Hi guys,  I was lucky enough to purchase a couple M961 lights here on the EE and I picked up a couple M952's on another board all for a great price.  It seems to me however the M961/2 weapons light is rather large for use with the M4 Carbine.  I've search for a history on the issue and use of these but I've not been able to find any historical data on these lights, there's quite a lot of technical information and that's always useful but I'm a member of a small military museum call Patriots Hall in SC and I'd like to get as much back ground data on who was the typical end user and how they were deployed.  When we do our displays we like to be as accurate as possible.  If you used any of these on deployment or know of a web site that covers the use of these I'd appreciate you input.  Donald

we had M951's and later 952's with the throw levers issued to us for our M4 carbines. I only saw 961's on a couple of M16A4's, but nowhere near as common as the 951's.

As far as I can tell, all of them were just a particular evolution of lights designed for the military by Surefire at the time.  

The M96X lights with three cells (batteries) put out more lumens, whereas the 95X series sacrificed some lumens in favor of a reduction of size and weight.  From photo searches alone, the series were available to both special units and regular ground troops.  SOCOM's SOPMOD M4 rifle accessory program specified these weaponlights.

If you haven't done so already, you may want to contact Surefire for more info?

Thanks for the input guys.  I've been able to find quite a few photos on line but there does not seem to be any info on military doctrine and use.  I'm sure there has to be a TB, TM or FM that covers the use of weapons lights.  I spent 18 years in service in helicopters and there's some type of pub that covers every thing that a soldier could do in rotor wing unit and I can't imagine the Infantry escaping the book nerds and their need to kill trees to print as much crap as possible.

I've haven't ever seen a TM on weapon lights not saying there isn't one just never seen one.  From my experience the use of lights has been a unit SOP thing or left up to the individual.  I've seen 952s and 962s issued interchangeably by units.  Most don't care you just get what the armorer has available, or what you could talk him into.  I haven't seen any 962s on anything since 2012 and that was one of the BDEs from the 82nd and it seemed like a random mix of 962s and 952s on the M4s.  Just finishing another tour in Afghanistan and it seems like everyone has switched over to the 952Vs since I haven't seen a incan Surefire over the last 9 months.

Like others said you used to go to the 96x series for more light and throw over what the 95x could give you.  But it came with more weight and batteries.  I can remember guys with M4s with PEQ-4s and 962s when I was at Campbell back in 05, want to talk about heavy stuff on the rail.  This deployment I didn't even bother putting the light on, just a PEQ-15 since I had that a sighted in and wire tied to the rail. Of course we weren't kicking in doors and running night operations like past deployments.so didn't need the light always mounted.

Speaking of tied down, every unit I've been in made us tie our stuff to the rail.  We either had to use 550 cord or lacing wire. This included our lights, lasers and sights. This deployment the armorer actually had to do it and there was a specific standard that they had to follow but that was because the CSM established the standard.  Other units just required that stuff be tied to the rail to reduce the likely hood of losing something.

Thank you FA-Gunner that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for.  Most will think it silly but the little details will get lost over time and our children and Grand Children will not have access to info like this if it's not recorded and preserved now by the men and women that actually were there.