# Looking to get a decent budget "thrower"



## floki (Jul 11, 2015)

So I'm in the market to get a new light. I'd like to get something that throws really well, but not break the bank.

Requirements are as follows

Under $50
Must throw a good light at least 250 yards or around 230 meters.
Runs on 18650 protected cell or cells. 
Pocket clip ( i know small requirement) 
Brightest lumens possible for the distance.
Good run time
Decent tint, for a woodsy area with lots of greens browns and red tones, especially when fall rolls around.

Basically when I go up to the cabin, I need something that can I scan the surrounding fields to treeline from the front porch. The treeline is about 200 yards out, some areas it goes a little further. When I go to start a midnight coon hunt, the last thing I need is to walk into ol'Mr black bear or the momma and her cubs. That said I want to see them before they see me, at least from the front porch. That way I'm not walking out, with that eyes on the back of my head feeling, at least till I get across the clover fields. I can't hear a bear moving across the clover, but I can hear one in the woods, so a good hotspot of light would be nice. It gets dark up north where I'm at, and I thought my 200 lumen flashlight was fine and dandy till I started huhting up there. Then I upgraded to a 550 lumen, still not good enough. And from the cabin to my blind is a good 20 acre walk, though an oak forest. So runtime is a factor as well. 

I've looked at few budget lights on Amazon, and there was just to many cheap knockoffs to count.

Of the few that got decent reviews was the new Thorfire VG10 at 847 lumens for $35 bucks it seems like a decent deal. But I like options and choices to compare to. So what do you all think.

I was also looking at the Jetbeam WL-52 at 1080 lumens, over at batterie junction.

Could use a few more suggestions, before I drop a ton of money. When u have four kids under 7 and three dogs.....anything over $20bucks is alot of money to me. 
Also I know very little in the way of throwers, so don't get to technical on me. 

Thanks for any suggestions.


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## TopGunRMNP (Jul 12, 2015)

*Yezl Y3 &/or Small Sun YZ-T08. I just bought both!  2x18650. For about $15 the Convoy C8 is a pretty dang good thrower, but a bit too pencil-beam for me to be useful. 1x18650*


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## floki (Jul 13, 2015)

Thnx for the comparisons, ended up ordering a convoy c8 and a thorfire vg10. 


And since Tmart has them on sale I may pick up a skyray king. Still figuring out how what model skyray... The reviews I've seen and watched show the 3 led skyray as having more throw, and the 4/6/8/9 models seem more floody. Anyone who has any of the different models care to share the experiences / info


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## fractal (Jul 14, 2015)

I picked up a C8 last year and it is the best budget thrower I have. Much better than the HD2010 I thought would be a beast. My only issue is it is too bright for close up work. But for a porch light to scan the treeline? It makes a nice, compact choice.


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## TopGunRMNP (Jul 14, 2015)

I had the SkyRay STL-V2 forever, the budget throw king and I didn't know it. Left in the car every day and night, summer and winter. Led finally died. It was great, not pencil beam, useful food, and strong center beam.


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## floki (Jul 14, 2015)

I'm patiently waiting for the C8 and VG10 to arrive, VG10 should be here today. Half the reason I chose those two was for the "starter" kits they came with for the overall price. I'll eventually get a better charger and cells, but needed to get my foot in the door first. Plus theres so many cell and charger options, it gets overwhelming fast.


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## TEEJ (Jul 14, 2015)

I see you mentioning lumens, but not cd.

cd is the spec that tells you how far away you can see what at.


Generally, to see a bear at 230 meters, depending upon your night vision and the contrast between the bear and what's behind it, etc...you will tend to need between 2 - 30 lux ON the bear at that range. If its a polar bear in a licorice patch, 0.5 lux might be OK, etc.

The lower number is with night adapted vision, and a bear in contrasting cover. The higher number is with less night vision and the bear not contrasting well. 30 lux CAN even be too little if the contrast is very low, etc.


For perspective, the above would mean that your new light should have a cd of ~ 110,000 or higher to put ~ 2 lux at 230 meters.

To get ~ 5 lux would require a cd of ~265,000.

A light with a cd of a million would only get you to ~ 19 lux at 230 m....and that's rarefied territory, so, hopefully, a coupla lux on the bruin is going to work for you.


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## Poppy (Jul 14, 2015)

The convoy C8, should out-throw the VG10, but I don't think you'll get 250 yards out of it. My guess is that it will get you more like 100 yards that will actually be useable, if you have good vision. If you want more distance than that, you will need to get a light with more of a pencil beam. 

