Okay, so the name is stupid, but for $80 this thing is extremely good so far. I wanted a poor man’s MAWL for my AR .22 and I found this on Amazon. Although it had zero reviews, the visible units had really good feedback even on centerfire guns so I gave it a shot.

Silly name, but the font looks very…Streamlight-ish.
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It’s fairly heavy but its overall size is not much larger than a 6P flashlight. It seems really well made.

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It does have integrated switches that can be used individually or in conjunction with each other. They are very tactile and clicky, but will be fairly easy to accidentally activate. It does have a small visible red LED to let you know when the unit is on.
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The form factor is reminiscent of the MAWL. It comes with interchangeable mounts that allow the end user to mount it to M-LOK or on a Pic rail. I’ll be running it at 12:00 on my .22, so I went with the pic mount. It also comes with extra screws for both mounts in case you strip or lose one.
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Size comparison between the Somogear PEQ-15, Toughsoul, and Viridian handstop IR laser.
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The one ding that I give it is a proprietary magnetic charging port. It’s a sealed battery. I really wish they had made it with an 18650 with the ability to use 123’s in a pinch.
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Now for the good. The laser is extremely bright. Here it is compared to a typical 0.7 civilian laser. As you can see the laser is pretty spicy.
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It’s got a bit of the ‘light saber’ look.
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Being a non-focusable LED illuminator it’s pretty floody with not a ton of throw.
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But even with a blasty IR illuminator, the laser is powerful enough to easily be seen.
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It’s kind of hard to see in this picture, but this is a direct comparison between the Somogear on Hi Power and the Toughsoul laser. The Somogear has the edge, but the Toughsoul is about 80% there. It really is extremely bright.
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I can’t wait to shoot it and see if it holds zero. I bought it for my .22 but I think I might mount it on my 300BLK and see how it does. If this thing holds zero I’ll be buying a few more. For $80 it seems way too good to be true.



Edit: Posted this and then saw the new Chinese forum. Not sure if it needs to be moved as I’m guessing this product is made in China, but doesn’t appear to be a direct ripoff of patented technology unless B.E. Meters has a patent on the overall form with integrated switching.

I would be interested in knowing how reliable that is.

One thing is for sure, if you end up needing to use it, you really don't want it to fail.

Although these days, it is just a piece of back up equipment in my mind, one level shy of white light, passive is primary.

I bought one…and a spare. They look like the Amazon lights I have on a couple SBR’s. I’ve had both of them for about a year and build quality seems good. We shall see. I won’t be very upset if the fail at that price and I won’t be using them in any role other than entertainment.

And they are now OOS btw

I have their IR light on my backyard varmint NV 300blk pistol. Works very well with the Sionyx camera and Steiner IR laser.

I just bought one, I will throw it on my 300 and give it try. Actually I might throw it on my main ar and beat it up some. I am hopefully taking a carbine class in july and it would be a good test of it.

Interesting, kinda want one for my Evo.

Just got mine today. Haven’t mounted or used it but it certainly seems solid.

I stuck one of these on a play gun at 9:00 and have been impressed for the price.
No killing batteries in the safe like the Sightmark equivalent.
Visible light, green laser and IR laser.
Remote is solid, direct MLOK mounting is nice
No IR illuminator unfortunately.
IR laser can be detected with my Pixel 8 Pro's camera.

Interesting that this company has two IR Illum + IR Laser combos that are very similar form factor, but have slightly different specs.

One is 4.1" long, the other 4.7". The 4.7" model uses 123A batteries, the slightly-shorter one uses an internal rechargeable battery with a magnetic port.
$65 bucks for the battery one!


On one, the laser is under the light's head, instead of being part of the head. THAT model claims twice the beam distance. Of course, this could be bad marketing typo stuff, as their graphic also shows a claim of its white light lumens... It's not a white light though, it's an IR Ilum, as the text does clarify on both, however, "This is a IR LIGHT+IR Laser combo..."

