Life just got tougher for things that go bump in the night

A long overdue addition to the armory... A Surefire 618A tactical forend for the venerable Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun.

I've long advocated the 12 gauge for home defense. It's powerful and easy to use, and mine has a place next to the bed as part of my safety kit. Mine's not much as looks go. It's an old police department gun, still bearing a "City of Dearborn" stamp on the stock. I got it years ago from a friend on that department when that city sold all their old guns to their officers and other LEO's. But it's been gone over and it's drop-dead reliable. With it's magazine-tube extension it carries six in the magazine and one more in the chamber, giving me more than enough back-up should I need to investigate strange noises at night. But until now, I've always been limited in my ability to hold it and a flashlight, causing me to fall back on a "nightstand ready" Glock pistol, which could more easily be handled in conjunction with a hand-held flashlight. Of course that came at a stopping-power price so I finally bit the bullet and picked up this Surefire light. Now the flashlight is a permanent part of the gun, ready to switch on with the click of a button or just pop on with pressure on a pressure pad.

The light's powered by two long-life lithium batteries and the light and mount are designed to withstand the shock of the shotgun's firing. It wasn't cheap, but since it's dark roughly half of any given 24-hour cycle, you have to weigh the cost against the benefit and ask yourself how much your life's worth when and if the bad guys decide to come calling outside of the socially-acceptable daylight hours. I had one of these on my work shotgun for years as a cop, and while I'd always meant to get one, I kept putting it off. But I got a sweet deal from an acquaintance who deals in these things so I finally picked one up. I can hardly wait for it to get dark tonight so I can turn off all the house lights and play with---I mean so that I can PRACTICE with it.
And of course it's covered by Surefire's lifetime warranty. Any Surefire product that ever fails to work right will be promptly fixed or replaced at no cost. I've used their warranty service before and I can vouch for their fantastic customer service.