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Modern sporting rifles, carbines and shotguns − being patterned after military-issue designs under multiple points of view − already feature several attachment points, railed interfaces and other factory-issued systems that allow quick compatibility with a plethora of accessories, some more useful than others in everyday life. One of the most popular accessories thereof is the gunlight, a powerful lighting source gernerally mounted under the barrel or right besides it − in a parallel position − that will allow the civilian shooter or professional operator to quickly and easily illuminate the area the gun is being pointed at.
Now, there may, and may be not, a wide array of situations in which a tactical gunlight may actually be useful; nonetheless, tactical lights are extremely sought-after items, for handguns, shotguns, rifles and carbines alike, and as a matter of fact the volume of tactical lights sold worldwide every year greatly outnumbers the sales of guns themselves.
And what about "common" shotguns? Almost all so-called "experts" agree: nothing performs better than a shotgun as a home defense weapon. And yet − apart from the most modern, tactical-style pump-action and autoloading shotguns − most double-barrel shotguns and generally all typically hunt-oriented models feature no attachment point for gunlights or any other accessory so far. But necessity is the mother of inventions, and there's plenty of solutions available as aftermarket add-ons to make your average 12-gauge hunting shotguns fit a tactical light for night-time home defense situations.
Under this point of view, one of the most interesting solutions we've been able to see and evaluate in quite a while now is the X-WM01 universal mount, manufactured in China by the Olight Technology Company and available worldwide through authorized Olight distributors, including Kentron in Europe and Olight USA in north America.
The X-WM01 is an X-shaped, lightweight aluminium alloy machined mount, whose lower portion consists in a ring-shaped, adjustable cradle that will fit any tactical flashlight with a tube diameter ranging from 23 and 26 millimetres; the upper, V-shaped portion consists instead in two powerful magnets that will allow attachment to any rifle, carbine, or shotgun barrel.
The X-WM01 is sturdy, and the two magnets have an extreme attrition force: a discreet pull is required to remove the Olight X-WM01 once it's attached, and it will as a matter of fact stick to the barrel even if the gun is chambered for high-power, high-impulse, high-recoil cartridges. The only required precaution would be to avoid installing the X-WM01 too close to the muzzle: the combined effect of the recoil and muzzle flash together will still not be enough to detach it, but they may make it slide out and fall down.
