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ImportConvert · 01-07-2014, 04:25 AM

I got a few new weapon lights, SL-1's, and have been enjoying them quite a bit. Here is a review:

Some people don't know why Gene Malkoff got into lights. Many do. For those that don't, he built his original lights and modules with the objective of shooting animals that broke into his chicken coops. Maglites and even the Surefire's of the time just were not cutting it for the distances he needed.

This is when I became familiar with the product---a few years later---when my Surefire 6P LED wasn't cutting it mounted in my rifle. It was puny. It was purple. It was horrible for its intended use. It was the brightest light its size I had seen.

Then I bought a Malkoff M60. BOOM! It completely obliterated my expectations. 235+ lumens! From the same power-source of 2 CR123 batteries! WITH NEARLY AN HOUR OF RUN TIME AT FULL TILT!

Amazing! for 2008, to me.

Anyway, time progressed, and Surefire came out with the M600C using the KX2C, and it did me a solid. I still used Malkoff's in my hand-helds, and stuff loved his products and their legitimately art-form quality construction. However, my weapons all ran Surefire.

Then I began shooting more. I trained with Craig Douglas of Shivworks (AMIS course, THE! course I think every home-owner should take!), Kyle Lamb of Viking Tactics, etc. The more I shot, the more my gear changed up to suite what I had learned and how I preferred to use it. I learned that a side-mounted light on an M4 was a goods stand-off device for a car-hood, but it also wasn't very good at shining on something when the curve of the hood/trunk blocked it while shooting over the hood/trunk. It's also just one more thing to snag the A-pillar when shooting from a vehicle.

I found that shooting around things, one side or the other, it was blocked. I found that lights attract bullets (in my case, simunitions), and they hurt! I learned that Surefire's "momentary/constant" tail-caps are always going to end up being "constant" when you have adrenaline pumping. You don't stop pushing after 0.1". Sorry. YOU PUSH! I found that my suppressor cast a HUGE shadow right into the target area using side-mounted lights.

So I began running Surefire X300U's on the 12 O'clock position in front of Daniel Defense FSB's.

This is well and good, but I like to run with my hand forward, C-clamping the rail. On a rifle with a 9-10" rail, like my SBR above, it makes this awkward. It did get rid of the shadow on-target, and it did allow momentary-only, and it did allow truly ambidextrous use. It had a LOT going for it. However, the way it ate rail-space was a major downside, as well as having to remove it to replace batteries (it can be a pain to pry an X-light off of a 1913 rail, and it won't be happening quickly).

What did I decide I wanted?

-200+ OTF lumens
-Momentary press with a twist for constant on (if 1 hand is down, you need a way to turn on the light AND shoot. It's not optimal, but a useless limb never is).
-SMALL footprint to preserve rail space and sight radius
-Quality construction that can take a few bumps!
-Centerline mounting point to eliminate barrel and suppressor shadow on the target area

I looked and looked, and it seemed that the X300/DD FSP was as close to this as I could get, even with the shortcomings listed above.

Then Rosch Works and Gene Malkoff teamed up and produced this little gem!

Look at that rail-space it freed up!

It's a 250+ lumen light. I'll just rip the specs from
www.roschworks.com home page...

250+ lumen LED lighthead co-developed with Gene Malkoff of Malkoff Devices
Picatinny rail mount for free-floated frontend top-rail mounting
7075 T6 aluminum for ultimate toughness
Cerakote over Type III hardcoat anodization for ultimate protection and appearance
Nitrocarburized steel components for appearance and forever corrosion protection
Water-resistant, all-weather operation
Twisty tailcap (always off, momentary on, always on)
Minimal footprint (< 3.5") and weight (3.2oz with CR123 battery)
Protected against inserting battery backwards.
Battery life measured at 50 minutes at full-brightness and declining intensity for hours after.
Ships with a CR123 battery, a sight elevation adjustment tool, a 5/32" hex key and thread locker
Made in USA
Free Shipping

(They did not list it in their specs, but they are also "chem coated" just like Surefire's products, per Don Scheer, who I spoke with yesterday. They did this thing RIGHT!)

Basically, it's an MDC head on a perfectly executed sight/body monolithic structure.

I have been playing with this for a while, and here are my impressions:

The lumen rating is pretty accurate. I have a 280 OTF lumen Malkoff M31 module that is EVER SO SLIGHTLY brighter to my eyes. I would say 250 OTF is spot-on after warm-up. Crank-up may be a touch more.

