How many of you really like the m3 light for the money? Is it good for indoor building clearing mostly,and any problems?

It is an excellent deal at half the price and size of its surefire competitor the P101 light.  

It puts out 90lumens  which is plenty of light to clear buildings in houses.  (You might want a Surefire turbohead and 300+Lumen lamp if you are clearing Hangers at the airport though.)

I use mine for home defense on a 1911. so all I need to illuminate is a std size room.

The M6X is supposed to have a larger bezel and be capable of 125lumens I think with the same 6V power source using a new bulb.  That would be an excellent deal as the light is ajustable spot-to flood for longer range needs.

[b]It is not waterproof and I have heard of corroded battery contacts in wet lights.  If you want to swim or get rained on a lot I'ld suggest you wait till NOV or Dec for the M3X and M6X respectively.

It also lacks a pressure switch designed for handguns like some of surefires products--- Insight should correct that defficiency but I doubt they will.[/b]

I like mine very well, have seen only one problem with them out of the many I've seen used and it was on a rifle.

I like mine just fine, its been through two pistol courses on the same bulb.  

A few things from greenO posts i'd like to comment on though.  The M6 has the same bulb and bezel as the M3 so your going to get the same amount of light, which is fine i haven't seen the need to go above 60 lumens or so, don't know about the M6X.  The adjustable feature is not a good thing IMO, one of those pistol courses i had my lens launch itself during one of my draws because it had come unscrewed.  In a real situation no one is going to be adjusting their light so whats the point?  And you can get presure switch conversions which replace the tailpiece, tho why you'd want one i don't know.

I did remember one other problem i had which was the crosspiece which locks it in had broken.  I called ITI and like any group of good engineers they asked me to send them the broken part for analysis, at the same time they sent me a new redesigned part that is supposed to address the problem.  That was several years ago so i'm sure that any you buy now have the fix.  

BTW i have a mount on one of my ARs and my mossberg 590 as well so i can put the same light on 3 different guns, cool huh?

I love it. Used it 3 times this week 2 times on felony warrant service. lots of light at handgun ranges yet does not appear to blind you
by reflection like some. Like it well enough that I carry it mounted at all times.

I liked it enought that I bought two. One for my HD Ar and one for my HD SGN.

Its the ideal light for indoor use. Small, light, detachable, inexpensive, illuminates targets at any range a civilian is liable to find himself shooting at.

I have two also, one on my issued glock 31c with about 3000 rounds and the same bulb and another on my ar-15 about 1400 rds and the same bulb. I am curious to see if the new one will fit existing holsters.

A guy I know has a pressure pad switch on his M3. But I have not been able to find them anywhere.

As for the M3, I lime it a lot. It's a great 25yd light.

Botach Tactical,Impact- weapons sight for leo,sceetchers or something like that has them(seen the catolog but not the website on it).

[url=http://www.insightlights.com/accessories.htm]M3 Remote Switch[/url]

I have the M3 with pressure pad, and I'm not impressed with the quality.  It is small and attaches with a piece of velcro.  I think the surefire tapeswitch is many times better.  I only own the M3 cause I didn't want to have the surefire rail on the gun all the time.  The G22 under my bed has the surefire.

Surefire had a model almost ready for release that mounted on the Glock rail but dropped it after they discovered it caused the gun to jam.  The surefire Guy I spoke to thought that the M3 would have the same problem but to a much lesser extent given it's lighter weight.

Why would it make the gun jam?  It isn't connected to any reciprocating parts.

It stiffens the frame and wont let it flex and that speeds up the cycling of the gun and you get jams... according to Glock.

whisper, i think that early efforts to mount a SF light directly to the dustcover rail cause it to flex just enough to make the frame rails bind or something like that.  But that was with the SF light with batteries mounted fore and aft.  The M3 is lighter and with the batteries mounted sXs does not provide the big lever on the dustcover.  I've never heard of a problem with the ITI or streamlight M3.

The M6X is supposed to have a 125 lumen bulb that will run for 1 hour.  (I really can't tell a big difference between 125 and that 15minute 225lumen bulb on my surefire so I guess 125lumens is enough for me.)


The comment about the pressure switch is simple.... Insight offers a pressure switch; Surefire offers a pressure switch DESIGNED FOR A HANDGUN.  Insight's pressure switch is a disaster I wouldn't use one on a handgun.

X series lights are waterproof, nothing in my price range in Surefires line is waterproof. ($300 is as much as I want to spend on a handgun light).

[b]The M6X comes out in December and I'm buying two or three of them[/b]

I have an M3 that consistently induces malfunctions in one of my Glocks (G23).  The pressure switch is also much too short for proper use.  

Hmmm, that sucks.  My G23/M3 combo has been flawless for the past year and a half.  Zero malfunctions.

I have heard that they are great on pistols, but fragile on rifles. I bought a mount for an M4 handguard, but have yet to install it. My cousin has the GGG mount, and he uses it on his AR occassionally. Mine rides on the G19 exclusively, and has been great for two handed pistol operation.

I have never used a remote switch, so can't comment about their quality, but if you guys say they suck, i believe you. Here's the pads, in varied lengths:

http://www.botachtactical.com/intecm3rem.html

some people complain about Botach, but i have ordered from them a dozen times without proplems. Call ahead, speak to someone & remember who it was, and ensure that the item is in stock, and you're good to go.

Yet not a single peson has posted here that their M3 failed on a rifle.

My Sure-fire M500 lamp failed on an AR.  My Surefire UTL lamp failed on an M1A Scout. I have had at least Surefire Handheld 6P lamps fail.

I havve two M3's. I use them on AR15's, 870, M1 Super 90, and M1A Scout. I have never had a bulb/lamp fail.

i shot my glock 22 w/ m3 light today and got 5-7 malfunctions in fifty rounds.  i'm a little bummed.  Is there a fix for this?  Anybody with a glock have this problem before?  My g22 is well maintained and inspected by a glock armorer once a year and cleaned after ever shoot.  I bought it new and have put about 700 rounds through it.

Any help would be great....sorry to hickjack the thread!!!

just frustrated....

I have an issued m3 on a Glock 22.  It produced waybad malfunctions like you described.  We replaced magazine springs with a  stiffer spring and it completely cured the problem.  Makes the last round pretty tough to stuff in the mag. I believe they are direct from Glock but I am not an armorer.  Wish I had more info, that's all I know about it.  dg.