so my friend picked up one of these on sale for me - $87 OTD. 600+ lumens.

I rock a protac light for my EDC light and find it to be quite durable and effective (yes, I've had to use it).

For $100 or so, you get A LOT of light. it comes with the dual mode pressure switch (something surefire charges $80 more for), zip ties, adhesive AND the same damn mounting system that comes with the surefire scout lights.

Take 2 cr123 batts (other version can do the same with the addition of a AA as well.

Construction is solid - just as solid as my mini scout light. It's a bit bigger then the mini scout, but not by much.

SureFire for the most part has owned the weaponlight market, but i can see protac giving them a run for their $, expecially at 1/3rd the price.

Have one en route.  What is the beam like? Size of hot spot, and size of spill?  Is there any noticeable beam tint?  What kind of distance capability does it have?  Where can I get one for $87?  I'd most likely pick up another at that price.

lights up a whole damn room. specifcs I dont have, just know it's bright as hell and the duel mode pressure pad IMO has a much better feel than the surefire.

My friend got it at GT's in austin, tx.

I talked to the Streamlight rep at Shot Show about these lights. Great light at a great price. He also confirmed that their lights should work with existing mounts that were designed for the Surefire scouts.

My Streamlight ProTac Rail Mount 1's do fit mounts designed for the Surefire scouts, like the Magpul scout mount shown below.
Tomac

how do you like the mount/position of the light?

I take it you're referring to my photo above? If so...
Pros: Minimizes bbl shadow, minimizes weight, holds light as close to the side of the rifle as possible, thumb rest on scout mount improves retention and controllability, w/light that far forward, my support hand forefinger wants to move to the front lip of the handguard (YMMV).
Cons: Forefinger on the front of the grip can result in finger touching hot metal if front sling swivel & mount aren't removed & felt heat on finger through gloves even if removed. Perhaps it's my  fingers and/or technique, but I found it difficult to maintain momentary-on while shooting w/o either inadvertently going to constant-on or the light going out (again, YMMV). Height of light makes it visible in the lower left corner of my MRO's FOV (no hindrance to shooting that I can detect, but still worth mentioning).

What helped partially w/this was moving the scout mount one notch back which improved hand placement w/o worsening bbl shadow (but still difficulty w/switch control):


What I'm experimenting w/now is the light at 9 o'clock combined w/using a vfg (I'm a fan of vfg's but am not married to them). This does create a 3 o'clock bbl shadow and adds 2oz of weight due to the vfg, but retention/control is much improved as is switch control (I have to make a deliberate effort to go from momentary-on to constant-on and I have no problems maintaining momentary-on while shooting) and the light isn't visible through the optic:


Tomac

I have the short version (RM1) on my SBR and am very happy with it. Don't have much to compare it to aside from a couple G2X on other ARs and a TLR1 on my 22lr pistol, but the Protac RM is a great light for the money.

i gotta post a pic, but i mounted it on a gear sector mount to offset it a bit on my rail. so far i've been super happy with it.

Shown below: