A white light, in my opinion, is a must have accessory on any weapon system meant for self-defense or duty use. I’m not talking about your range toy; any weapon you rely on to fight for your life should have a weapon light. You need to identify what to shoot at or not shoot at.

Today I’ll talk you through weapon light setup for your rifle.

Obviously, there are many ways to skin a cat. I’ll go over my preferred method on my rifles. It may or may not work for you; Always do what’s best for you, not for me or anyone else.

One important thing to consider: make sure you’re running a high quality weapon light, not a cheap Big 5 special or crap off of the internet. Remember the purpose it serves, to illuminate and give you crucial information in a deadly force situation. You can’t afford to have it fail.

I’m a right handed shooter, so I place the weapon light on the right side or 3 o’clock position of my rifle so it isn’t in the way of my support hand.

On a side note, I prefer offset mounts as long as they won’t get in the way of other devices I might run. They get the light closer to the rail, lowering the total profile of your weapon system.

Since the light is on the opposite side of my support hand, a remote switch is required. Although I’m right handed, I like to set up my rifle as ambidextrous as I can so if I have to switch to my left, I can still use my light. To accomplish this, I mount the switch to the top rail via Cloud Defensive LCS. I like the LCS because it’s a solid mount that not only protects the switch, but manages the wires with the integrated cable channels. Wire/cable management is important because if they’re hanging off your weapon, they can snag and possibly eliminate your ability to activate your light entirely. With a switch at the top position, I can easily reach and find it with either thumb in all conditions.

It took me years of trial and error with numerous setups before I found that this works best for me. It should suit most shooters, but not all. See what works for you, and run whatever setup you end up with dry runs and live fire at the range until you feel confident in your ability to run it in all conditions.