I have never been a weapons light guy. No idea why not. Maybe it was simply for lack of having used one. With the Olight Pl-1 II Valkyrie (Amazon Link) things might have changed.

Used to be there were little choices in firearms lights. You had Surefire lights and junk not to be trusted. Surefire was the standard in high-quality lights. And they charged for it too.

Then companies Like Olight and Foursevens started to innovate. Whereas the Surefire rested on its laurels and overcharged.

That is why I have never owned a Surefire. And why at this time Olight is my top pick for all my flashlight needs.

Let’s get into the Olight Pl-1 II Valkyrie and why you might want to add it to your preps.

Olight Pl-1 II Valkyrie Stats

Applicable on MIL-STD-1913 and Glock sized rails.
IPX6 Waterproof .
Uses a single CR123A battery delivering an output of 450 lumens and a beam distance of 106 meters
Switch on/off silently. Push forward directly or hit the side of the switch to activate
Heavy duty stainless steel lever making it easy and fast to attach and release
Hardened glass coated with an anti-reflective coating on both sides allowing for 99% light transmission rate for maximum clarity

The Good

I’ve talked about it before. When it comes to lights Lumens are king. It is always better to have more lumens available than less. In my review of the Olight H1 Nova, I went on

In my review of the Olight H1 Nova, I went on about how great it was. A large part of that is the 500 lumens it packs.

The Olight Pl-1 II Valkyrie packs 450 lumens. You can easily move around in the dark with 450 lumens to see by. You don’t want to be trying to move around a dark house with a weak light.

Shining the Olight Pl-1 II Valkyrie into the eyes of a home intruder will give you a major advantage. In my testing, I immediately closed my eyes and had spots dancing in my vision for a few minutes.

Turning the light on and off is easy. The button depresses without too much force. I don’t want to struggle to turn on my weapons light while holding my firearm.

There are no crazy modes to mess you up with. Press one side of the tail cap to come straight on. Press both sides for strobe mode.

The Bad

The Olight Pl-1 II Valkyrie will eat batteries. It will eat 1 CR123 battery every 60 minutes to be precise. And CR123 batteries are not cheap.

I would highly recommend rechargeable batteries and a charger. 1 hour is plenty of time for a home sweep. But if you want to train with the Olight Pl-1 II Valkyrie, and you should, then get rechargeable batteries.

I did my testing of the weapons light mounted on my AR15. And it mostly worked great.

Turning the light on and off where I had rails to mount it to was awkward. If I had rails on my heat shield I would be better. Or if the Olight Pl-1 II Valkyrie had a remote switch to mount near the trigger.

Conclusion

I think that the Olight Pl-1 II Valkyrie is a great weapons light for any handgun. The mounting and ease of use paired with the 450 lumens are great.

I think it is decent for an AR15. Unless you can mount it right by your hand so you can activate it without moving your hand. In which case, it would be a great addition.