Shooting At Night

1233 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by P95Carry, Jun 15, 2005

ramtough47

Discussion Starter · Jun 15, 2005

Wanted to throw this out to everyone. All of us talk about different types of calibers,pistols, trainning classes and instructors and then alot of us spend quite a bit of time and money sending rounds down range at a multitude of targets either outdoors or indoors in a "lighted" enviroment.WELL lets not worry about who has the slickess rig or the best psitol,or even the coolest mag holder all covered up in a 5.11 vest,lets just go shoot a IDPA match......IN COMPLETE DARKNESS!!

I had the pleasure to shoot at "The Henry County Gun Club" at Puryear,Tn last Saturday nite[6/11/2005] and yes it rained on us also,as if the darkness wasn't hard enough the good Lord decided we needed to be challenged some more,and had a blast. I need to thank Tom Givens because he has been the only one to give me some training in "night shooting", and belive me i used every bit of what he taught me and was wishing for more instruction.

I was urged to do this by one of my"mentors" Allen Webb of Tactical Response and we both agreed that this is something that all conceal carry people should do.....practice shooting at night. Most "incidents" that all of us may face will probably occur at night or in a low light enviroment. I cannot emphasize this enough. I watched shooter after shooter struggle with this,me included. A normal shooting scenario that would take 5 to 6 seconds would take 10 to 12 seconds or longer,and to be quite honest all of us as a group thought we did ok on our times.

Its a different world when the lights go out, so grab your favorite pistol and take a 100 or even 200 rounds, but most of all get familar with a good hand held light[surefire,streamlight,etc.etc.] and give it a whirl you will be better off for doing it.

One final note, if it was me i would be contacting someone like Tom Givens at RangeMaster or Yeager & Co. at Tactical Response for some very good instruction on this very important subject...Shooting at Night!

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P95Carry

· #2 · Jun 15, 2005

ram - this is important for sure, tho I doubt I'll manage an actual course very easily.

However, one reason I have night sights and CT grips on my SIG is because I consider that ''events'' are probably more likely to occur in subdued light or even in dark.

I only have a E1e Surefire but have established that the range of that is well adequate for me and - any time I test my (some imagine whimpy) lil' light by shining in someone's eyes ... ''ouch'' is usual response and maybe 1 to 2 seconds of time needed before they have anything like useable night vision.

I consider that can give me an edge - enough even to buffer draw time.

I'd like to practice formally but cost, travel and maybe just my slothfullness with age may make it unlikely.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BTW - <flippant mode>If I keep a fire extinguisher handy then I find I can keep ''sooting'' to a minimum LOL! </flippant mode>

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Tangle

· #3 · Jun 15, 2005

P95Carry,

This past Spring Semester, my Projects Class tested a bunch of tactical lights. We not only measured brightness and burn time characteristics, but detail disclosure. After all that flashlight testing, I think you're right on with your perception of the effectiveness of the E1e.

While we did not test any one cell lights, I have come to the following conclusions.

1- At PD (personal defense) ranges, I have found that almost any tactical grade light causes an unpleasant reaction and temporary vision impairment.

I use to carry a Surefire C2, Z2, (or whatever those small two cell light numbers are). After the flashlight tests, I realized that the intensity of an incandescent light (CR123 batteries) decays linearly with use. So if your battery(s) has 30 minutes of use on it, your light is basically half as bright as it would be with fresh batteries. Plus when you reach one hour of use, they go out - there is no usable light left.

After the flashlight tests, I now carry a Streamlight TL2 LED light. The LED lights give up a lot in light power, but they still produce the unpleasant effects in the eyes and they are plenty bright for PD ranges. Plus, the TL2 LED lasts two hours instead of the one hour like the incandescent versions and the intensity level is essentially constant over the entire two hours. After two hours of run time they will still produce usable light for up to 12 more hours.

2- For searching, i.e. looking for someone hiding, especially for longer distances, you want the brightest, most powerful INCANDESCENT light you can manage. I think LED lights pale in comparison to incandescents (Surefire, Streamlight, etc.) for brightness, detail disclosure, and color rendering and they don't work nearly as well as incandescents at longer ranges.

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ramtough47

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jun 15, 2005

P95 nite sights are a must, no doubt about it. My surefire e2e,while it is small, proved as advertised to be very powerful. I was well pleased with the little light. One thing P95 that i did not convey in my orginial post was this, it wasn't just the difficulty of being in the dark or having to draw and shoot from conceal, or shoot one handed or use the harries shooting style, it was where everyone shots were landing on the target. While we were all scoring, it wasn't what we would haved perfered, if you know what i mean.

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rocky

· #5 · Jun 15, 2005

While shooting in the dark may be difficult for me. Range rules ect. I do practice with my Airsoft pistol and flash-shoot techniques.

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P95Carry

· #6 · Jun 15, 2005

I forgot to mention - I bought the LED head for my E1e - pretty pricey at $50 or more but - I am delighted with it - it extends my 123 cell life greatly and the ''dazzle'' factor is seemingly every bit as good as the original bulb head.

I agree re range tho when searching at longer distances then sure - I'd like much more. Main thing is I am only prepared to burden my belt with the small light - what with that and Wave on left, knife left pocket - gun on right - that is about all I want most of time. I maybe will splash out on a very high intensity light sometime but know it will not be for carry - just ''available'' for certain times and places.

I do place considerable usefulness on my CT grips... much as anything because the shooting hold does not have to a pure sighted hold - I can even go one handed from strange positions.

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