamlight TLR-4) and while I really liked the setup/profile/brightness of the Olight PL-2, I had functionality problems with it while actually having the light on and shooting at the range with my H&K VP40. The Olight would turn-off during firing, enough where I just couldn't trust it's reliability should something go bump in the middle of the night. For $100, I needed something more reliable.

So, Olight is getting ready to deliver it's latest weapon light, hopefully in September, called the "PLMINI" and so I am excited to give that a try, as the videos I have seen of it on YouTube make it look very appealing. However, I wanted something now, to bridge the gap.

Enter the DefendTek DT-M1. This light is $30, has a "bad-ass" look about it, and is actually very well-constructed. I was not expecting that at all for the price-point. To activate the light, it is a simple button push on the right of the light unit...press once to turn it on "constant", push the lever on the other side to turn it off, then quickly after it goes off, activate the light again to get the "strobe" effect. Simple child's play.

It holds tight on my VP40 picatinny rail (where the Olight PL-2 would not fit snug, which may be why the light would turn off when shooting the gun) and while it is longer than the barrel, this may be a good thing since the tactical end of the flashlight could put a hurt on someone should it ever come to a situation like that (thinking some "John Wick 2" type fighting there). Not once in about ~400 rounds has this light shut-off or missed a beat. The lens does get dirty after a day of shooting, but that is to be expected, given it's placement on the gun. A quick hit of Slip2000 Gun Cleaner and she's all gussied up and back to being her purdy little self once more.

The one criticism (if it can really be that, since its not the fault of DefendTek) is that of holster options: there are none. For now, I am using just a basic OWB holster from a wonderful company called Soft-Armor Holsters (in case your keeping score at home, it's the "TB Series Hip Holster, #23") and it works for what I need and that is just some place to store my gun while at the range. The issue becomes when the gun/light go into that holster, it is a snug-fit at the bottom and the light switch does get activated quite easily. Again, minor problem for my needs, but that may be worrisome to others.

Again, I was expecting something much less than what I actually received and for that, I have to give it 5 stars and a thumbs way-up if looking for a low-cost light solution for your firearm, yet is built at a much higher quality than the price reflects. As of this writing, I see this light is no longer available (glad I got mine when I did), but if it ever does come back in stock, I highly recommend it for what you are paying vs. what you are getting.

I bought two of these gun lights after watching several video reviews of the product. It seamed like the perfect flashlight to use for an upcoming night match competition as opposed to buying a Surefire or Streamlight gun light. After shooting with the product I should have upgraded to one of the other products. I used one and my shooting partner used the other one, and we both ended up with problems. I had mine mounted onto my glock. I heard it click in and even tried jiggling it and pulling it off and thought it was secured on the rail system. First stage I shot the light goes flying off after the fourth shot. I reattach the light in betweens stages, thinking that I somehow didn't get it clipped in all the way. So this time I made sure. So on the next stage I made 7 shots before the weapon light went flying. Luckily for me another competitor had an extra high quality light that I attached and ran with no problems for the rest of the match. My shooting partner was using the other light that I purchased and he shot the whole match with what we didn't see as any problems. But as we were taking the light off of his gun we noticed that the the spring retaining pin that holds the mounting block for the light to the gun had backed out to the point where it was almost the fall off but had wedged to keep it mounted on the gun. So his was mounted on a Smith & Wesson 9 mm with down loaded rounds. I had mine mounted on my glock 35 which is a 40 Smith & Wesson caliber that I have customized to shoot a reduced recoil spring and very light loads to reduce the recoil. So we weren't shooting very hard hitting ammunition and we were having major problems. So again I understand that we bought a cheap flashlight and didn't expect a long service life but we expected it to make it through more than one night of shooting. For me the reason at least rated it 2 Stars is they do mount on to our airsoft guns.

Fits perfectly. Heavy. Looks cool. And it doesn't leave a gap between the light and the lower frame of the Glock 17/22. However, it's extremely dim. Great for locating your missing keys in a dark livingroom. Not great for duty. I'd still buy it again.

The light arrived with two spots of paint chipped (just to the left of the printed logo - see picture). The manufacturer painted over the spots with permanent marker as you can see the black color difference. I was willing to ignore this but unfortunately, the light was also dead on arrival. I charged the battery until the led turned green and tried again, but the light itself still would not turn on. Returning as this is probably a defective unit.

Update:
I returned this for a refund but ordered another to give it a second chance. The new one arrived without visible defects and the battery worked without even charging. The light is very bright and works exactly as expected. So far an excellent product experience this time. Changing review from one star.