My First Proper 'TACTICAL' Flashlight? Wowtac BSS V3 Review

Hello there, welcome back. In this video we're going to be taking a look at this tactical flashlight which is the WowTac BSS-V3. That stands for Black Scout Survival Version 3. This is something that's been developed by a guy who runs a YouTube channel called, coincidentally, Black Scout Survival. And he's developed this in conjunction with ThruNite, or at least ThruNite Technology. I think this WowTac is actually one of ThruNite's other companies or something like that, I don't know. It's basically ThruNite and Black Scout Survival. I've never actually heard of Black Scout Survival which might sound quite criminal because he seems to have a really good following on YouTube, but he's a guy who seems to know what he's talking about and he's got a lot of interesting videos. So if you're into bushcraft, survival, prepping, check him out. I'll put the link to his channel in the video description. I'll put the link to where you can buy this in the video description as well. And if you're interested in something that works very very well and has good features please watch on. Okay you've got the main flashlight with a strike bezel or bezel which can be taken off and you've also got a red filter and a red filter when used on a night will preserve your night vision. White light, especially if it's reflected, tends to absolutely knacker your night vision, but a red light doesn't. It's very kind on it. We've also got a couple of spare seals and a charging cable and also a little clip that enables you to keep it on a belt, in your pocket or on a peaked cap. Now this has got quite a few features that have actually been stripped away from similar lights and that actually makes it better. So first of all we've got our on-off switch on the end. No protection around it, so obviously if it's in a backpack, it can get switched on and off. So really for transport purposes, you just unscrew that half a turn, now it can't be switched on and off. When you're normally carrying it, that'll be screwed right up. On-off switch there, and when it comes on, it's always in high. And that's good, because every time I switch the flashlight on, I want the highest output, because I want to see what the hell's going on. If you want a lesser output, press the function button. Medium Low back to high. And if you keep this button pressed, it goes into strobe. Now when you've got that switched off, this button here automatically puts it into strobe when you press it and it comes on really quick. Here we go. And because the function button is there, it allows us to carry the flashlight in a defensive position like that, allowing us to strike with this and blind people An ordinary flashlight. Another on-off switch on the end. Now a function button nearer the bulb, therefore it would generally be carried like that. And although this one's actually called tactical, this one is not very tactical at all because of the positioning of that and the lack of anything to strike back with here. This may be the first truly tactical flashlight that I have owned. Okay, just a quick note on the output. On high we've got 1050 lumens, runtime 2.7 hours. Medium, 208 lumens. Runtime, 8 hours. Low, 22 lumens. Runtime, 2.5 days. So you'd leave that on constantly, like that, for 2.5 days. And strobe is actually the highest setting of the lot, 1150. And that's going to do some damage. Now as far as the actual robustness of this thing goes it's rated for a drop distance of one meter so if you're carrying it more or less at hip height and you drop it onto concrete it should not break but that's a drop. I'm going to test it a little bit harder than that in a minute so watch out for those results and as far as being waterproof goes it's rated IPX7 which is fully submersible down to one meter and the battery that comes with it Is USB rechargeable and that one is 3,400 milliamps, so it's a high-capacity 18650 battery. It's a very good one. Okay, I might as well apologize if I'm gonna be mispronouncing the name of this thing. It's B-E-Z-E-L. Most people would say Bezel, I would say Bezel. Because Bez, of the Happy Mondays, B-E-Z, and he wasn't called Bees, he was called Bez. So I'll be saying bezel. I'll also be saying flashlight. And I might say torch. They're both the same thing. It really doesn't matter. You know, don't get hung up on it. This is a light of some sort. Okay, so we've seen the main on-off switch. And we've also seen this little switch here, which puts it straight into strobe. And that is exceptionally useful. What a marvellous place for it that is. Most of the time, the function switch would be down here. And down there, it means you've got to operate it with your thumb. or your little finger that isn't ideal when it's up at this end next to your main switch put it on alter the modes without altering