The benefit of an attached flashlight is you can use both hands to stabilize better, the downside being you can’t hold the flashlight far from your body to confuse your target about where they should shoot.
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2025
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Fun fact, in some states EMT classes specifically tell you to hold your flashlight far off to the side when approaching a shooting scene for this exact reason
I've seen people do that and never knew why
I've also considered situations where I might want to point a flashlight at something but also not point a gun at the same time. An attachment would force me to threaten anything I want to see.
A flashlight lets you do two-handed shooting in the dark, though.
If I'm getting into a self-defense situation in pitch darkness with only a handgun light as my illumination I'm prolly gonna die regardless fam
nah you got this
I feel like the best option in this weirdly specific situation is to reverse grip a flashlight and hold that arm across your chest so the light source doesnt have your body behind it and the rest your gun arm on the one holding the flashlight, you csn keep the support arm steady and still move the flashlight with your wrist. This is such an unlikely situation that it's barely worth comsidering but that seems like the best way to avoid killing someone by accident and still use a flashlight with a gun, having them attached seems to break the 'dont point a gun at anything you dont want to kill' rule
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/4-flashlight-techniques-for-concealed-carry/
the first 3 techniques are good except hold the light at the temple of one's head instead of one's neck, so you can illuminate your sights and actually illuminate everything from your eyes POV instead of making a big arm and gun shadow off to your strong side
i prefer the "high fbi" or that temple hold. you can adapt to the situation. avoid bouncing the light off the cover you are standing right behind and blinding yourself.
That makes sense. Ive only.fired a gin a few times and hardly ever use a flashlight so I was just going off what I felt msde sense.
I've always been of the same opinion basically. The only one that makes any sense at all is a flashlight, but I'd far rather have my flashlight separate. 99% of situations in which I want to point a flashlight at something, I don't also want to point a gun at it. And 99% of situations where I want to point a gun at something, I don't need to point a flashlight at it also.
You really have to work hard to invent a situation where a pistol mounted flashlight is actually useful, and in those situations it's never the best option.
Not a gun person for the most part. They do seem fun, I would just need a place that isnt my house to keep it and im left handed so i gotta know ahead of time if a rifle will burn my face cause I dont know. Anyway a strong general gun rule that I have heard of and agree with is never point a gun at something you don't want to kill. A gun mounted flashlight is for doing exactly that. Using a gun as a flashlight seems really dangerous
gun mounted flashlight is for doing exactly that. Using a gun as a flashlight seems really dangerous
It's not really meant to be used as a flashlight as much as a way to distract/blind whatever is coming at you. A separate flashlight is better for actual flashlight related activities
Wouldn't that jusr be giving someone something to shoot at? If i had a gun and wanted to kill someone else with it ans there was a bright light in my eyes id shoot at it
You might be surprised how much a flashlight blinds you. If it's dark and someone is pointing a flashlight at you, all you can see is the light. You've got no idea where the person holding it is in relation to it. Is it out to their side? Is it at the end of a gun? Is it mounted on their head? If you want to shoot them, you have no idea where center of mass is to aim. It is a pretty big deal.
But that's most useful if you're some kind of spec ops goon raiding a house full of armed people that you know are going to shoot at you. It's pretty irrelevant to most of us.
Yeah, it's irrelevant unless you want to cosplay tacticool. Maybe useful if you're like hunting coyotes close range or something, but even then a separate flashlight is probably easier.
Still, I'd say in terms of usefulness as a handgun attachment, it goes laser then flashlight, then like, hot dog holser, then everything else.
I guess.the thing is it would still make me start shooting at the light pointed in my face where I may not have been shooting otherwise, hypothetically. In general I csn agree it for sure isnt for normies. Like...I get it under the assumption that a professional soldier would sometimes be someone who's pointing a gun at someone they don't wanna kill just by the odds of holding s gun that often and be trained to compensate more. This is the ideal situation
Well, there's an interesting detail there. Are you sure you'd be more likely to make the snap judgment to shoot a disembodied flashlight than a big man in tactical gear with a shotgun? I'm pretty sure I'd be more likely to shoot the guy I can tell is pointing a shotgun at me than the person who may or may not be pointing anything more at me than a flashlight.
Depends on the circumstance i guess, if im expecting to be shot and theres a disembodied flashlight id most likely unload in a panic. A big man in tactical gear with a shotgun which is presumably pointed at me like thr flashlight would be would probably lesd me to dropping my gun and surrendering because a big man with tactical gear and a shotgun is pointing his shotgun at me. Cause not dying is generally the prerogative in a gunfight
Flashlights are really the only useful attachment. They can hook into holsters, as a bonus.
Pistol optics are way behind rifle optics, and they're also quite expensive relative to the benefit. Everything other than those two is just a gimmick, imo.
pistol red dots make a noticeable difference in competition shooting, "behind" or not. if your pistol is for "self-defense" statistically you're shooting from close enough range that irons don't fall off.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4H8YZCK
I got this one off Temu for $17, flashlight and laser combo. Build quality is pretty nice too, feels heavy
An underbarrel shotgun would be awesome but I doubt they're made small enough for a pistol lol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeMat_Revolver
I know this doesn't really count, but I just think they're neat!
I've never thought about an underbarrel pistol shotgun before...
You could mount one on a big scoped hunting revolver and have an all-distance weapon
The LeMat revolver had one (sort of), I linked it elsewhere in the thread if you're interested
Loudener
If you're not carrying it regularly, frame mounted optics rails/ weights? I know you mentioned iron sights are fine but it may help the zeroing problem (b/c it isn't getting hammered back-and-forth). Idk, definitely not a carry pistol thing but if your use case is at home/at the range then how it prints don't matter. Only real use case I could think of.
🔦
idk about optics but if you choose not to go with it, get some night sights 🌙👁️
extended magazines are usually a good choice until the point where it interferes with concealing or drawing, so get the biggest ones you can live with
If you prefer red dot sights I guess that could be useful. Not the kind where you try to see a laser dot far away, the kind that essentially offers an alternative to iron sights. I would guess that you could theoretically be more accurate at longer range using one but by the time you're planning for that you might as well use a rifle.
Bayonet
Red dot sight is absolutely required if you are interested in becoming proficient with your firearm. Irons are for many reasons much more difficult to extract useful training data then a dedicated red dot sight. This is not merely "competition shooting", if you care about becoming skilled in defensive applications and not just keeping the thing around as a talisman, get the slide milled for a good holosun optic and practice extensively with it.
flashlight good if you plan to use it during the nighttime, which currently is more than 50% of the time for much of the northern hemisphere. If you are worried about pointing a firearm at something while also illuminating it, you should be having a serious conversation with yourself if you are fully prepared to utilize a firearm in a defensive manner.
cries in glock
a tourniquet
you mean on the frame dustcover rail underneath? flashlight isn't a bad idea. also there are optic mounts that attach and wrap around to the top so you can put an optic on top, doesn't seem super practical but could be a fun range toy accessory
trigger lock
An underbarrel shotgun would be awesome but I doubt they're made small enough for a pistol lol
Underslung blunderbuss? Sawed off 410?
Nah.... front hand grip.
One of my favorite pistols of all time, the Beretta 93R, actually has a folding foregrip (because it fires full auto)