Spending other people's money for science: One of y'all that bought the short-throw one should grab the long-throw model and compare/contrast. :)

Side note: All these new lights with MLOK going right through the pressure pad is an interesting form-factor. I run a Surefire X300 at 3 o'clock (I'm left handed), and just poke the back button with my thumb to turn on/off: no remote switch, no moving my natural grip on the rail. I do have to use a little piece of pic rail-mlok adapter to mount my Surefire, poking it out even farther.

Whereas this new form factor moves the torch body up to 2 o'clock-ish making the overall width of rail
profile thinner, and lets you activate with thumb or pointer finger via the pads also without switching natural grip on the forerail.

If I had seen that $69 one I would have gotten it. I would much rather have the 123 battery version.
Edited to add: I just noticed the 123 battery version is only M-LOK not a dual mount.

Same here. But it may ship from China as the delivery date is quite long

Good catch. I have mostly MLOK rails, so that's not a problem. Some folks would presumably need an adapter though. (Which seems kinda backwards).

PS: Did your packaging come with any contact info for Toughsoul? I'd like to email them or otherwise google around... there's zero info coming up when looking for them other than the Amazon listings. PM me if you're willing to take a peek for that on the box, please and thank you!

Here’s what I found on the paperwork supplied in my box:


Warranty
Within 1 year of purchasing, any defective product will be offered free repair or replacement by TOUGHSOUL or distributors unconditionally. This warranty does not cover normal wear and tear, modifications, misuse, disintegration, negligence, accidents, maintenance or repair by anyone other than an authorized retailer or TOUGHSOUL itself, For more support, please contact us via Email: [email protected]

I grabbed one of these to throw on a 300BO farm gun.   We'll sew how it holds up bouncing around in the sxs.

Might grab the the mlok 123 model as well to throw on a 22 setup.  Laser does look spicy from the pics.

It is. Be careful about the self-lasik surgery.

Mine showed up today. It seems very solid and is actually heavier than you would expect. Fit and finish is excellent and the white light and green laser work well. If this thing holds up at all it’s a real bargain. Yes, it’s probably not sufficient for martial use. If I need anything like that Uncle Sam will issue it to me. For home defense on something that’s not going to be banged around a lot I can easily justify $80 on multiple firearms

Glad to see devices like this coming in under $100. Form factors are getting better, quality is getting better and the arguments that justify $2500-4000 LAMs are starting to crumble. Thinking Holosun will end up hitting the sweet spot between price/durability/feature set/materials & construction. It'd be cool if a Made in USA company (as much as feasible) would step up and do the same. I'd pay a substantial amount more ($800-1000) for a well designed/built FP unit.

I bought one should be here this week. I'll compare to my DBAL-A3.

While that same provider (Toughsoul) seems to be just a brand name for the actual OEM (Defendtec / MSH Electronic), Toughsoul doesn't seem to offer all the products on Defendtec's website.
DT has a "box" type White-light / IR-laser / Green-laser setup as well. Has 10% and 50% settings for...?


As a side note: These cheapies have got to stop putting "strobe" mode on their lasers like it's a badge of honor. I'm pretty sure we don't need that. I'd rather have a "low" and "high" setting on the thing instead of a "epilepsy" setting.  :D

Kinda interested in their "manta ray" form factor as well. I appreciate the symmetry. This looks like it has white light on one side, IR on the other... do this but with two lasers (green and IR) in the middle, low-profile built-in pressure switch at 12 o'clock that also stores a low-profile battery that doesn't rise into optics... it even has rail on top to put your BUIS, which I've always thought was smart. hmm.

Damn, that last one, with the center mounted lasers like you mention, would be killer on a little AR .22lr upper for goofing around at night with IR and WL.

I betcha they'll make it if you email them....

Found this

Monstrum just came out with something similar, though without the top rail.

