A light to love, a cable-management system to loathe - Cloud Defensive REIN 3.0 Full Size Weapon Light

Cloud Defensive's are the only weapon-lights I put on my long-guns. They're phenomenally tough and throw superb light characterized by bright-but-not-blinding hot-spots, generous spill-over (flood), and superior color-fidelity under illumination. To be clear, excepting a single REIN Micro saddled-up on my IWI X-95, the entirety of my experience with Cloud Defensive lights has been predicated upon the now-discontinued OWL model. Unable, as I am, to acquire additional OWLs, I opted, in early December 2023, to purchase a REIN 3.0. As I run my REIN Micro via a tail-cap switch, the 3.0 was to have been my first remote-switch-operated CD weapon-light. For purpose of positioning the 3.0 at the one-o-clock position on my LMT MARS Piston, I purchased a Torrent Offset MLOK mount from CD. While REIN-series lights ship with serviceable mounts, the Torrent units offer increased mounting options and, in my opinion, better protect the remote switch cable from the rigors of running and gunning. Comes now the sad part of my story, and the reason I've ascribed the REIN 3.0 four stars instead of five. Cable management is nightmare. Certainly, it would have been easy to slap the remote switch atop the LMT's 1913-rail, zip-tie the thing down, and call the job finished. That's an inelegant solution, however, an one I'd presumed circumnavigable insomuch as CD advertises a nifty cable-management scheme comprising wee polymer components that bolt to the remote switch's lateral aspects and serve contemporaneously as cable-channels and pic-rail anchors. Regrettably, what's made to look reasonably easy in Cloud Defensive's REIN cable management video (YouTube) is, in actuality, nigh impossible. I'm a pretty good amateur gunsmith with a better-than-average collection of tools germane to building and modifying modern firearms. Notwithstanding the aforementioned, consecutive hours of video-viewing, and myriad thoughtful exercises in trial-and-error, I ended up with broken remote-switch cable, a headful of frustration, and several mouthfuls of scalding profanities. In the end, I ordered a $45 tail-cap switch for my $400 light and resolved to run the REIN 3.0 on the LMT just as I run the REIN Micro on the IWI. I want to like the REIN 3.0, but time will tell.