I seem to recall seeing a C8 light with a XP-G2 emitter that would throw better, but again, you'll be scanning the horizon with a tight spot.

As mentioned, a thrower is not all that good a light for close up work, but that is not what you are buying the light for. Overall, I believe that you'll be pleased with your new purchase, good luck!


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## WarRaven (Jul 14, 2015)

Diffuser, then you can have range an close utility when needed.


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## floki (Jul 14, 2015)

thnx TEEJ thats the kinda info I need. Visions the only thing still working good, I swear I'm falling apart to early. 

And I know certain lights throw better with less lumens and a bunch of other factors... Thats why I came here. To sift through all the tons of info and hopefully learn something. 

My VG10 came, its brighter than I expected, but definitely not what I was looking for in a throw light. It does however fit the bill nicely to replace my old nebo redline, that I've been using for the past few years. 

The C8 comes tomorrow, until then I'll be doing some more research. 

On a side note, I tried using cr123a's in the VG10 and it was making high pitch noise when turned on. It doesn't make that noise when I use a 18650, just the cr123a's. Slightly disappointed in that. Since I bought it based on the fact I keep extra cr123a's around for my other lights. Thought a dual battery light would be nice, but not with that noise, 18650's only I guess. Still happy with it.


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## more_vampires (Jul 14, 2015)

Ahh yes, flashlight whine. It's soured me on many a light that I would otherwise like. Some examples of the same light do it, some don't even. Really frustrating, particularly when you finally get your hands on another and it does it too.


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## floki (Jul 14, 2015)

grrrrr.... so the whine only happens during the medium and low settings and not during high or moonlight settings. regardless of batteries. just venting...


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## more_vampires (Jul 14, 2015)

That can be "PWM whine," it bugs the crap out of me too. It caused me to never EDC an otherwise cool 10440x1 light, causing me to put new lights straight on the "junk/giveaway shelf." Can't ethically return it as it "works."


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## floki (Jul 15, 2015)

After playing around last night, when it finally got dark. I was very impressed, more so than the few starter tests during the day in my dark garage. The VG10 lit up a stop sign about 80yards out... and pleasantly the whine was only noticeable on the mid level setting when using it outside, and after a few minutes a letting it run, the whine quieted down some more, small issues with an otherwise nice light. My other light arrived, so can't wait to get home from work and start playing with it.


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## Chicken Drumstick (Jul 20, 2015)

TopGunRMNP said:


> *Yezl Y3 &/or Small Sun YZ-T08. I just bought both!  2x18650. For about $15 the Convoy C8 is a pretty dang good thrower, but a bit too pencil-beam for me to be useful. 1x18650*


Convoy C8's only come with XM-L/XM-L2 as far as I know. These are not pencil beams, far from it.

The Y3 and T08 uses the same emitters in larger reflectors, so their beams will be tighter and more focused than any C8, given the same emitter.


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## Chicken Drumstick (Jul 20, 2015)

Throw requires a large reflector as a rule. And the smaller the LED in a given reflector will also produce more throw.

For example:

18650 tube light reflector
p60 reflector
C8 reflector

If all of these used the same LED driven at the same level (i.e. same LED lumens), then the tube light would have the biggest hot spot and least focused beam and shine the shortest distance. The C8 the tightest beam, the smallest hot spot and shine the furthest.

An even bigger reflector than the C8 will throw even better. This all means good throwers tend not to be pocket friendly.

Lots of small reflectors (i.e. Sky Ray Kings), these will generally throw better than a single reflector of that reflector size, i.e. a 6 LED SRK will out throw a tube light with the same small reflector, simply through the lumen count. But it still won't be anything like a large single reflector.


LED type.

Small LEDs have a brighter surface area. This will allow them to throw further in a given reflector size. The downside is less output, smaller hot spot and duller spill beam.

example:

C8 with XM-L2 @ 1000 lumens
C8 with XP-G2 @ 500-600 lumens

The XP-G2 will shine quite a bit further, but with a smaller tighter hot spot.


De-doming.

Last up, if you de-dome an LED it will substantially increase it's throw and generally retain good lumen output. But you can end up with a tint shift.

De-doming an XM-L2 in a C8 will massively increase it's throw. While retaining a very similar lumen level. If you want a de-domed LED, you'll pretty much have to do some modding however.


