You may remember Streamlight’s SHOT Show 2016 announcement of the expansion of their ProTac line to include new rail mountable versions of these popular lights. The internet took one look at them and cried bloody murder about them being a copy of Surefire’s Scout series of lights. The opinion was likely based on the similar rail clamp and it did, in fact, turn out that the lights were compatible with Scout mounts.
From the initial announcement, I have never thought of these lights as copies. In fact, I think that the opinion that these are copies of Scout lights is actually very shortsighted. I have now been able to handle a ProTac Rail Mount 2 and I have some of the lights inbound for my own testing. This has confirmed my opinion that these lights are not copies.
The lights themselves are very different from Surefire Scout lights. You would never confuse one for the other. The Streamlight products are very much like Streamlight’s current ProTac line which many people (including Frank Proctor) have been using successfully on rifles for years. The family lineage is obvious.
The rail mount is extremely similar if not identical to Surefire’s Scout Light mounts. This may be the source of much of the consternation but I look at it as a very strong positive. This could signal a move toward an industry standard light mounting interface. We already have a host of aftermarket light bodies on the market that use this same mount interface and no one is crying about those. End users now how the choice of Surefire Scout Light, various after-market Scout compatible components, or the new ProTac Rail Mounts with all of these options using the same wide selection of mounts. This, I believe, is very good for the consumer.
The Streamlight ProTac Rail Mount Lights are not copies at all. They are a budget oriented light option that makes use of what is hopefully becoming an industry standard mount.
