I’ve got a couple different “home defense” rifles in the safe, stacked away just in case. Not all of them are tactical masterpieces — some just need to be functional and they are.
I was looking for a cheap way to mount a SureFire weapon light on the rail of one of these guns and the ERGO Grips Tactical Light Switch Mount Kit popped up on Amazon. With a retail price of about $15, I figured it was worth a try, and I think I got my money’s worth. Which isn’t really a glowing recommendation.
Having a weapon mounted light on your defensive rifle is like having headlights on your car. It just makes sense and frequently comes in really handy. Nearly half your lifetime is spent in the dark hours of the day (even though you may not be conscious for most of them), and instances of looting or other violent civil strife are more likely to happen under the cover of darkness.
When it comes down to it, you need to see your target to hit your target, and having a weapon-mounted light helps in that department. A tape switch on that weapon light helps maintain your cover, only illuminating the target when it really matters and allowing you to stay a bit more stealthy otherwise.
There are a number of flashlight manufacturers out there that have tape switches available for their lights. Mounting those tape switches to the forend of your rifle can be tricky, though. SureFire sells specific rail attachment designed tape switches for around $100, but the standard tape switch is more attractive at about $65.
In my case, if you already have a tape switch laying around it’s way easier to just buy a rail mounting kit than a whole new assembly. The easiest mount is just some medical tape wrapped around the forend of your rifle, but that looks awful and won’t last very long.
Other options out there like the CD LCS MKI are about $70, which still isn’t cheap. And that explains why the $16 ERGO Grip mount kit is an appealing option.
As others have noted, the kit doesn’t correctly fit a SureFire tape switch pad without some modification. In my case I needed to grab a pocket knife and carve out the inner sides of the mount to make my switch fit. That took a bit of work and isn’t the prettiest modification I’d ever done. That said, it was very functional — it held the tape switch in place and clamped firmly to the rail.
The biggest complaint I have about this unit is the size. I get that this is a plastic holder and there are some constraints with that medium, and I think they did a pretty good job in general with the design.
The sides are angled and should fit nicely on a quad rail setup, but on something a little more svelte, the sides stick out a bit and are slightly annoying to work with. I feel like they could have made it a little smaller in terms of the overall footprint while maintaining the same functionality. The good news is that a little more work with a pocket knife can make that dream a reality.
Personally, I think that you shouldn’t need to modify a product to make it fit your needs, especially if all of the other parts are common and of a standard size. This could have been an easy fix at the factory, but instead I’m here trying not to slice my finger open while modifying this part. Even then, it is only a $16 investment so I guess I got what I paid for here. And it works.