Originally Posted by
mudgripz
A quick thought - the little M1 Archer is a very grunty wee light but it is not intended as replacement for the more powerful M24, 2X, XPro spotlights.
Its design is more to medium range, eg as a 22 mounted light. Yes it has ANSI (the American and global standard for measuring light range) max range of 800m down to equivalent full moonlight on target, but its effective big animal spotting is more like half of that. It will run at 800m output until timer clicks it down to 3/4 power (550-600m) after 3 minutes. Still ideal for the medium range role. But the bigger lights continue to run at max output (no stepdowns), with double and more that 550-600m distance, and a great deal more light on target past 100m.
Yes you can try an M1 Archer as your main spottie, and if you've been using an equivalent size led lenser etc, the M1 will be a vast improvement. But its not the long range spottie its big brothers are - it fulfils a slightly different design role :)