Tint is right at 6-6500K. It's "cooler" than we have been led to believe is "good" for picking the prettiest flowers at night, but it will illuminate things very well, and will scramble vision as well as anything could hope to, if you could hope for that result.

The build quality is just as good as the pictures in this thread indicate. It is EXTREMELY lightweight without one bit of "cheap" to the feeling of operating it.

The threads are pre-lubricated correctly, as are O-rings.

The beam is very well focused. There is no "trash" or "cree rings" to it (the XPG-2's are great about that, anyway), and the hot-spot and spill are very well compromised with each other, slightly more focused than my other M61 modules. I find the generous spill, as compared to the M300B, to be MUCH more useful within 50 meters, and indoors, it is much less distracting when you flash-move. It is much easier to maintain a "soft focus" around the area while the M300B's bright hotspot pulls your eye to it dramatically, compared to the SL-1's more linear transition and brighter spill and corona.

The "guts" are fully potted with thermal epoxy, typical of Malkoff's ultra-reliable modules that you are already familiar with.

The switchology is stoopid simple and works. Nothing else can really be said. The button is recessed into the tail-cap so that it must directly be pressed---you can tail-stand the light and press on the bezel and it won't activate. Also, the white letters are also deeply recessed. If you notice them while behind the gun. Well. You're counting snowflakes while your house is burning. Noone can help you.

The lens is recessed deeply into the head of the light, which is great for keeping soot off of it, as well as shock, and impact resistance. I do, however, feel that the chemical and scratch resistance of the sapphire lens is a great idea and am very glad that Rosch Works is considering it. Currently, a hard coat acrylic lens similar to other lenses by Malkoff is being used.

When mounted on a weapon, the foot-print of the light is almost completely invisible viewed from my Eotech EXPS3-0. You gain 1.5" of rail-space (roughly) and 2.5" of sight-radius, as compared to the X300U/Daniel Defense FSB combo (which the rifle pictured is setup for, with the X300 pressed against the FSB).

I don't know how good/bad it will be for spotlighting pigs at 200 yards, but I think for home defense or urban usage, it is one hell of a solution. Basically, if 2-300 lumens of well-managed light is the need, this is the answer. Rail space is very well preserved.

I am VERY IMPRESSED! I think the SL-1 hits its goal of 50m usefulness very easily, and beyond. For urban work, or dense wooded areas, I think it's great. If all else fails, slap an X300U on the 9 or 3 of the rail for hog hunting or whatever, but the SL-1 is definitely NOT under-powered. I think the blend of throw and spill are near perfect for its output level.

Inevitable comparison to the other top-tier 1 CR123 weapon light:
Light-metering mode is set to "average" for all shots, 1250 ISO, "White balance: fluorescent".

M300B, 50 yards to AC units:

SL-1, 50 yards to AC units:

M300B, Building at 25 yards:

SL-1, Building at 25 yards:

M300B, 15 yards to gap in fence:

SL-1, 15 yards to gap in fence:

M300B, 20 yards to target:

SL-1, 20 yards to target:

M300B 30 yards to target:

SL-1 30 yards to target:

M300B 40 yards to target:

SL-1 40 yards to target:

M300B 50 yards to target:

SL-1 50 yards to target:

M300B into brush/trees on trail-side close-by:

SL-1 into brush/trees on trail-side close-by:

M300B, targets at 25 yards:

SL-1, targets at 25 yards:

In short, this light has replaced all of the other lights on my carbines except for when I need to really reach out, and then an X300U slapped on a rail works great. For 99.999% of what the average civilian like myself, or most LEO's (not operating in extremely urban areas where 150-200 meters of field may need to be fired across at feral dogs, etc.) will need, the SL-1 is an amazingly "nail on the head" product executed with all of the quality and precision you have come to expect from Gene Malkoff. Rosch Works and Gene Malkoff's quality and customer service are peas in a pod, on that note, and it's a great partnership that's spawned one heck of a weapon light!

The sight part is pretty neat, too! It uses an infinitely adjustable screw with the same amount of adjustment room (as far as I can tell) as a mil-spec FSB. You loosen the screw that "clamps" the FSP solid by virtue of the split hole it is threaded into, and use the tool provided to turn it up, or down. Then re-tighten. I found zeroing to be extremely easy, and require hardly any windage from my rear sight. This unit sits true on the front rail. The nice thing is that you don't have to choose between being 1/2 click high, or low. You can dial it in perfectly. The FSP seems a slight bit thinner than a mil-spec post, as well. Measuring 0.065" with my micrometers. An adjustment tool, allen wrench, and Loctite 242 are provided with the purchase of the SL1.

