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I go back a ways in terms of firearms, but I wasn’t always knowledgeable about certain aspects of the hobby. For instance, scopes. When I started shooting, a scope was what my mom’s well-to-do cousin had on his fancy bolt-action Weatherby. I just didn’t have the wherewithal to add one to my .22 rifle. I was a newly-minted band director in a rural Indiana county, living on a 4-figure salary. So, I made do.
Times have changed and now optics (not just scopes) are prevalent and affordable. There is no reason why most shooters cannot add some type of optic to his or her gun, be it a handgun or long gun. What was a small planet of choices when I was younger has grown into a galaxy.
I have owned several Viridian scopes and red dots. I thought it would be nice to take a look at a couple of other Viridian products, so I emailed my contact at Viridian and they sent me a scope and a gun light/laser. (As stated, I’ve used their scopes and red/green dots for a long time, so I wanted to try something different).
The company makes, oh, I don’t know, four zillion products or so it seems. Their products include lights, lasers, cameras, scopes, law enforcement cameras, and other gear. When I do a quick look like I’m doing here I like to list everything a company makes, to familiarize our readers with the company and to maybe point out something they make that the reader may not have known about. For instance, I had forgotten that they sell holsters sized for popular guns with one of their lights mounted.
With Viridian, I believe I’ll break with that practice because they make SO many things. Let me simply insert a link to their site and you can check it out when you’ve finished reading this.
I had to narrow down what I wanted them to send, so I chose a scope and a light/laser combo.
The Scope
The scope they sent is their $139 Eon 3-9×40 SFP scope. There is nothing over the top with this scope – it is a simple, second-focal-plane variable-magnification scope with a 40mm objective lens. Second focal plane means the reticle stays the same size despite magnification. First F.P. has the reticle growing in size with the zoom, so it appears larger on your target. FFP scopes cost more as the manufacturing process is a bit more involved.
The reticle is fairly simple, too. I could see a tactical shooter or maybe a long-range competitor needing an illuminated, technically-involved reticle, but for my purposes, this duplex reticle suits me. I took a photo through the lens – it’s not the best but you will get the idea…
We see BDC marks added to a duplex reticle. Again, for my purposes, this will work fine. Our Hoosier deer woods ranges tend to be shorter than if we were hunting out west. So, I don’t need a very busy reticle – they tend to get in the way.
The scope has fully-coated lenses and is parallax-free at 100 yards. Rings are included. At not quite 12 ounces, this scope will not weigh you down.
I mounted it on my S&W 1854 .44 Magnum lever rifle. It’s a good fit for this rifle, since I will not be trying to drop a doe four hillsides over. Like I said, ranges are closer around here and this 3-9 variable fits very well. The 40mm objective lens lets in a lot of light.
If you want a scope that’s a bit more involved, Viridian makes eleven other models ranging in price from $71 to $1299.
The scope’s turrets are no-nonsense. They adjust ¼” at 100 yards.
Need a green dot? They make sixteen. How about just a riser or other gizmo? They have you covered. Check them out here.
The Light/Laser
I was interested in a light for my Taurus TX22 pistol – I never know when I’m going to have to dispatch a varmint from our chicken coop – and so I stuck the C5L on.
(See the extended mag? I’ll have 22 opportunities to eradicate the possum problem).
Not only is the C5L a very bright (adjustable, of course) light but it also has a built-in green laser. Green tends to be easier for us two-legged critters to see in the daylight than red scientists tell us, so that’s what they went with.
This light is simple but it really works… I do believe you could momentarily blind a bad guy once you have the button pressed enough times to get the light to display its brightest beam. Once you’ve done that, it will remember it the next time you turn it on via one of the ambi switches. You can also see, in the photo above, the right laser adjustment screw.
Here is the elevation adjuster:
Notice the funky “lightning” symbol – this light requires no replaceable batteries by the user. Instead, it comes with a cool, green USB cable that magnetically “grabs” the red dot on the left and begins the charge. Conceivably, you could put your pistol in a place close to a USB outlet every time you put it away and keep the lithium-ion battery charged all the time. Nice!
If you want info about this new model of this $229 C5L, go here.
Summing Up
This very quick look at a couple of Viridian products was not meant to deliver tomes of information to you, but hopefully, it has helped you learn a bit more about these items and the company.
