Research indicates that criminals often choose the darkness or low
light conditions to pursue their nefarious profession. A significant number of
shootings involving police officers happen at night as well. Criminals view darkness
as an asset and use it as an advantage against those whom they would victimize.
These realities mean that if you are forced to defend yourself odds are it will
be under low light conditions; however, few people pursue low light training
even where the opportunity exists.
We’ve finished the Low Light Classes and
practices for the year. Although shooting accurately with a flashlight is much
more challenging than simply using a normal two-handed stance, our shooter’s
improvement over the past several years is impressive. Accurate shot placement
is becoming the norm rather than the exception.
As
expected, the shooters for the most part are having little difficulty with the
qualification courses. This represents the progress these shooters have
achieved over the last several years.
We used a modified Texas LTC qualification several times this year. For the final practice session of the season we
used a modified Texas LTC qualification course. Once again within Texas LTC
time limits; however, we used an atomically correct picture target and scored
based upon the hit’s probable effectiveness (i.e. central nervous and critical
circulatory system hits counted higher that lung hits). In some cases, this
meant that a shooter who didn’t have a perfect group actually earned an
acceptable score.
Shooters started
all strings of fire with flashlight in hand, drawing from the holster with the
exception of the 2 second strings.
The second qualification was
the Texas Department of Public Safety qualification course. This course of fire
is much more involved and challenging than the LTC qualification with some
movement, reloads, and distances out to 25 yards.
Flashlights
Through experimentation over the past several years we have
confirmed much of the conventional wisdom concerning low light gear. While the
60 lumen Surefire 6P was certainly state of the art many years ago, modern high
intensity lights have come into their own. We have discovered that a powerful
light (300 lumens and up) overpowers a weaker light and permits the shooter to
identify and engage targets that would otherwise be hidden from view.
The spot size of the flashlight beam is also important.
Ideally when you illuminate a threat you want the spot shining directly in
their eyes.
Some lights have a very
small spot designed to throw the light over longer distances. While this works
well as a spotlight, it loses effectiveness when used as a self-defense light
because the narrow spot requires too much precision to effectively blind the
threat.
A flashlight with a large spot requires much less precision
and therefore works better. For many years I have carried a Fenix PD32UE and an
older model of the Surefire 6Z. The Fenix has proven to be a good general
purpose every day carry and self-defense light. It is small, lightweight, takes
rechargeable and standard batteries, and is adjustable from 8-740 lumens. At 25
feet, the spot is almost 4 feet in diameter with a generous spill. Fenix has
produced several PD versions since the PD32UE and most will work almost as well
as the 32UE.
The newer versions
like the PD35 TAC and others tend to have a smaller spot with the possible
exception of the new Fenix FD30. This light has an adjustable spot that
promises to work very well as a self-defense light.
A drawback to the Fenix and many lights
like it is the tail cap design which makes using some flashlight techniques
difficult.
Surefire lights are also a good choice.I have an older model Surefire 6Z that
works very well with some modifications. My Surefire has a modified
Malkoff Devices drop-in LED1 which throws 300+
lumens and has a generous spot as well as a modified
TorchLAB
McClicky tail cap from Oveready.2 This
tail cap allows you to click the light on with a press of the button unlike
many Surefire lights that you must twist to activate constant on.
There are literally dozens of flashlight
models on the market today and it is impossible to test them all; although, the
members of Candlepowerforums.com certainly try and is a good place to learn
about all aspects of modern LED lights and rechargeable batteries.
How about a flashlight on the pistol? We have had several
police officers who attend our low light classes and practice sessions and some
are issued pistols with mounted lights. I have no objection to pistol mounted
lights and they can make firing the pistol much simpler with the proper switch
configuration. However, I do require everyone to master the hand held light
techniques for several reasons. Searching with a mounted light virtually
guarantees that you will point the pistol in unsafe direction at some point.
For that reason, I require shooters to search with their hand held light and
then they are free to release it and go to the pistol mounted light if they
wish to engage.
Challenges
When I first started doing low light classes (2014) we
discovered that the two biggest challenges for shooters was recognizing the
threat targets in decision-based scenarios and then hitting the threats. When
initially exposed to low light problems, even very accomplished shooters that
have very little difficultly hitting a target under normal lighting conditions
often go through an adjustment period as they learn low light techniques.
So what is posing a challenge for them under low lighting
conditions? Almost every student initially shoots high on the target or
(presumably) over it. We discovered that students were subconsciously tilting
the pistol up slightly in order to see the front sight better in the low light.
Clearly, regardless of the lighting conditions you must properly align the
sights and then concentrate on the front sight while simultaneously pressing
the trigger. Hard to do under normal circumstances with good light--more
difficult to do under low lighting conditions.
You must practice low light techniques to have any hope of using them
under stress. As we’ve discovered, students simply don’t master the low light
techniques from class--you cannot practice it once and get it down pat. Using a
light in conjunction with a handgun is difficult and it requires practice.
Thankfully you can practice the techniques with live fire during daylight if
your range won’t allow night shooting. So how do you practice engaging multiple
and shooting on the move with these techniques?
If your local range has IDPA matches, shoot the course of fire using
your flashlight if the match director will permit it.
Your score won’t win the match; however,
you will learn how to shoot and manipulate your pistol under some stress.
Practicing how to search a structure (like your house when nobody is home) in
the dark is important as well.
DO
this with AN UNLOADED PISTOL (check it 3 times!).
This helps you identify how the various
angles and corners in your house make one technique a better option than the
other.
Depending upon which study you believe, somewhere between 60
and 85 percent of all police officer-involved shootings occur during the hours
of darkness. No such data exists concerning private citizen-involved shootings
with criminals; however, since a lot of criminal activity occurs in low light
conditions, we can assume that there is a likely correlation. There are several
reasons to use a flashlight: to observe and detect, to illuminate and navigate,
to eliminate anonymity, and to identify and engage threats. Used properly, a
flashlight lets you see danger before it can affect you and it can encourage
the danger waiting in the dark to go elsewhere.
1 https://malkoff-devices.myshopify.com/collections/surefire-drop-ins-for-6p-g2-c2-etc-6-9-volts
2 http://www.oveready.com/a-upgrades/tail-upgrades/t...