01-07-2014, 04:25 AM	#3333 (permalink)
ImportConvert A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: SWMO Posts: 4,454 Drives: 2019 CX5 GT Reserve Rep Power: 7627	I got a few new weapon lights, SL-1's, and have been enjoying them quite a bit. Here is a review: Some people don't know why Gene Malkoff got into lights. Many do. For those that don't, he built his original lights and modules with the objective of shooting animals that broke into his chicken coops. Maglites and even the Surefire's of the time just were not cutting it for the distances he needed. This is when I became familiar with the product---a few years later---when my Surefire 6P LED wasn't cutting it mounted in my rifle. It was puny. It was purple. It was horrible for its intended use. It was the brightest light its size I had seen. Then I bought a Malkoff M60. BOOM! It completely obliterated my expectations. 235+ lumens! From the same power-source of 2 CR123 batteries! WITH NEARLY AN HOUR OF RUN TIME AT FULL TILT! Amazing! for 2008, to me. Anyway, time progressed, and Surefire came out with the M600C using the KX2C, and it did me a solid. I still used Malkoff's in my hand-helds, and stuff loved his products and their legitimately art-form quality construction. However, my weapons all ran Surefire. Then I began shooting more. I trained with Craig Douglas of Shivworks (AMIS course, THE! course I think every home-owner should take!), Kyle Lamb of Viking Tactics, etc. The more I shot, the more my gear changed up to suite what I had learned and how I preferred to use it. I learned that a side-mounted light on an M4 was a goods stand-off device for a car-hood, but it also wasn't very good at shining on something when the curve of the hood/trunk blocked it while shooting over the hood/trunk. It's also just one more thing to snag the A-pillar when shooting from a vehicle. I found that shooting around things, one side or the other, it was blocked. I found that lights attract bullets (in my case, simunitions), and they hurt! I learned that Surefire's "momentary/constant" tail-caps are always going to end up being "constant" when you have adrenaline pumping. You don't stop pushing after 0.1". Sorry. YOU PUSH! I found that my suppressor cast a HUGE shadow right into the target area using side-mounted lights. So I began running Surefire X300U's on the 12 O'clock position in front of Daniel Defense FSB's. This is well and good, but I like to run with my hand forward, C-clamping the rail. On a rifle with a 9-10" rail, like my SBR above, it makes this awkward. It did get rid of the shadow on-target, and it did allow momentary-only, and it did allow truly ambidextrous use. It had a LOT going for it. However, the way it ate rail-space was a major downside, as well as having to remove it to replace batteries (it can be a pain to pry an X-light off of a 1913 rail, and it won't be happening quickly). What did I decide I wanted? -200+ OTF lumens -Momentary press with a twist for constant on (if 1 hand is down, you need a way to turn on the light AND shoot. It's not optimal, but a useless limb never is). -SMALL footprint to preserve rail space and sight radius -Quality construction that can take a few bumps! -Centerline mounting point to eliminate barrel and suppressor shadow on the target area I looked and looked, and it seemed that the X300/DD FSP was as close to this as I could get, even with the shortcomings listed above. Then Rosch Works and Gene Malkoff teamed up and produced this little gem! Look at that rail-space it freed up! It's a 250+ lumen light. I'll just rip the specs from www.roschworks.com home page... 250+ lumen LED lighthead co-developed with Gene Malkoff of Malkoff Devices Picatinny rail mount for free-floated frontend top-rail mounting 7075 T6 aluminum for ultimate toughness Cerakote over Type III hardcoat anodization for ultimate protection and appearance Nitrocarburized steel components for appearance and forever corrosion protection Water-resistant, all-weather operation Twisty tailcap (always off, momentary on, always on) Minimal footprint (< 3.5") and weight (3.2oz with CR123 battery) Protected against inserting battery backwards. Battery life measured at 50 minutes at full-brightness and declining intensity for hours after. Ships with a CR123 battery, a sight elevation adjustment tool, a 5/32" hex key and thread locker Made in USA Free Shipping (They did not list it in their specs, but they are also "chem coated" just like Surefire's products, per Don Scheer, who I spoke with yesterday. They did this thing RIGHT!) Basically, it's an MDC head on a perfectly executed sight/body monolithic structure. I have been playing with this for a while, and here are my impressions: The lumen rating is pretty accurate. I have a 280 OTF lumen Malkoff M31 module that is EVER SO SLIGHTLY brighter to my eyes. I would say 250 OTF is spot-on after warm-up. Crank-up may be a touch more. Tint is right at 6-6500K. It's "cooler" than we have been led to believe is "good" for