what you're doing with your fingers that's pretty important there you go and when we switch it on always comes on in high medium low and then off the little function button hold that for what seems like half second or thereabouts hold that straight Straight into strobe. Therefore, if we've got some fool running at us with a knife, And we've got our flashlight or torch in a more or less in a fighting stance we can block that whilst at the same time blinding them so we can block that and strike at the same time into the face into the side of the head and this in there is going to hurt a lot or we could go upstairs downstairs to the side of the knee i wouldn't want it anywhere i wouldn't even want it in my guts and that's pretty soft although i'd rather have it in there than there And that's going to hurt a hell of a lot more than a standard flashlight because we've got those points there. Also, if somebody's coming in with a kick, bang, onto the shin, and that's going to just obliterate your shin. It's going to be about a million times worse than when your pedal slipped when you were a little lad and you had a BMX. Pedal would go around whacking. My shins are absolutely shredded off my old bikes. But I would rather take all those hits than one with that. Because you've got that instantly accessible strobe, Chances are, you wouldn't even have to block an attack. Shining that straight into somebody's eyes, even during the daytime, well, let's just have a look. Now I've got a huge, well, I've got a huge blind spot in the middle of my vision. That is disorientating. Someone's attacking you, wallop, straight in their eyes, from a distance, and just run away. And as Bruce Lee famously said in Enter the Dragon, that is the art of fighting without fighting. The further you can stay away from somebody, the safer you're going to be. That enables you to do it. How quickly you can access that. Find a suitable tree and we'll see just how hard this can hit. It'll be interesting. Okay, I was going to test this on a big softwood tree with quite thin bark, but I know for a fact that that trunk is quite soft. This would dig into it no problem at all. Let's try it on a telegraph pole that's been here for the last 20 years in the sun. Absolutely rock hard. I'm in danger of breaking the flashlight trying this from a normal position. Okay, there we go. And that is a really old hard wood. I've actually broken it, not structurally by the looks of it, that still looks fine, but internally, oh god, I've actually knackered the battery. The little nipple that normally sticks up, it's been pushed back and smashed, so now this battery is knackered. Right, let's dig out a new battery and see if I have broken this entirely. Hey, there we go. Back to work in ways. Unfortunately I had to destroy a perfectly good battery to bring you that last test, which to be honest I'm a little bit peeved off about because it's an exceptionally good battery and it does have the ability to charge as well from a micro USB. But structurally this fella survived and I'm impressed by that. Look at that. Just give you a little close-up, not one of those points is bent and yet they all Stuck into that telegraph pole really, really hard. Let's see what it's like in the dark. Okay, I think we'll try this one in an indoor setting, with it being a tactical light. So we'll start with high, no problem at all. Medium and low. Finally, the strobe. Okay, let's take it outside. Okay, now the furthest point you're gonna be able to see to is approximately 35 to 40 yards away. And I think you're only going to be able to see that far with the strobe and the high, so we'll start on high. Switch to medium. You'll notice that bank side that was visible right at the top of the screen there has disappeared, and now we're on low. Certainly fine for navigating your way through trees. That's no problem at all. Take a quick look at strobe, and off, and back to high. That's certainly as much light as you're ever going to need. I mean you could hunt rabbits with that sort of a light, certainly blind somebody with that sort of a light, and you could navigate over medium distances with that sort of a light as well, no problem at all. And this is with the red filter on, that's in high. See there's hardly any glare coming off those trees, that really goes a long way to maintaining your night vision. Knock it down to medium, and I'm not sure you're going to be able to see low, but this is low. Just back onto high. But, I mean, medium is going to be any amount for negotiating your way through trees in woodland. There you go. Thanks very much for watching. Check out my other videos. There's hundreds of them on all sorts of topics. If you've liked the video, hit the thumbs up and share it wherever you think anybody else might benefit from viewing it. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.