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AndyC wrote:Ugh - I can't believe I said "prescribe" and not "subscribe". I'm blaming flu.

AndyC wrote:All of that presupposes that they can shoot accurately - and that you're still where the light *used to be*. Me, I prefer a handheld flashlight plus the extra control of my weak hand on a gun (Harries or Rogers style) - but as you implied, the method used is definitely an individual choice.

VMI77 wrote:

Charlies.Contingency wrote:

george wrote:CPSL had a night match (IDPA like, with less rules) at our range here. The results were "enlightening" (unable to resist) for those of us who had never shot in a low light situation. The only ones who really did well had the lights attached to their pistols.

I always had tritium on my concealed pistol, but probably will consider attaching a light for home use.

I would be interested in hearing from LEO. I assume they do some practice in this area?

From a LEO standpoint, the sights help if you can see you target, because it's no bueno if you can't line up your sights on them because black on black. I always use a flashlight of course, but I don't use a pistol mounted light. I don't want them to shoot at the light because that's all they see, and have it right in front of my face. I carry various hand held flash lights in my off hand, and I extend it up and away from my body when applicable, so if somebody does start shooting, hopefully the light is blindin enough that they don't see my silouette, and they shoot at my light, which would be over two feet away from my body. I'd rather get shot in the arm, then shot in the face. That's just my approach, But I had coworkers that loved mouted lights because better gun control, so it's a compromise of what you want.

Another benefit of having the light off gun is that you're not pointing your gun at everything you're sweeping with your light. OTOH, in either case, aren't you supposed to be "pulsing" the light on for less than a second at a time, and moving in between?

george wrote:CPSL had a night match (IDPA like, with less rules) at our range here. The results were "enlightening" (unable to resist) for those of us who had never shot in a low light situation. The only ones who really did well had the lights attached to their pistols.

I always had tritium on my concealed pistol, but probably will consider attaching a light for home use.

I would be interested in hearing from LEO. I assume they do some practice in this area?

Excaliber wrote:You can learn a lot about low light shooting by using airsoft guns. They eliminate a lot of the issues with where you can train.

C-dub wrote:

Unicorn Rancher wrote:I don't envision shooting from retention ...

I don't even know how this could be done with most holsters since they cover the trigger.

Excaliber wrote:
It's best to practice in ways that work with lots, some, and almost no light and at different ranges to the point where you're sure your technique is good to go in all circumstances. Remember that performance will deteriorate significantly under life threatening stress.

If your "groups" at short range are from "hip to chest height", some of your shots in a live encounter will likely be not just off paper, but "off thug". Using sights whenever possible increases precision and reliability, and reduces the number of things that can go wrong. In real life, there are enough of those without adding unnecessary ones.

Also consider - are you practicing in good light because you have reason to believe any serious encounter you may have will occur during the day, or because that's when the range is open? Many, but not all, serious encounters occur in low light. Try practicing under those conditions and see how your technique performs. I suspect you will find that use of sights and bringing the gun to eye level are a significant help to reliable performance at those times. When light is really low, you'll likely find night sights are helpful too, although I don't consider them critical for most non LEO's.

C-dub wrote:Recently, I've been wondering this.

My first set of night sights were from Meprolight. Those green dots were pretty big and easy to see. My current set is from Trijicon, the HD series with the hivis orange around the front dot for better visibility during the day. I like it. The green dots on these are quite a bit smaller and not as easy to line up in the dark quickly.

Since I have been practicing more close range shooting for a SD type scenario with one and two hands, I've not been using the sights at all. I don't even bring the gun up to eye level to make the shoots. They are usually from hip to chest height. For this reason, I'm debating whether my next set of sights will be night sights at all or something that will allow quicker acquisition during the daytime.

Thoughts?