picking the prettiest flowers at night, but it will illuminate things very well, and will scramble vision as well as anything could hope to, if you could hope for that result. The build quality is just as good as the pictures in this thread indicate. It is EXTREMELY lightweight without one bit of "cheap" to the feeling of operating it. The threads are pre-lubricated correctly, as are O-rings. The beam is very well focused. There is no "trash" or "cree rings" to it (the XPG-2's are great about that, anyway), and the hot-spot and spill are very well compromised with each other, slightly more focused than my other M61 modules. I find the generous spill, as compared to the M300B, to be MUCH more useful within 50 meters, and indoors, it is much less distracting when you flash-move. It is much easier to maintain a "soft focus" around the area while the M300B's bright hotspot pulls your eye to it dramatically, compared to the SL-1's more linear transition and brighter spill and corona. The "guts" are fully potted with thermal epoxy, typical of Malkoff's ultra-reliable modules that you are already familiar with. The switchology is stoopid simple and works. Nothing else can really be said. The button is recessed into the tail-cap so that it must directly be pressed---you can tail-stand the light and press on the bezel and it won't activate. Also, the white letters are also deeply recessed. If you notice them while behind the gun. Well. You're counting snowflakes while your house is burning. Noone can help you. The lens is recessed deeply into the head of the light, which is great for keeping soot off of it, as well as shock, and impact resistance. I do, however, feel that the chemical and scratch resistance of the sapphire lens is a great idea and am very glad that Rosch Works is considering it. Currently, a hard coat acrylic lens similar to other lenses by Malkoff is being used. When mounted on a weapon, the foot-print of the light is almost completely invisible viewed from my Eotech EXPS3-0. You gain 1.5" of rail-space (roughly) and 2.5" of sight-radius, as compared to the X300U/Daniel Defense FSB combo (which the rifle pictured is setup for, with the X300 pressed against the FSB). I don't know how good/bad it will be for spotlighting pigs at 200 yards, but I think for home defense or urban usage, it is one hell of a solution. Basically, if 2-300 lumens of well-managed light is the need, this is the answer. Rail space is very well preserved. I am VERY IMPRESSED! I think the SL-1 hits its goal of 50m usefulness very easily, and beyond. For urban work, or dense wooded areas, I think it's great. If all else fails, slap an X300U on the 9 or 3 of the rail for hog hunting or whatever, but the SL-1 is definitely NOT under-powered. I think the blend of throw and spill are near perfect for its output level. Inevitable comparison to the other top-tier 1 CR123 weapon light: Light-metering mode is set to "average" for all shots, 1250 ISO, "White balance: fluorescent". M300B, 50 yards to AC units: SL-1, 50 yards to AC units: M300B, Building at 25 yards: SL-1, Building at 25 yards: M300B, 15 yards to gap in fence: SL-1, 15 yards to gap in fence: M300B, 20 yards to target: SL-1, 20 yards to target: M300B 30 yards to target: SL-1 30 yards to target: M300B 40 yards to target: SL-1 40 yards to target: M300B 50 yards to target: SL-1 50 yards to target: M300B into brush/trees on trail-side close-by: SL-1 into brush/trees on trail-side close-by: M300B, targets at 25 yards: SL-1, targets at 25 yards: In short, this light has replaced all of the other lights on my carbines except for when I need to really reach out, and then an X300U slapped on a rail works great. For 99.999% of what the average civilian like myself, or most LEO's (not operating in extremely urban areas where 150-200 meters of field may need to be fired across at feral dogs, etc.) will need, the SL-1 is an amazingly "nail on the head" product executed with all of the quality and precision you have come to expect from Gene Malkoff. Rosch Works and Gene Malkoff's quality and customer service are peas in a pod, on that note, and it's a great partnership that's spawned one heck of a weapon light! The sight part is pretty neat, too! It uses an infinitely adjustable screw with the same amount of adjustment room (as far as I can tell) as a mil-spec FSB. You loosen the screw that "clamps" the FSP solid by virtue of the split hole it is threaded into, and use the tool provided to turn it up, or down. Then re-tighten. I found zeroing to be extremely easy, and require hardly any windage from my rear sight. This unit sits true on the front rail. The nice thing is that you don't have to choose between being 1/2 click high, or low. You can dial it in perfectly. The FSP seems a slight bit thinner than a mil-spec post, as well. Measuring 0.065" with my micrometers. An adjustment tool, allen wrench, and Loctite 242 are provided with the purchase of the SL1. Last edited by ImportConvert; 01-07-2014 at 04:33 AM.