The Boring Stuff

Wurkkos sent me this light in exchange for a honest review. Here is the official produce page. It’s also available on Amazon. Below are the official specs. One of the specs is wrong, so read on for details!

Yes, it looks a lot like a Streamlight TLR-7. The resemblance is uncanny. It’s not a fake because they’re not claiming it’s a TLR-7, but it’s clear that Wurkkos copied the Streamlight and changed the styling a little to make it slightly less obvious. I happen to also have a TLR-7A so I’ll do some direct comparison throughout the review.

What comes in the box?

The box is small, plain, and made of cardboard. The light comes wrapped up in a little felt pouch. Odd choice, but not problematic. You also get a CR123A battery, a battery insulator warning paper, the manual, and some adapters for getting the best fitment with your handgun.

Size & Measurements

Here’s WKC06 next to Streamlight TLR-7A

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Bezel Diameter	23.8
Width	29.4
Length	54.7
Height	32.4

Weight: 68g / 2.4oz with a CR123A battery inserted

User Interface

The UI is an exact copy of the UI from Streamlight’s TLR-7, and it’s perfect for this light.

The actions are # of presses followed by a hold (H) or a release (C). So, “1C” is one click and release. “2H” is two clicks but you hold down the last one. The light can’t tell the difference between the two switches, so you can use either one for any action.

State	Action	Result
Off	1C	On
Off	1H	Momentary On
Off	2C	Strobe (if enabled)
Off	2H	Momentary Strobe
Off	10H	Enable/Disable Strobe
On	1C	Off

The manual says that pressing both switches simultaneously activates strobe, but in reality it’s 2C or 2H on a single switch that activates it. The light responds the same way to a single switch press as it does to both switches being pressed at the same time.

Runtime & Throw

Neither WKC06 nor TLR-7A met their advertised 500 lumen rating, but they got within a stone’s throw. I measure lumens on a Texas Ace Calibrated Lumen Tube and there’s some margin of error. I’ll call these “close enough” to the factory spec.

WKC06: This test was done with the included battery and during the test it never got too hot to touch. When the light finally shut off, I measured the cell at around 1 volt so it’s safe to say there’s no low voltage protection.

TLR-7A: I also tested my TLR-7A, and it’s clear from the test that it’s a little bit more efficient and better regulated than WKC06, but not by much. It’s definitely not 3x better than WKC06 in this department, despite being 3x the cost.

Throw: I measured 3400cd from WKC06. That’s slightly lower than the 3700cd I get from my TLR-7A with the same battery. I can’t tell a visual difference between the two beams though.

Emitter & Beam

Wurkkos says that WKC06 uses a 6-6500K Cree XP-L LED. That sounds about right to me, and that’s exactly what TLR-7A uses as well. It’s possible to access the emitter, so maybe a nicer (and throwier) 4-5000K Cree XPL-HI could be swapped in for better tint and better throw. That sure would have been nice by default.

The emitter sits behind a wide and shallow TIR optic.

The beam is OK. It’s identical to TLR-7A’s beam. I wish it were a little warmer and a little throwier. It’s not bad for this kind of light though, especially not at this low of a price point. This is a weapon light afterall, not a rosy tinted high CRI indoor handheld flooder. The tint is noticeably better than my TLR-7A, which has the ugliest tint I have ever seen.

Design & Construction

The design is clearly copied from Streamlight’s TLR-7 with some minor changes. Unfortunately, one of those minor changes was making the sides of the light wider, rounded, and filled with cooling fins. That means WKC06 will not fit in TLR-7 holsters. Boo! For shame, Wurkkos! For shame! That relegates this light to use only on handguns that won’t be holstered, or that will be used with oversized duty holsters that don’t use the weapon light for retention. This could have been the go-to budget weapon light if they had just made it fit into TLR-7 holsters.

Build quality is fine. It’s about the same as TLR-7A. It’s got better anodizing, but a little bit worse threading. It stood up to 60 rounds of 9mm while mounted to a handgun. That’s no Sage Dynamics burndown, but it proves it can withstand some recoil.

Switch

Just like Streamlight’s TLR-7, WKC06 uses two small paddles on the sides of the light. These sit a little bit forward of the trigger guard when mounted to a handgun. Streamlight quickly ditched these and updated to the TLR-7A with its further-back and push-down switches, and for good reason. These two paddles kind of stink. They work, but they’re hard to reach and they’re a little awkward. You sort of have to push forward and in on them which just isn’t natural.

Batteries & Charging

The product page says WKC06 is compatible with “1*CR123A Lithium manganese battery or Rechargeable CR123/16340 Li-ion lithium battery” but that is wrong. CR123A’s work great and one is included, but I tried a 16340 (RCR123A) and it caused some problems. It made the light noticeably brighter, but it also made it get WAY too hot when I tried to do a runtime test. I had to abort the test after 5 minutes due to safety concerns.

“But Griz, I won’t be using a weapon light for 5 minutes straight!” you say? Fair enough. I left a fully charged 16340 in WKC06 overnight, turned off. When I got it in the morning, the tail of the light was warm and the battery had drained from 4.2V down to 4.08V. That happened over the course of 8 hours while it was off. A weapon light should never drain a battery while it’s not even on.

Rechargeable compatibility could have been another great feature to distinguish this from it’s DNA-donor TLR-7. I’m thoroughly disappointed that Wurkkos would advertise 16340 compatibility as a feature when it clearly isn’t a viable option.

Oddly the battery goes in with the positive end toward the back, which is the opposite of how most lights work.

No charging solution is included with WKC06, probably because it doesn’t work correctly with rechargeable batteries. Go figure.

TLR-7A Comparison

WKC06 is a clone of a Streamlight TLR-7. I happen to have the slightly updated TLR-7A, so here are some comparison photos. In all of these photos, WKC06 is on the left and TLR-7A is on the right.

You can see the clear difference between switches, and where Wurkkos widened and milled the body a bit to make WKC06 more distinct. This widening is what makes WKC06 not fit into holsters designed for TLR-7(A).

The threads are similar enough that I can swap the front emitter section between lights and they work fine.

Competition

Here are some lights in the same class and how they compare.

Streamlight TLR-7A: Streamlight’s current compact handgun light. WKC06 is a clone of TLR-7A’s older sibling, TLR-7. It’s roughly 3x as expensive as WKC06, but it’s not 3x as good by any stretch of the imagination. It does fit holsters correctly though, and Streamlight has a pretty great track record of excellent reliability and customer service. I think TLR-7A is a better choice for use on a defensive handgun, but otherwise I would save the money and get WKC06.

Sofirn TLR-1 Clone: Made by Wurkkos’ sister company: Sofirn, is a Streamlight TLR-1 clone, uses two CR123A’s instead of one, higher brightness claim, looks like it should fit TLR-1 holsters, is sold out at the time of writing

Thrunite WT10: Won’t fit in any holsters either, but it uses a higher capacity and rechargeable 18350 cell instead of a CR123A, and it’s claimed brightness is almost double that of WKC06. It’s also got USB-C recharging built in. I haven’t tested it, but I think WT10 is a much better value than WKC06.

Conclusion

I had high hopes for WKC06, but ultimately I can’t recommend it. Thrunite’s TW10 just looks like a much better light for the same price. Wurkkos did a good job cloning TLR-7, but it just doesn’t stand up to the competition. If it could just fit in TLR-7 holsters then it would be the budget handgun light to beat.

Thanks to Wurkkos for sending me this light for review!