Viridian makes good stuff – as I said above, I’ve used their red/green dots and scopes for years. They keep innovating and taking their technology further, which means that shooters will benefit from it. Their prices haven’t really changed much over the past inflation cycle which helps keep things affordable.
If you are looking to add a scope, green dot, light, or laser to your daily carry weapon (or any other weapon, for that matter), you might want to check them out. The best thing I can say is that their stuff works, and you have a limited lifetime warranty to protect you in the event of a failure. What’s not to like?
The C5L: Olight technology in a Viridian package.
Yeah I have a few
scopes,red dots & lights. Seeing what you’re shooting at is not overrated.Important at 70. And I’ve never heard anything horrible about Viridian🙄
“The company makes, ” = they own and operate the factory. Not they contract with a manufacturer.
Does Viridian own the factory (in the free world) or does the PLA (chicomland)?
Sorry, that C5L deserves a lot more words so I’ll supply ’em.
I have an old Viridian C5L, and when I wanted a subcompact light for my subcompact 10mm, I ordered a new Viridian C5L. Confused yet? Well, they actually made two very different products and named them the exact same. (Couldn’t they just have called this one the C6L? But I digress.)
The old C5L was a great light in its day. It required a battery, was kind of clunky, had an excellent green laser and the also-excellent instant-on technology so when you draw from the holster the light and laser are automatically turned on, and as for the light, it throws a huge (but not very bright) swath of light with very even illumination. No hotspots to be seen, it’s just instant nighttime illumination throughout your field of view. But it wasn’t bright. It was plenty bright enough for “bad guy in your house” situations, where the room is dark and your pupils are fully dilated, but in the marketing “numbers game” its claimed 175 lumens just can’t compare with today’s cheap offerings like the 800-lumen OLight Baldr S. Oh, and it was expensive as hell, I think when I got mine it was like $380 or something.
Fast forward to the new C5L – it has technically all the same functions as the old one, but with some massive improvements. First up is size – the new C5L is much smaller than the original, and about half the weight of the original. Second is price — it’s drastically less expensive than the old one, with a list price of $229 and a street price a little lower than that. Third, I think the laser may actually be brighter. Even if it’s the same, it’s still a highly visible, excellent green laser. And the fourth big update is a built-in rechargeable battery.
Now I know some of you will whine at that, like you whine whenever the word “battery” is mentioned, but stick with me for a minute — this is a really clever implementation. If you have to have a battery-powered piece of gear, this is the way to do it. There’s no battery to check or change out every year, no battery maintenance, you just gotta keep it charged up. And they took a clever approach to that.
Many of us keep our carry pistol in a small safe, like at bedside or whatever. And that makes charging inconvenient because you typically can’t run a cable from an outlet to inside your safe. Especially in the little Fort Knox safe I use, that just wouldn’t be an option. So what Viridian did is they included a tiny little USB power bank with the light. It’s called the SafeCharge, and the idea is that you just leave that power bank in your safe. When you’re putting the gun away, you let the charge cable automatically find the magnetic charge point, and the USB power bank tops off the battery automatically.
Now, yeah, there’s gonna come a day when you have to recharge the SafeCharge, so I guess it’s not really “maintenance free”, but it certainly is “maintenance diminished”. You might have to charge that battery bank up maybe once a year, maybe less. It has a button on it that shows you its state of charge so you’ll know when you need to charge it, or you could just set a reminder in your phone’s calendar app to tell you to charge it.
Now, about that light — the old one claimed 175 lumens, the new C5L claims 650 lumens. And yes it is that much brighter, much much brighter than the old one. However, the light is no longer uniform, it’s a concentrated hotspot at where you’re pointing the gun, and the illumination drops off the further you get from the hotspot. It works fine, and you can see assloads further than you ever could have with the original C5L, but … I kind of preferred the older light’s way of illuminating. It lit up pretty much everything in front of you, so you could see into the shadows, even if the light was a lot dimmer. Whereas the new one will absolutely blind the bad guy, it’s searingly bright, but the light falls off much quicker than the original one did. I wish they offered a diffuser lens to attach to the front so you could pick your light pattern.