Look into Laserspeed.. They're around $1000 and rock solid FP units. I bought two (the M6 model) and will probably get another once they release a crane port version in May

I picked up one Toughsoul 1600 Lumen w/green laser hoping I could use it on a project gun. It didn't work out because of the button layout.
The pictures online are confusing.
For info, the MLOC/Pic attachment is about level with the body of the light. Which is to say, there is no cant between mount and the body. The the bottom of the body of the light will be at the same level as the top of the rail or the MLOC surface.

The switches on mine are VERY sensitive, and there is no Master Kill switch. Charging the thing on the gun is a kind of peculiar idea, and I don't care for it.
Finally, the green laser is rated at 3mw and it performs like a half-legal-power laser should. Puny.

I really like it feels nice. Several mounting options. Going to compare to Dbal A3 tonight. I bought a somogear Ngal also should be here next week. I really suck at taking pictures sorry


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@TuskenRaider well?!?!?!?!

It's brighter in every way than the Dbal. Laser is really bright would be nice to have a lower setting. The illumination is brighter also than the Dbal. I like it.
Dbal much easier to zero with the vis laser. Dbal is known to be durable and quality. Dbal easy and quick attachment repeat zero is pretty good.

toughsoul unknown quality. No visible laser. I do not like the special charging cord, it seems fine but if lost or broken I will have to make something.

fixed power on laser and I need more time with it but seems to be fixed illuminator size and it's more flood than focus.

I mounted the toughsoul on a dedicated night gun with a Rattler Thermo. I walk around with dual Pvs 14's then use the thermal if I see a predator. 5 bobcats 5 raccoons and 2 coyotes taken with that set up.

Mine is supposed to be here tomorrow, I will take some thru the NV pics over the weekend.

This thread is relevant to my interests. I have a MAWL and have been looking for a cheaper alternative for a backup boomstick. Very curious to see if this holds zero

You SOBs had better stop making me spend money!

Any reports or data yet on how well they hold zero?

Timely thread as I need a rifle IR/Vis laser for NV shooting/ night hunting. I have the Steiner mini but these might be okay to try and see if it holds up. A slaved green laser seems like the easy button for zeroing.

Not to be a dick, but not according to anyone I know who’s actually had to shoot bad guys at night on a two way range…

My experience with just a few classes agrees as well. The ability to go passive is a neat trick, but is secondary.

If your enemy has NODs passive doesn't give away your position

Agreed, but Lasers/IR illumination have their place as does passive. I like to set my stuff up with both capabilities, even my .22. Hence my buying this for a .22 to augment the NV-Capable red dot I use for passive.

I personally question how much time someone has under a ton of different lighting conditions if they think that passive aiming is the only way. There are lots of times that I've needed active IR illumination to positivity identify a target such as through a photonic barrier, indoors, a target in the shadows, or just a nasty overcast night when even the best NV gets grainy.

In those cases if you are going to blast IR illumination, getting the gun out of your already limited 40 degree field of view and using an active laser is a situational awareness advantage and with the IR illuminator blasting already, adding an IR aiming laser to the mix is immaterial.

It’s kind of like a weapon mounted white light. You try not to use it, but sometimes you need it to both make a positive identification and to allow you to aim. You just minimize the emissions knowing it can be seen. I don’t see IR any differently.

Those nights when you can use passive effectively sure are fun.

You really need both passive and active. A lot of why people are moving to passive primary is because of what is going on in Ukraine. Everyone has NODs so the go-to aiming technique is passive. Also some smartphones are IR capable. I've heard stories of some tangos in Afghanistan carrying IR cameras to spot US troops before we pulled out. The last NV class I took had a pretty heavy emphasis on both passive and active for those reasons (that was 6 years ago)

ETA I find im much faster and can maintain better situational awareness in cqb scenarios with active

No argument from me. With the proliferation of NV you have to treat active IR almost like you would white light. There’s a time and a place for active IR, white light and passive aiming.

I’m just glad units like the one discussed in this thread make it possible for me to afford to outfit my rimfire training rifle like I do my main centerfire.

