I am looking at the surefire lights for my ar varmint rifle.
I am want a red lense on the light and to be able to see a coyote of fox at 200 yds.
How many lumens do I need for that?
I am thinking either a centurion C3 with a turbo head or a M4 millennium.
I have never seen either in action.
Whats the conversion from candlepower to lumens?
Thanks for your time and awnsers!!!!!!!!

There is no way to convert between Lumens and candlepower.

If you are talking about a couple hundred yards with red light then I would personally get an M500B (B) which is the same as the M6.
Using the FM25 Red BeamFilter

Al

I don't think you are going to see anything at 200 yards with a red filter.

The red filters suck the life out of your beam.  They greatly shorten the effective range of the light.

I've tried red filters on 125 lumen lights, and I know they wouldn't come close to working for you.  

Surefire's biggest light, the Dominator, with 500 lumen might stand a slim chance.

The Dominator will put out a real "wall of light" with a maximum of about 600 Lumens for about 10 minutes. There are no BeamFilters for it that I am aware of and I don't suggest it is used as a WeaponLight.

The M6 MN21 Lamp is 500Lu/20min and the FM25 is the coated glass lens that will let the most red light through.

The longest throwing, most powerful beam that SureFire have produced for a public model (that I am aware of) is the N62 500Lu/12min lamp of the 12PM/ZM in a "T" 3" diameter TurboHead which for your application needs an F46 Red BeamFilter.
The 12PM/ZM has been long since discontinued although you may still be able to find the parts to make the model I describe above (I did).

For red light to have any sort of range you need a lot of it. Perhaps a MaxaBeam with red filter. Or a MegaRay. These are not WeaponLights though.
[img]http://webpages.charter.net/kenshiro/superlights/group02.jpg[/img]
The MaxaBeam is the one with the red switch point to about 6-7 o'clock and it doesn't have it's battery pack installed. The MegaRay is the "ray gun" on the far right. The Maglites on the left are 3D and 6D I believe. Anyway, you get the idea of the size of the lights?

Al

Are the MaxaBeams still a couple thousand to buy? I'd love to have a 6 million CP light (or whatever it is) but they are a little too rich for my blood.

I assume you are out of a vehicle with this setup.

The SureFire M4 will allow you to see a coyote out at 200 on a clear night without a red filter.  

The M4 comes standard with two lamps, 250 and 350 lumens respectively.  You can get a 500 lumen lamp separately, originally designed for the 12PM/ZM.  It is/was the MN62.  Due to the power draw required for this lamp, the batteries will go into thermal shutdown after a few minutes (5-6).  When they cool down, the light will function again.

There is a red filter for the light, the FM25.  I believe the aforementioned FM24 is a beamshaper.
You may be able to still pick up eyes only with a filter on.  But runtime will be an issue in search mode.

An SureFire M3 Combatlight with a Turbo Head is your next option.  It will still reach out there, but not quite as far.

In a vehicle makes you life easier.  Get a K-Mart cheapo spotlight.  They work quite well for finding eyes with a red-filter on.  When it is time to shoot, have a partner take the red filter off, get yourself situated.  White light on at last location, pick the target up in the optic,  shoot between the running lights.

Not that I would know or ever did this on BLM controlled property.

If you really want to see and get into the HID realm, consider the McCullouch X990.  Reasonably priced for this class of light compared to the MaxiBeam, really throws a large quantity of light out there. Focusable spot to flood, 2 NiCd batteries and a car adapter.

Ken,
Thanks for picking up on my mistake (which I made twice in the same thread - I must be ill!)
SureFire FM25 Red BeamFilter

FMx3 - IR BeamFilter
FMx4 - BeamShaper
FMx5 - Red BeamFilter
FMx6 - Blue BeamFilter
FMx7 - BeamCover

I believe the McCullouch X990 is now called the Bohmen BF990 for the USA market. Strategosintl.com is one of the places to get hold of it. In the photo above, it is the one with the yellow bezel ring. The bezel can be rotated so it can be used with the body in line with the bezel (rather than at a right angle as shown).

Ken mentions that the N62 500Lu lamp for the 12PM/[M4] over heats. I've used the N62 a lot and constant-on, the SF123As tend to overheat outside at night after about 3-4 minutes. The light output for this time is amazingly white. The next 3-4 minutes after the batteries have cooled down is less amazing. The 3rd period of runtime is really time to change the batteries I find. If you use it for very short durations - flashes and bursts etc then the brilliance of 'fresh' batteries appears to last a lot longer (with "a lot" being perhaps 6-8 minutes of a maximum of about 12 minutes total runtime!)

The advantage of the SureFire M4 / M98 WeaponLight is they are light-weight and compact for the amount of light they produce and can be mounted on rifles and weapons. In addition, the switch options from SureFire allow you to have a long tape switch you can bite on/off should you want to keep your hands as still as possible when shooting (no experience, I believe I read it in the 1st Combat Tactics mag). If you have a mate spotting for you from a vehicle then that's a whole different ballgame. A vehical mounted searchlight (with a 6-12" diameter reflector!) and red filter should be powerful enough me thinks!

Al