PSA: I see a lot of people unneccessarily worrying and screwing around because they're afraid leaving their WML level with their flash hiders will damage the light. They are worrying about nothing.
Here we have a 16" 5.56 AR-15 that has about 150 rounds through it. The light not only works, but the pressure and flames weren't even enough to damage the Alumahyde sprayed on the WML. I have even had much weaker Krylon survive being mounted next to 11.5" barrels, and the WMLs still work.
I've seen too much effort go into trying to solve a non-issue, such as mounting the head an inch or so behind the muzzle. The users who do this then often put oil, chap-stick, or clear tape over the lens so they can clean the fouling off later. This is not only unneccessary compared to my method, it causes your lumens to drop the more the weapon is used. As you can see here, 150 rounds did absolutely nothing to dirty my lens. NOTHING!
Moving a WML any further back, as some others do, introduces unneccessary barrel shadow. Avoid all the downsides and just run your WML all the way forward.
Here we have a 16" 5.56 AR-15 that has about 150 rounds through it. The light not only works, but the pressure and flames weren't even enough to damage the Alumahyde sprayed on the WML. I have even had much weaker Krylon survive being mounted next to 11.5" barrels, and the WMLs still work.
I've seen too much effort go into trying to solve a non-issue, such as mounting the head an inch or so behind the muzzle. The users who do this then often put oil, chap-stick, or clear tape over the lens so they can clean the fouling off later. This is not only unneccessary compared to my method, it causes your lumens to drop the more the weapon is used. As you can see here, 150 rounds did absolutely nothing to dirty my lens. NOTHING!
Moving a WML any further back, as some others do, introduces unneccessary barrel shadow. Avoid all the downsides and just run your WML all the way forward.