Survival Flashlight: 14 Improvised Uses

A real survival flashlight should be able to survive the harshest of conditions.

Heat, moisture, and high impacts should be a non-issue if it’s truly tactical.

And I’d also argue that it should have more uses than just illumination.

If it’s going to truly live up to its survival nameplate; it needs to be designed to help keep you alive.

To help you survive.

Are You Ready For The Tough Times Ahead? Take My 60 Sec Quiz To See If You’re Part Of ‘The Fragile Masses’ Or Not… Start Quiz Now!

So what could be more tactical than a flashlight that has 14 survival uses?

So in this article, we’ll cover 14 improvised uses for the FireHawk LED Tactical Flashlight.

Get A FREE FireHawk Tactical Flashlight (+S&H)

1. Defend Yourself From A Threat

There are two ways this tough everyday carry flashlight can neutralize a threat.

1. You can momentarily blind someone with its intense laser-focused beam of light.
2. You can strike them with it.

Let’s cover option one first.

This super bright LED flashlight is so bright; it comes from the factory with a yellow caution sticker. A sticker that warns you (the owner) against shining it directly into someone’s eyes.

So just how intense is this little-LED survival flashlight?

Try to recall an experience when some jackass forgot to turn off his high-beam headlights. Remember that burning sensation when your vision became temporarily impaired, and you had to blink multiple times to clear your retinas?

Shining this survival flashlight directly into your eyes feels a lot like that; maybe even worse.

So do not underestimate this option for self-defense.

It’s an effective and surprising maneuver in an unfriendly encounter. And not just useful at night either, during the day this LED flashlight is just as effective at blinding a foe.

Fundamentally, a threat can’t hit (or shoot) what it can’t see.

Stunning a threat with a super bright, focused LED beam of light pointed directly into their eyes will give you the upper hand. It will give you a few crucial seconds to react first. Enough time for you to fight or flee.

If you decide to fight, I recommend you move quickly and decisively against your temporarily blinded adversary.

Remember, you’re in danger so forget a “fair fight,” strike them before they know what hit them.

This is a HUGE advantage; don’t waste it.

If you choose to flee instead, again, act as quickly as possible to slip away before your opponent can fully recover. Before they can detect which direction you escaped.

There’s also a second way to use your FireHawk Tactical Flashlight as a self-defense weapon.

I want you to take a close look at the tip of this flashlight. See those metal prongs? See the deep grooves along the side?

Also, take note of the size of this survival flashlight and how well it fits in the palm of your hand.

Because of these tactical design elements (size, prongs, and grip), this flashlight makes for an excellent blunt forced melee weapon.

Now, of course, you wouldn’t use this method in any fight, but you would if your life depended on it.

The fit, the grip, and the metal prongs all add up to an ideal weapon to knock your foe out cold. Bring the tip of the flashlight down hard on your adversary and if you strike a blow in the perfect location, they will crumble to the ground straight away.

Just watch the damage that a FireHawk Flashlight can inflict on this poor orange:

2. Hide Your Small Valuables

There are numerous reasons why having a small hidden chamber is beneficial, but for those who can’t think of any off-hand, I’ll give you two that come to mind.

1. If you’re traveling through a less-than-desirable neighborhood and you’re concerned about getting mugged. You could hide a bit of cash or jewelry to appear as if you had no valuables.
2. You happen you be carrying an item considered illegal in some states. So you stash that item in your FireHawks hidden chamber to keep your secret safe.

The bottom line is this:

If you find yourself in a situation where you need to hide something small, just remove the AA battery forming a discrete empty storage chamber.

3. Quietly Coordinate An Attack

You can use the soft and subtle clicking sound from the on/off button to signal a coordinated action.

Instead of shouting “1,2,3 let’s get ’em!”, you could click your FireHawk’s on/off button, and your team would know to spring into action on an unsuspecting foe.

Obviously, strategic coordination like this takes pre-planning, but the subtle click sound is a perfect action-signaling device.

4. Start A Fire With The Battery

Your FireHawk Flashlight requires a single AA battery; that’s it. But did you know you can use a single AA battery to start a fire?

All you need is a small strip of foil (gum wrappers work great for this).

Fold the foil. Then touch both ends of the foil to the opposite ends of a juiced battery and the foil will burst into flame.

