Light it up! Nightstick is not necessarily new, but they’ve been gaining some serious steam as of late. Their latest releases include some very modern options. One of these new options is the 550XL series. The Nightstick 550XL falls into the compact genre of handgun weapon lights.
When you look at the world of handgun lights, were have several different genres of lights, and that’s rather new. It used to be simple. We had one genre of weapon light, and it fits full-sized guns. This genre was punctuated by the Streamlight TLR-1 and the Surefire X300 series. They’ve really cemented themselves as the two main go-to’s for weapon lights. Companies like modlite and Cloud Defensive are nipping at their heels, but they still dominate the full-sized market.
On the flip side, we’ve also seen the rise of compact and even subcompact lights. Compact lights like the 550XL and TLR-7 are designed for Glock 19-sized handguns. They sit flush or dang close to flush with the front of these guns, so they don’t extend the length of the firearm and barely add any weight. They really are perfect when you need your compact handgun to be compact. In the subcompact world, we have the TLR-7 SUB, the Surefire XSC, and TLR-6, but those aren’t today’s conversation.
The Nightstick 550XL — Specifications and Features
The Nightstick 550XL keeps things small and lightweight. It’s a mere 2.5 inches long and weighs 2.7 ounces with the battery installed. The light functions on a single CR123 battery and lasts for 2.5 hours at maximum brightness. It comes with a set of keys to make the light match various rails, with the Glock variant pre-installed.
The Nightstick 550XL packs a jab’s worth of light power. It’s got 550 lumens backed by 4,600 candela. So what do those numbers mean? It means you get a decent level of light for concealed carry ranges. Five hundred fifty lumens and 4,600 candela certainly isn’t a rifle range light by any means. Compact lights like this offer enough power to establish positive identification at concealed carry ranges. Don’t expect a spotlight, but it’s competitive with lights this size.
The Nightstick 550XL does have a set of ambidextrous levers that are quite easy to manipulate, and you can turn it on and off with either your trigger finger or thumb. They are pushed rearward and sit right flush with the inside of the trigger guard. This makes them exceptionally easy to access and activate.
At the Range
Recoil is the great destroyer of gun accessories. It’s what rips cheaper red dots to pieces and breaks everything, given enough time and ammo. Any weapon light test needs a hefty dose of lead thrown downrange, so I went after it. I installed the Nightstick 550XL to a Glock 19 and started lighting things up!
Both literally and figuratively. Seriously, I turned the light on and launched some lead. Rapid fire, slow fire, drills, and so on and so forth. Just a good round of training for everyone. I used my cell phone in selfie mode to examine if the light blipped, blinked, or failed in any way. In all of my shooting, I never observed any failures of the light.
I kept the lens wiped off, and that’s the only downside. Having the head of the light flush with the barrel does create some more excessive than normal powder accumulation. Will it actually diminish your light? Possibly, but it will take a whole lot of shooting and a purposeful avoidance of weapon maintenance. A little chapstick on the lens before training makes wiping it off super easy. That’s a free pro tip for you. Or, well, a free tip for an enthusiastic amateur.
Water and Fall
Nightstick built the 550XL to be tough and reliable. It’s capable of being submerged one meter deep for half an hour without issue. It’s impact resistant for two meters as well. To test this claim, I dropped it. I’m over six feet tall, so if I drop it from chest height, it’s within the two-meter rating. I dropped it forward, on its sides over and over with the light turned on. It never even blinked.
To take the dirt off, I sprayed it with a hose, and again, no problems with the water. I dropped the thing into my kid’s pool, and, big surprise, it shrugged it off. It was detached from the Glock, and my youngest got a real kick about a flashlight working underwater.
In the Darkness
The light shrugs off live fire with ease. It eats through recoil and doesn’t blink in the face of a few dozen El Presidente drills. So how does it perform when the lights go out? The beam is a bright white light that sits on the cool side with a rather whitish beam to it. With only 4,600 candelas, the range isn’t far, so Nightstick built it to be wide.
To be clear, at this point, it’s tough to squeeze out much more power from a light this size. Nightstick focused on making the light a little more capable for close-range work, which is a wise design decision. The beam fills your vision from side to side and creates a bright light and wide beam. There is a very noticeable difference between the hot spot and the rest of the beam.
Indoors, it lights rooms up and makes it easy to find and identify a potential threat or recognize a friend from a foe. Even when using the light as an indirect lighting tool, it’s enough power to cast a reflection of light so you can avoid pointing your gun at everything. Indoors is where it shines, pun intended.
When you hit outdoors, the environment matters. In a huge field like where I live, the range is limited. Beyond 20ish yards and a bad guy might be tough to identify without direct threatening behavior. In an outdoor, urban environment, then, the light is a little more effective.
Final Thoughts
The Nightstick 550XL delivers competitive performance when compared to other weapon lights, at a fantastic price. It’s one of the most affordable weapon lights on the market and delivers excellent performance. We get a bright light that’s made to be durable and easy to use. From the controls to the battery life, the Nightstick 550XL delivers.