I bought a full power fake MAWL but I haven't tested for zero yet. It's pretty strong IR, but white light is jank. If it holds zero I'll be happy. I think I gave 150.00 or so for it, I'll have to look it up.

$56 after using some Amazon rewards…

I want to buy the cr123 battery model too, but I’m not using a MLOK to pic adapter (wtf?), and I know the minute after I buy it, someone will post a link to the pic rail version.

Way cool we’re able to buy this shit now for the price of dinner.  Thanks for the heads up, OP!

I spent an hour last night walking around the property scanning looking into the woods shining the lasers as far as I could. The Steiner Dbal is better and more usable. Thank god! I have 1k in that toy .

The tough soul is good I like how it mounts, the buttons are very sensitive I Nd it twice.
The tough soul is the best cleanest IR flashlight I have but the flood is to big especially when looking into holes in heavy heavy brush it just lights up to much around everything but it's a usable light.

I ended up shooting a raccoon last night and I could clearly see him at 100 yards. The tough soul laser is absolutely brighter than the Dbal but that doesn't seem to be a good thing.  I have a 2000 yard pipeline right away I can look down both Dbal and tough soul laser seems to make it all the way to the end of that but the tough soul has so much bloom up close especially on steel. On the raccoon I could see him but the laser just washed out all over him. The laser on a cow was fine but so was the Dbal.

Over all  for $80 delivered I give it 8 out of 10 if I had nothing else it would be awesome. It needs a light that can focus and be able turn the power down on the laser.

I know my writing skills suck I'm not as dumb as it seems I promise.

I wanted to add the best way to hunt at night for me seems to be walking with the NODS using a light to verify ID then switching to the thermal scope for shooting. I really don't need or use the Ir lights or laser much. The night vision lets me navigate and move with out tripping and falling. Nothing can hide from me with the thermal.




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Which one did you buy? Has anyone bought one with a green slaved laser?

Is it the airsoft replica? If so it won't hold zero. I have one on my airsoft gun for force-on-force training and it works fine for that role, but the electronics aren't rugged enough to hold zero on the real steel (or at least my unit isn't rugged enough).

Excellent review. Thanks.

Got the unit from the op last night.

I don’t think it’s been mentioned here that the Amazon page lists this product as 940nm, but the device is definitely 850.  The paperwork included lists the illum and laser as 850nm and the laser at 3mw.  It’s a bold laser!

I can confirm visually the illum is visible to the naked eye.  I did not get directly in front of the laser yet but trust tye paperwork that is it 850.

And both picked up easily by my iPhone camera.

Seems solidly constructed though and I do like the mounting and controls a lot.

"I can confirm visually the illum is visible to the naked eye. "

the pig  I shot last night definitely reacted to the laser when I pointed it at him. It didn't scare him away but he jumped a few feet then settled down. After that I kept turning it off and on light and laser and it didn't bother him anymore.


2 raccoons and one pig down this weekend. Also the little 5.7 is such a light fun rifle to walk around with. It never seems to pass through anything I shoot but they always die. Fun weekend thanks to the op for the suggestion on the toughsoul

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The seller that OP listed has these available for back order.now, $120 currently.

@OP

Have you put any effort into trying to remove what appears to be a rear cap on the unit you posted? It looks like it might house a CR123 or 18650 and you could service it through there in addition to the integrated charging connection.

I noticed that before I purchased it and hoped for a threaded cap and an 18650, but unfortunately it’s not removable.

I tried removing my back cap and the front by the lens.  They aren’t coming off undamaged.

One thing that is bothering me is the silver charging port.  Anyone know if my birchwood casey “super black” pen will disrupt the connection if I coat over it?

ETA: looks like it’s just paint and not a “bluing” type coating.  I’m not trying this.

I received mine yesterday, just opened it today and took it to the basement. It works, turns on and off, the limit of the testing right now, its charging.

From what I saw it has a hot spot and some spill, I will play with it after dark tonight.