How to start a fire with an AA Battery and a gum wrapper

So by carrying a working FireHawk Flashlight and a small pack of gum, you can improve your chances of survival by having the ability to create fire in a pinch.

And that’s what preparing, adapting, and overcoming are all about, using what you have with you to survive.

5. Throw A Stalker Off Your Trail

Let’s imagine for a second that you noticed a stalker. It’s at night, and you’d like to throw your stalker off your trail. You can accomplish this in 2 ways.

You can flash a beam of light onto an object located away from your current position. This will hopefully confuse the stalker who is following you.

They will see the flash of light and will stop to figure out what it was. They may even gravitate toward what they saw. Either way, the hesitation, and the confusion may give you enough time to slip away undetected.

The other way you can use your FireHawk Flashlight as a diversion tool is just to chuck it. The loud sound of it landing and hitting other objects will confuse a stalker and lead them toward the noise and away from you.

Personally, I’d rather keep the survival flashlight with me in case I needed to use it as a self-defense weapon, but for others, throwing it as a diversion device may make more sense.

Plus, the shape, size, and weight of this flashlight make it a good object to throw a long distance.

Objects that are too small or too light won’t work nearly as well because you can’t throw them far enough. Light objects also won’t make much noise.

6. Work In The Dark Hands-Free

This is a hand-held flashlight, not a headlamp, so how can you use it to work “hands-free”?

One of the smartest features of this flashlight is the recessed on/off button.

Having this button recessed helps prevent accidental activation, but it also allows you to set this survival flashlight down on a flat surface with the LED light facing up.

So you can turn it on, set it down (light end up), and then get to work with both hands.

While this setup is not as ideal as a good headlamp, it will provide enough ambient light in a dark room to accomplish most tasks. Better than trying to hold the flashlight in your teeth or working in the dark!

7. Catch Fish In The Wilderness

Hopefully, you never need to go to these lengths, and if you do, you’re going to lose its flashlight functionality. So there is a significant tradeoff to this survival use.

However, if push comes to shove, you can rip the small spring out of the button circuitry and use it to make several small fish hooks.

These hooks will only work for small fish (small lake trout or bluegill). The spring hooks won’t be robust enough to haul in a 40-pound channel catfish.

So you now have a couple of makeshift fishhooks, but you also need a bit of lead weight to keep the hooks at the bottom of the lake (where the fish are).

Fortunately, this flashlight comes apart into three sections; i.e. three chunks of metal. So tie one of these flashlight parts to your fishing line and it will help keep your hook on the bottom of the pond.

Now, before someone complains, I agree this setup is less than ideal. Catching fish with this rig won’t be easy and may not even be worth the effort, but that’s for you to decide.

Plus, worms and fishing lines are not included so you’ll need to figure those out.

8. Create Some Highly Flammable Tinder

This use and the next use are my favorites for the FireHawk Flashlight. You CAN start a fire using just the parts of this flashlight without the battery.

But before starting a fire, you’ll need some fine highly flammable tinder. The dryer and finer the tinder, the easier it will be to light.

Remember those deep grooves located on the side of your flashlight?

You can use these grip grooves to create fine tinder. I’d rather use a fixed-blade survival knife for this, but if you accidentally leave it behind this works fairly well.

Apply some downward force while quickly rubbing the grooves across a stick. These grooves will cut out small fibers of wood. Keep doing this until you get a small pile of fine tinder. Now you’re ready to ignite this fine tinder pile.

9. Start A Fire With The Lens

Here’s the fun part. Remove your FireHawks LED focus lens from the tip. This lens does an amazing job of focusing light, similar to a magnifying glass.

So for this to work, you will need it to be sunny out. Even partly cloudy will make this a challenging proposition.

However, if you do have a sunny day, angle the focus lens to capture the direct sunlight and focus it onto the tinder. Make sure you have the curved side facing toward the sun for maximum energy focus.

Also, the tighter you focus the light, the denser the energy will be. Once you got it just right, hold it steady for a few minutes, and viola….you’ve made fire!

10. Create A High Powered Spotlight

To be honest, this one will work with most flashlights (not just the FireHawk) but I like the power and size combination of the FireHawk to make this project as badass as possible.

First, you need to build a small mounting structure and then point the FireHawk directly through a magnifying glass.

