Yeah I'm just being a goober. The illuminator is as stout as any, with the exception of some restricted handheld units, or the surefire Hellfighter with IR filter. The high setting is just so stinking bright though, that its not that useful for MOST aiming. It is useful for target designation though. However, since Im not in the service anymore, Ive had a hard time getting any apache's to respond to my call for fire requests on my Motorola walkabout. It's like they just leave you swaying in the breeze when you get out!
That's fucking funny. I called for an A-10 airstrike the other night, neighbors were partying too loud. Fuckers never showed up, I had the target lased and my buddy was pulling rear security. We sat there ALL night! Had to didi mao at stand to though. We thought they were in the AO at one point, we tried to signal but wound up lasing a 787 instead. FBI came to check it out, they just left when we told them we were on a mission, OPSEC and all, and that they'd have to contact our command stationed at the local VFW (a good cover).
Just kidding, couldn't resist.
The high beams are mostly for designation. The class1 works pretty well (well, the low setting on a PEQ2A) to accurately hit targets to 300m. I know this because about half the students had the safety blocks on when we did it. Even on low, the illuminator on the PEQ is the tits. It can be focused much better, it's collimated light (basically a wide angle laser). Still, the soft glow of the surefire IR lights is much more useable under normal conditions, so I use one of those grip lights (the 720v is the same but no grip). I usually just leave the laser on low. Like was said, on high, it just blooms the shit out of everything. So I'll likely get one of those civvie lasers myself one day, since they are smaller.
Be careful buying PEQ's off ebay. They report all this stuff to the army. I know because they told me when I tried to post some old armor on there (which can be bought by the stack at surplus stores here, so I doubt it's stolen --CID makes regular visits I hear). Then when they have time, two or three years later, they'll come looking for IT. They won't want you, just their shit back. I read about that on other forums. One guy gave the NCIS his NODs, when they were actually looking for a stolen 3x magnifier he bought. He got 'em to come back and swap it out.