The C5L I got isn’t even the newest and smallest, they have a newer one called the C5L Micro. It’s absurdly light, it weighs 1.6 ounces as compared to mine which is 3.04 ounces, or especially my O.G. C5L, which weighed in at a portly 5.6 ounces. I mean, that’s still not a lot in reality, when I was carrying a Glock 30 I never even noticed it, but now when your whole Hellcat only weighs 18 ounces, you’ll definitely notice 33% more weight and massive thickness like the O.G. C5L, whereas the new Micro seems tailor made to the tiny guns. It’s barely over an inch wide and a little over an inch tall, and weighs the aforementioned 1.6 ounces. It’s not as bright as the New C5L (550 lumens/26,000 candela vs my C5L’s 650 lumens and 55,000 candela) but I mean, the size makes the Micro a no-brainer for the little micro 9mms. Mine fits perfectly on my XDM 10mm so I don’t need the little one, but if you’re packing a Hellcat or the like, I can’t see why you wouldn’t get the C5L Micro.
Last thing — the instant-on. This feature is just tremendous. Pull it out of the holster and the light turns on. Re-holster it and the light turns off. You don’t have to fumble for an on/off switch, ever. If your holster has a magnet in the right spot, it’ll automatically turn the light on or off. You’ll always have a weapon light and a laser any time you pull it out of the holster.
Okay, second last thing — there’s a mode that strobes/flashes the light rapidly. It’s nasty. Searing bright to pitch black multiple times per second, it’s downright disorienting for anyone on the wrong side of the trigger. I know some people won’t like it or think it’s a gimmick; whatever, I love it. But it’s just an option, you can enable it or leave it set to a steady beam, whatever floats your boat.
And yeah, finally, third last thing — why get one of these since the OLight is so much cheaper? Well, that’s up to you, but I can tell you, I’ve got an OLight, it’s a good little light and I’m happy with it, but I find the New C5L to be a better overall product, most especially for the instant-on feature, that’s worth the price difference right there (to me). The OLight puts out a good laser and a good strong light, and if that’s all you want, go for it. But if you pay more for the C5L you do get more – you get Instant-On, the SafeCharge, and the flashing/strobing light mode. Those are the things that kept me on a Viridian for my carry gun, it’s literally another thing that I can completely forget about, I don’t have to swap the battery or try to find the switch or anything, it’s just always ready whenever I pull it from the holster.
As you can tell, I’m a big fan of the Viridian.
RE: “I just didn’t have the wherewithal to add one to my .22 rifle. I was a newly-minted band director in a rural Indiana county, living on a 4-figure salary. So, I made do.”
On a whim my huntin’ brother purchased an on sale NIB Rossi .22 rifle & scope combo form Academy. The scope came with a juvenile delinquent proof plug in the lower rear ring which prevented scope attachment. After the plug was removed the scope mounted easily and the crosshairs were spot on level with the rifle. The rifle even has a threaded barrel for a can. Decent little rifle for those with or without much moola.
Very poor photos. I thought TTAG was in an upgrade??
X- caliber will pass 1/2 inch of soft steel plate.
X- caliber will not pass 2 riveted 1/4 inch pieces of soft steel plate.
X- caliber will pass 1/2 inch of hard steel plate.
X- caliber will not pass hard steel pipe having sidewalls 1/8 inch.
Circular deflection.
Building Better Castles.
Gets more fun when you start throwing ballistic fiberglass/nylon/kevlar/uhmwpe and various composites to go along with the steel and various ceramics and compare thickness to weight.
I do so chose to leave a comment.
In fact I plan on starting my blog within a blog .
I recently posted an observation on the penetration caricature of a projectiles behavioral characteristics and penetration in steel.
Naturally it did not post as it would have had in the previously ownership before the New And Improved era of TTAg.
Hopefully…..
Next weeks observation (if all goes according to plan)
will contain the topic of “How Many Beer Cans Will Your Common Self Defense Round Penetrate Before You Get To Drunk To Give A Fuck.”
I hope to present pertinent and informative information that may be of value or possibly be entertainment.
However.
ttaThat has a has a very slim margin of success.
I have noticed the promise of T TAGS policy of not moderating as heavily as the previous managment had in the past is true.
They have no need to moderate those of whom they have chosen who’s free speech to suppress.
Uhhhh.. what?