How Many Practice at Night?

[NCHornet]

A friend of mine is reading a collection stories where guns in the hands of non LEO's have saved the lives of countless people. They are true stories and one things has stood out, the vast majority of situations happen at night. he said the authour claimed 73% of SD sitautions he has recorded where lethal force was used to defend ones self happened at night. When he is finsihed with the book I am going to read it as well. This got me thinking, how often do I practice my night time drills and I must admit I have been very slack in this area. I am not out in the evening that often but still feel it is important to train for all possible scenarios, if possible. I am looking for a defensive handgun class in my area since it has been years since I had any formal training, and one of the requirements I have is they must offer a nightime shoot and teach night time SD skills. I have a informal range on my property and plan on doing some night time drills. I have also replaced my dim sights on my Glock with some TFO's. I can honestly tell you these are the brightest sights I have seen on any firearm. I also decided to order a set of CT grips for my G23. While a laser is no replacement for proper use of iron sights I can see many benefits to them. They allow quick shooting and target acquisition in low or no light conditions as well as allow shooting from different positions where using the gun's sight wouldn't be possible. I will give a report once they arrive. Shooter's Resource had them on sale for $170 with FREE shipping and lifetime battery replacement, so it's not a arm and a leg if I don't like them. Itried them on a customers G23 while at my local gun shop earlier this week and I really like how they provided a nice palm swell for my 2nd gen G23. Anyway just thought I would pass along those stats and curious as to how many of you actually practice nightime SD drills and it is a proven fact that is most likely when it will happen.

NCH

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[NCHornet]

Sorry mods, wrong section, please move for me ,
thanks

NCH

[cj]

Unfortunately, it tends to annoy the neighbors, so my opportunities are limited to dry firing.

[Ram Rod]

Unfortunately, it tends to annoy the neighbors, so my opportunities are limited to dry firing.

Ditto--+1! No swiss cheese walls here. I still do my room clearing exercises in total darkness. I've yet to fire a shot.

[1911packer]

My local range is so poorly lit that I am shooting in perpetual twilight.

Good point shooting skills, IMHO, are more important than night sights or laser grips.

[PaulJ]

Same here. The outdoor range I use closes at sunset. I don't think any of the indoor ranges offer low-light sessions. It would be nice ... but I can see the safety issues even if you do it at dusk.

I do dry fire at times in the dark/low light to get used to the night sights and drawing / aiming in the dark (well, again, more low light then dark. But in the city its never actually "dark").

[luvmyglock]

I have been considering this. If I go out to the middle of nowhere, in the forest where it is legal, I suppose I could. The problem is that in such as situation I can identify my target, but there is no way in the dark to tell what is beyond my target. We all know how important it is to know you target and what is beyond. I just don't think it is worth the risk. Dry firing it is I guess...

[atctimmy]

Indoor range and low light maybe?

[f8lranger4x4]

I practice at night some. when I qualified last time my night quals were higher than my day so.

[mulle46]

Just a possible suggestion, for my agency's semiannual quals, we use dark sunglasses or welder's goggles as a sub for actual nightime firing. It does make it fairly dark.

[QKShooter]

One advantage of the laser is that it will allow you to get "dead on" your intended threat is some scenarios and situations where it may not be possible for you to get an iron sight picture.

[MilitaryPower]

I don't shoot at night, but I do practice.

[AzQkr]

Here's a lowlight/no light course I offer out here in the Sonoran Desert of Az.

Integrated Threat Focused "Fighting at Night" - Threat Focused Forums

I'm also working on the “Enhanced Auditory Perception” © TM skills here which segwigs nicely with the lowlight course:

The senses and sensibility - Threat Focused Forums

Calling particular attention to Post 14 in the above link.

Enhanced Peripheral Vision © - Threat Focused Forums

Calling particular attention to post 19 in the above link.

Lowlight shooting is a very important skill IMO. One of the drills I run every night before I go to bed is to use the enhanced peripheral vision skills to point without looking at an object in the room, then visually verify the alignment of the sights onto the object by turning and lowering my head over the sights.

We see more in low light with our peripheral vision, hence the peripheral vision training, than the cones of direct vision when there's enough light to "see". Learning to use our peripheral vision capabilities to our best advantage in low light is paramount to giving us the best chance at finding, identifying and getting muzzle acquisition on the potential threat.

Brownie

[PaulBk]

Up here in the PacNW, we get to practice low light/no light all winter long. Nov/Dec/Jan sunset is before 6pm and our outdoor range stays open until 9pm.

Summertime not so much.

-Paul

[retsupt99]

One of my four-day courses involved several hours of low-light shooting...things are different in low light....great experience!

Stay armed...stay bright...stay safe!