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## fishx65 (Jul 20, 2015)

Since this is the budget forum, at the cabin I keep a Stanley hid spotlight near the back porch that I picked up for around $20.00 and I have a few 3D Defiant lights I picked up on clearance at Home Depot. The Defiants are huge but they throw like crazy. To walk back to my bow hunting stands I just carry a Solarforce L2 XML and a Maratac 1aaa with clip for headlight duty. I also carry a big ole can of bear spray when I'm bow hunting!!!!!


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## rupertsilva10 (Jul 24, 2015)

I also had SkyRay STL-V2 and I'd say it's the cheapest that offers more than it's value. I had my first two years ago and it is working fine until now, you've got to check it.


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## bykfixer (Nov 1, 2015)

TEEJ said:


> I see you mentioning lumens, but not cd.
> 
> cd is the spec that tells you how far away you can see what at.
> 
> ...



Good, basic easy to understand info.

Thanks.


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## Ethan_90 (Nov 14, 2015)

Does anyone know if the crelant flashlights are any good? The V6CS is only listed around $23.


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## Ethan_90 (Nov 14, 2015)

At gearbest . Are we allowed to post links?


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## Impossible lumens (Nov 15, 2015)

The Thrunite TN31 v.2 is at Ama for $69. right now. It's a large light but will not have a problem spotting your bear at 230 meters. 1367 lumens on single xm-l2 with 800 meters rated throw. I know it's over your stated price but only by $20. and it does come highly recommended.


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## leonardo4358 (Nov 18, 2015)

I was looking at Olight M22 on Amazon. 950 lumen. It costs around 50 bucks, has a beam distance of 1001ft/302 m as stated on its official site. This should be a good choice.

Go search "Olight M22 Warrior 950" and you can find that.


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## Poppy (Nov 20, 2015)

IF I really wanted a thrower, I'd get the TN31 before the M22


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## BLUE LED (Jan 28, 2016)

KD C8 XP-L Hi V3.


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## Blitzwing (Jan 28, 2016)

IMO C8's with an XM-L or even XP-L hi are not awesome throwers.

The *XinTD C8 V5[FONT=arial, sans-serif] XP-G2 [/FONT]*[FONT=arial, sans-serif]from intl-outdoor is $30USD and will throw better.[/FONT]


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## BLUE LED (Jan 28, 2016)

Blitzwing said:


> IMO C8's with an XM-L or even XP-L hi are not awesome throwers.
> 
> The *XinTD C8 V5[FONT=arial, sans-serif] XP-G2 [/FONT]*[FONT=arial, sans-serif]from intl-outdoor is $30USD and will throw better.[/FONT]



If you want an awesome thrower then you have to dedome your C8 XP-G2 S4.


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## RedLED (Feb 22, 2016)

Blue,

Nebo has some that throw, and not expensive.

Red


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## BLUE LED (Feb 22, 2016)

RedLED said:


> Blue,
> 
> Nebo has some that throw, and not expensive.
> 
> Red



I dedomed my XinTD C8 V5*XP-G2 S4 and it's a really good compact budget thrower. Cheap with a lot of lux.


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## LeBig (Mar 24, 2016)

The best "budget" thrower is, IMO, the Convoy C8. You can buy 3 of them and stay under your $50 budget, too.


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## akhyar (Mar 25, 2016)

^ Can't go wrong with Convoy C8, especially that it can be had for under US$15/pc including shipping from mainland China. 
Another option is BLF D80E made by Lucky Sun, which cost about $20 with shipping from China using group buy code


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## rayman (Mar 28, 2016)

What about the Convoy L2 (there is also a newer version)? The reflector is also bigger in diameter than that of the Convoy C8.

I'm thinking for a long time about building myself a LED thrower. Right now the Convoy L2 seems like a good host. But I don't know if I should put a XM-L2 or a XP-L HI in it. Any suggestions?


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## BLUE LED (Mar 28, 2016)

rayman said:


> What about the Convoy L2 (there is also a newer version)? The reflector is also bigger in diameter than that of the Convoy C8.
> 
> I'm thinking for a long time about building myself a LED thrower. Right now the Convoy L2 seems like a good host. But I don't know if I should put a XM-L2 or a XP-L HI in it. Any suggestions?



Buy the Convoy L2 XM-L2. You will need a new driver an XM-L2 U4 that you will need to dedome. This throws further than the XP-L HI, especially in larger reflectors.