It’s a simple but effective DIY project that almost anyone can complete in about an hour.

DIY Spotlight From A Flashlight

Now you have a setup that’s perfect for spotting animals or intruders on your property with ease.

11. Help Stash Your Food From Predators

If you’re camping in a primitive location or backpacking where bears are present, it’s recommended that you hang your food.

Hanging your food keeps it safe from bears and other wildlife. It’s a backpacking requirement in places like Glacier National Park where Grizzlies are prevalent.

In order to hang your food, you first put all your food into a bag or pouch. Next, you tie some string or paracord to the pouch and throw the opposite end of your string up over a high branch. The branch needs to be fairly high for this to work properly.

However, a good high branch is far to toss a light string over without using an object with some weight. Rocks work ok for this, but they are a pain to tie a string around without it slipping off.

So here’s where you’re FireHawk Flashlight comes in handy. It’s actually the perfect size and shape for throwing.

Plus, it’s got a heavy-duty clip to tie off too.

Also, don’t worry too much about it breaking your FireHawk, it can take some abuse and keep on shining.

Once you’ve tossed your FireHawk over the high branch, pull the string attached down and your food bag up. Tie it off to the tree trunk and you’re done.

12. A Poorman’s Rifle Spotlight

Nowadays you can buy better-designed rigs to mount a survival flashlight to your rifle. But those custom-designed rigs are often only available for newer rifles and are expensive.

But for those of us with old-school, Ruger 22s who are doing a bit of nighttime survival varmint hunting, adding a FireHawk Flashlight on your rig can come in handy.

You can easily secure your Firehawk using electrical tape. The tape is tough, it stretches, it’s black, and it’s easy to cut off with minimal adhesive residual left behind.

Just wrap it a few times and you’re all set with a makeshift rifle spotlight.

I recommend adjusting your FireHawk for the tightly focused spotlight setting and not in splash lighting only want to light up your target; not the entire surrounding area.

13. Read A Map In the Dark

I admit this survival use is on the obvious side, but it’s one of my favorite uses on backpacking trips so I just couldn’t leave it out.

Here’s the deal, reading a topographical map in good light is hard enough. Reading one in poor lighting can easily lead to a costly mistake.

And reading a topo map correctly is essential to avoid getting lost or ending up miles off track. Most of these maps have tiny print, and if you have aged eyes it can be extremely hard to pick out all those tiny details.

High-intensity illumination will drastically help improve your ability to read this small print.

A good survival flashlight is a must to read a map at night, but it also gets dim during the day underneath a dense forest canopy.

If you’re going into the wilderness for any reason (hunting, camping, fishing, or backpacking) take a local topographical map and your FireHawk with you to ensure you don’t miss all the crucial details.

14. Improve Your Chances Of Rescue

Use your FireHawk flashlight as a rescue signaling device to improve your survival chances. This works during the day or at night.

At night, if you’re lost in the wilderness but see a rescue helicopter sweeping the area, point your FireHawk at it in the spotlight setting.

Wave it quickly back and forth to help garner even more attention. This high-powered, super bright LED will get noticed. Once the rescuers notice it, they will circle around to investigate further.

The same idea works during the day. While the contrast during the day will be much less than at night, this LED light can still catch the attention of a rescue team. Just make sure you get the beam of the light focused and pointed directly at your target.

The easiest way to do this is to stick your hand out at arm’s length. Now make a V shape with your first and second fingers. Put your target object (rescue helicopter) between your two fingers.

Once you have that setup, shine your FireHawk flashlight between your fingers and directly at the intended target.

Once you’ve acquired your target with the light beam, quickly shake the light back and forth between your fingers.

This will create mini flashes of intense light that will help to get noticed.  Signaling is a highly underappreciated survival strategy that could very well save your life.

If You Don’t Have a FireHawk Flashlight yet, Now’s the Perfect Time

As you can tell, we’re pretty proud of our FireHawk Flashlight and all its survival uses. In fact, we’re so proud that we want everyone to have one.

Prepare, Adapt, and Overcome,

“Just In Case” Jack

For A Limited Time Only: Get a FREE FireHawk Tactical Flashlight For Visiting Skilled Survival! Just pay s&h. Click Here To Learn More.

The post Survival Flashlight: 14 Improvised Uses appeared first on Skilled Survival.