One Hundred Concepts: LightCap
“500 Trillion Candela then illuminated the Tri-State area and everyone knew my position.”
Have you ever looked at someone’s rifle set up and questioned why they have so much stuff clinging to the rifle? Some people feel that if there is any available space on their rifle they need to fill it with the latest and greatest Instagram fad for three easy payments of $99.99. In full transparency, that was my initial impression of the One Hundred Concepts LightCap. A small piece of plastic attached to your rifle mounted light by a small piece of shock cord and ranger band seemed like a useless product with limited application. And while the application of every piece of gear is always mission specific, I didn’t feel that there were many people that would frequently benefit from having a LightCap hugging their rifle mounted light. And then it happened to me.
Recently I made some changes on one of my rifle set ups. Instead of having a dedicated white light switch and manually hitting the fire button on my IR laser, I installed the Unity TAPS switch. This switch is comprised of two buttons, one for the white light, and one for the IR Laser/Illuminator. I knew this was going to take some time and reps to get used to so I welcomed the upcoming low light SUT Training I had scheduled. During training, I attempted to utilize my IR Laser to communicate to other team members. Instead, I activated my Surefire Turbo Mini Scout. 500 Trillion Candela then illuminated the Tri-State area and everyone knew my position.
This was clearly a training issue. With more repetitions and training I could work in the muscle memory and the possibility of a white light ND would be greatly reduced. But I couldn’t help but immediately think of the One Hundred Concepts LightCap and how it would have prevented the entire situation.
There are three main reasons to run one of the One Hundred Concepts LightCap. The first is obvious, preventing a white light ND. Although it may seem dramatic, it is important. If that wasn’t a training exercise, it could have gotten real bad for me or worse, my teammates. Another reason to run the LightCap has more to do with operations in day light. Covering the reflector of your WML while holding a perimeter can help keep your position unknow to the enemy. Although most of us are working in a patrol capacity, (and not wearing camo) there is no benefit in shining a signaling mirror at the adversary. The third reason to run the LightCap is to prevent carbon build up on the lens of your light. Although routine maintenance will stop the carbon from getting thick enough to effect light performance, that would require routine maintenance.
Anytime you are considering adding an piece of equipment to your set up you should also ask yourself, “why not?” There aren’t many drawbacks to running the LightCap. Cost is not an issues as it comes in at $23.00 and there is no discernible addition of weight to the rifle. The only issue I could foresee is an operator forgetting to remove the cover prior to needing white light. A quick fix to that is to run the LightCap in the uncovered position as a SOP. Only when you are operating with NVGs, or attempting to reduce the signature of your lights reflector, should the lens be covered by the LightCap.
- Brian