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## rayman (Mar 28, 2016)

Thanks for the advice but I think I won't try a dedoming yet .

What would you say about comparing the normal XM-L2 to the XP-L HI?


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## BLUE LED (Mar 28, 2016)

Go for the L2 XP-L HI. It throws more than the stock XM-L2 with dome. The beam profile isn't very nice in the Convoy L2 XP-L HI.


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## rayman (Mar 28, 2016)

Ah ok, I only want it for the throw. If it has a nice bright spot thats enough for me. You have to do the cuts somewhere with a budget light .


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## KeepingItLight (Mar 28, 2016)

BLUE LED said:


> The beam profile isn't very nice in the Convoy L2 XP-L HI.



Can you elaborate? 

Thanks!


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## BLUE LED (Mar 28, 2016)

KeepingItLight said:


> Can you elaborate?
> 
> Thanks!



I can only comment on my Convoy L2 XP-L HI. My beam profile from the middle of the hotspot is yellow followed by a bright white ring. Then there are more rings than Saturn; different colours ranging from dark to blue and freen etc. The corona is very ringy and not like any of the other XP-L HI lights that i own. I believe it is not correctly focused in the reflector. The result of this reduces some of the throw. We can limit this by increasing the current. Slightly less ringy and more throw.

The L2 after improvments is a little disappointing, when we consider the dimensions of the reflector. This one had a lot of potential, but still loses out to the Olight M2X UT.


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## rayman (Mar 28, 2016)

Thanks for pointing that out. I just ordered a XP-L HI and will build it with that and see if I like it or not. As it is easy to swap the emitter, I will eventually come back to your advice .


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## KeepingItLight (Mar 29, 2016)

BLUE LED said:


> I can only comment on my Convoy L2 XP-L HI...



Thanks!


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## HorizontalHunter (Apr 4, 2016)

I have a Klarus G30 on the way. It might be worth a look. It has some good reviews and there is a group buy currently running so you can get it for a good price. The downside is that it require 3 18650 batteries to run so there is some expense there.

Bob


http://www.klaruslight.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=show&catid=174&id=118



http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?414023-B5-Group-Buy-Klarus-G30-MT-G2-3x18650


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## Chicken Drumstick (Apr 5, 2016)

HorizontalHuntr said:


> I have a Klarus G30 on the way. It might be worth a look. It has some good reviews and there is a group buy currently running so you can get it for a good price. The downside is that it require 3 18650 batteries to run so there is some expense there.
> 
> Bob
> 
> ...


1) That is not a thrower
2) It is unlikely to be budget


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## akhyar (Apr 5, 2016)

Chicken Drumstick said:


> 1) That is not a thrower
> 2) It is unlikely to be budget



Agree with your 2 points above .
The G30 is a "flooder" with it's Cree G2 emitter and with the discount prices of around $50, not what I considered as "budget" unless the OP collects Jeff Hanko's or Spy's flashlight


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## HorizontalHunter (Apr 5, 2016)

Chicken Drumstick said:


> 1) That is not a thrower
> 2) It is unlikely to be budget





akhyar said:


> Agree with your 2 points above .
> The G30 is a "flooder" with it's Cree G2 emitter and with the discount prices of around $50, not what I considered as "budget" unless the OP collects Jeff Hanko's or Spy's flashlight




Hmmm I bought it to use as a deer recovery light. I hope it has enough throw to suit its purpose. If not I might be forced to buy another light. A tradgedy for sure.:devil:

Bob


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## Chicken Drumstick (Apr 5, 2016)

HorizontalHuntr said:


> Hmmm I bought it to use as a deer recovery light. I hope it has enough throw to suit its purpose. If not I might be forced to buy another light. A tradgedy for sure.:devil:
> 
> Bob


Throwers generally need a large reflector. And importantly a large reflector in relation to the LED size. Smaller LEDs have a higher surface brightness.

The MT-G2 is massive, so despite the fact the G30 has a larger reflector, in relative terms the reflector is not massive vs the LED.


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## HorizontalHunter (Apr 5, 2016)

Chicken Drumstick said:


> Throwers generally need a large reflector. And importantly a large reflector in relation to the LED size. Smaller LEDs have a higher surface brightness.
> 
> The MT-G2 is massive, so despite the fact the G30 has a larger reflector, in relative terms the reflector is not massive vs the LED.



Thanks for the reply Ckn. I am still sorted out flood vs throw in practical terms. That helps.

Bob


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