Streamlight Stinger and Strion: What the Letters Mean, and Which Charger You Need

We stock nineteen Streamlight Stinger and Strion variants. Their names are almost identical, their prices run from $123 to $198, and the distributor data behind them explains none of it. If you have ever looked at Stinger DS LED HL 800LM next to Stinger DS HPL 800LM and wondered what you are choosing between, this page is for you.

Everything below comes from Streamlight’s own published material. Where we could not source something, we say so.

These are duty lights. That is worth saying first.

The Stinger and Strion families are built for police, fire and industrial use — run hard every shift, dropped, and dropped back in a charger at the end of it. That heritage is why they are heavy, why they are expensive for their output, and why they live in a charging cradle rather than on disposable cells.

If you are looking for a light to hunt with, most of this range is not the obvious answer, and we would rather tell you that here than sell you the wrong thing. Skip to which of these makes sense in the field if that is what brought you here.

Decoding the names

DS — Dual Switch. Streamlight describes this as “independently operating head and tail cap switches.” Two switches, either of which works the light, so you can run it in whichever grip suits the moment. Streamlight’s own example: “when a tactical light is needed, the tail cap switch is used.”

HL — High Lumen. The output-first models. Streamlight describes the beam as a flood with a “wide beam pattern” that “will light up the area around you.”

HPL — the long-range models. Streamlight does not spell the initials out, but describes these as a “long-range flashlight” built around a “deep-dish parabolic reflector.”

Color-Rite — high CRI. A softer, warmer beam built for color accuracy rather than brightness. More on this below, because it is the model in this range with a real hunting argument.

2020 — a model generation, not a specification. The Stinger 2020 and Strion 2020 are the current-generation bodies and carry the highest outputs in each family.

The comparison that actually matters

Take the two 800 lumen Stingers. Same brand, same family, same headline number. Streamlight’s published figures:

Identical lumens. Double the candela. A hundred and twenty-eight more meters of reach.

That is the whole lesson of this category in one table. Lumens measure how much light leaves the flashlight. Candela measures how much of it lands where you are pointing. A reflector decides which of those you get, and only one of the two numbers is printed on the box.

So the choice is not better versus worse. It is: do you want to light up everything around you, or see one thing a long way off? Around a camp, under a hood, walking a two-track — flood, every time. Checking a fence line or a far timber edge — long range.

The charger question

Nearly every model in this range appears twice in our catalog, once as 12V DC and once as AC/DC, typically $25 to $47 apart. This is the single most common point of confusion, and it is simple: it is not a different flashlight. It is a different charger in the box.

• 12V DC — vehicle power only. Right if the light lives in a truck.
• AC/DC — wall power as well as vehicle. Right if it lives at home, at a bench, or in a shop.

Streamlight also publishes three charger grades, which is where the recharge times come from: the Steady charger takes about 16 hours to fill a light; the Smart charger takes about 4.5 hours on USB or 3 hours on 12V; the Smart PiggyBack charger about 7.5 and 4 hours respectively.

Our distributor data does not say which charger grade ships with which of our listings. Call the shop before you order and we will read it off the box — a 16 hour charger and a 3 hour charger are a meaningfully different thing to live with, and it is not worth guessing on a $150 light.

Which of these makes sense in the field

Honestly: for most hunting, none of them are the first light we would hand you. Field dressing and packing out need both hands, and a headlamp beats any handheld for that. A duty light is heavy for what it does, and its charging cradle is in your truck, not your camp.

There is one real exception.

Color-Rite, and blood

Color-Rite is Streamlight’s high-CRI line. CRI measures how accurately a light shows color; Streamlight notes that lights measuring 90 or above are considered high CRI and are “critical for tasks requiring the most accurate color discrimination.” A very bright cool-white beam causes what they call washout, which “prevents seeing subtle color differences.” Color-Rite trades some of that brightness for “a softer, warmer beam to prevent color washout, allowing the user to see specific colors or imperfections and subtle details.”

Streamlight lists the intended users: automotive technicians matching paint, electricians reading wire colors, forensic teams looking for trace evidence — and outdoor users “identifying blood trails during hunting.”

That is their claim, not ours, and we have not tested it against a dedicated blood tracking light. But the underlying physics is not controversial. Following a marginal blood trail through wet oak brush after dark is exactly a color discrimination problem: you are trying to tell dark red from dark brown at ten feet. It is the one job in this whole range where the lower-output model is plainly the better tool, which is not something you will hear often.

The Stinger Color-Rite is 500 lumens. Every other light on this page beats it on the headline number. For that one job, it is the one to look at.

What we stock

Stinger

• Stinger DS LED, 425 lumens, 12V DC — $129
• Stinger DS LED, 425 lumens, AC/DC — $156
• Stinger DS LED HL, 800 lumens, DC — $152
• Stinger DS LED HL, 800 lumens, AC/DC — $196
• Stinger DS HPL, 800 lumens, 12V DC — $151
• Stinger DS HPL, 800 lumens, AC/DC — $198
• Stinger Color-Rite, 500 lumens — $163
• Stinger 2020, 2000 lumens, 12V DC — $157
• Stinger 2020, 2000 lumens, AC/DC — $183
• UltraStinger LED, 1100 lumens, 12V — $178

Strion

• Strion DS, 375 lumens, 12V DC — $123
• Strion DS, 375 lumens, AC/DC with holder — $133
• Strion LED, 375 lumens, AC/DC with holder — $135
• Strion LED HL, 615 lumens, 12V DC — $130
• Strion LED HL, 615 lumens, AC/DC — $150
• Strion HPL, 615 lumens, 12V DC — $153
• Strion DS HL, 700 lumens, 12V DC — $139
• Strion DS HPL, 700 lumens, 12V DC — $164
• Strion 2020, 1200 lumens, AC/DC — $195

Also listed alongside these: the SL-20L, 450 lumens, 12V DC — $165. An older, larger rechargeable body, and the outlier in this group.

If you want the short version

• Flood or reach? HL for flood, HPL for reach. The lumen number will not tell you.
• Truck or house? 12V DC or AC/DC. Same light either way.
• Blood trailing? Color-Rite, and ignore that it is the dimmest one here.
• Both hands busy? Buy a headlamp instead. We will happily point you at one.

Prices shown are current at the time of writing and move with our distributors. Call the shop in Steamboat and we will confirm what is on the shelf and what is in the box.

Sources

• Streamlight, Dual Switch Technology — the DS designation
• Streamlight, Stinger DS HPL — 800 lumens, 48,000 candela, 438 m, charger recharge times
• Streamlight, Stinger DS LED HL — 800 lumens, 24,000 candela, 310 m, flood beam
• Streamlight, Color-Rite Technology — CRI 90+, washout, listed applications including blood trailing