Let's realize that there are a lot of players with no other concern but to earn money from uninformed customers. It appears the easiest way to make money is to give some gadget a "tactical" sounding name or otherwise make the impression that this is what the military (and/or search and rescue, police etc) are using.



Which is EXACTLY why your BS meter should go off. Loud and clear. They will probably not tell you a flat out lie, but they will leave an impression that it is so. Military this, military that, tacticool both here and there.


Notice that the regular signaling mirror may actually be OK, for all I know. But with all this other BS I would be highly surprised: Why should a company that makes an absolutely worthless piece of junk tie it together with a high quality mirror? Possible, but highly unlikely.

Doug has some very good and affordable signal mirror recommendations. Stick with them.

Like I said, I use a starflash. It may not be the best mirror, but it's good enough for my intended use. I never had to use it in an emergency yet, but I usually prefer not to get lost to ever need to use it.

I like to give things a fair shake however. I may not find a mirror with a red filter any good, but the next guy may think its the best thing going. To each his own. I just don't like trashing something totally till I have heard about it from people that actually used it. Someone here did, and his comments made perfect sense.

I understand what you mean by tacticool though. I hate that stuff....

It sounds like the "red" side is really red retroreflective material and not really a mirror.

You're right, if you have a flashlight, I'd use it because you can see the light from most flashlights more than 3 miles away. If there is greater than a half moon out, the regular signal mirror can be effective signal if no other better devices are available.

It does seem poorly thought out.

Tom

Red light thing - dumb. Looks like a muzzle flash. Use a flashlight with a filter, either IR or blue, to attract attention.

A red muzzle flash ? You guys down south hunting with laser rifles or what? Unless in a tactical situ how is IR or blue going to help you any better than red will ?

I was addressing the tactical aspect, more or less. Yes, red will appear to be a muzzle flash or tracer, my bad, I left out tracer.

And the NVGs most helicopter pilots wear will pick up IR easily.

Blue is also used as for some reason it attracts attention, dunno why. I imagine this is why the cops went to blue flashers. It can be used in tactical or non-tactical situations.