TexasCHLforum.com

TBJK wrote:Not to hijack your thread but where is there a range around here where we can practice "night time" firing?

I am not aware of any. Some indoor ranges may have a light that you can turn off in your lane. BassPro is like that, but it still doesn't get very dark. It's only moderate to low light at the darkest.

My own club, where I've done a night shoot match prohibits shooting after dark. Mostly, I think, out of respect for the folks that are within ear shot and for safety. In order to do the night shoot match we had to get permission from the board and entries were limited to those club members they had seen were safe enough that they were confident enough there wouldn't be any problems with the added difficulty of shooting at night in near complete darkness. Our club does not have lighting in the rifle or handgun areas.

AndyC wrote:

Charlies.Contingency wrote: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.

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: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?

I prefer my gun to be pointing at whatever I'm clearing - and I've done a LOT of that. As for pulsing - yes. It always makes me chuckle watching a relay of "tactical shooters" run an entire stage with the flashlight on constantly. Good - they can draw the fire.

C-dub wrote:

AndyC wrote:

nightmare69 wrote:Honestly, in a life threatening situation you will never see your sights.

Not necessarily true.

Yeah, but I'm not AndyC.

Well, I prescribe to the "Have it and not need it than the reverse" philosophy, mate ;)

Touché. You got me there. I guess I'll have to keep my NS since I also subscribe to that philosophy.

AndyC wrote:

nightmare69 wrote:Honestly, in a life threatening situation you will never see your sights.

Not necessarily true.

Yeah, but I'm not AndyC.

carlson1 wrote:

C-dub wrote:

carlson1 wrote:I use the XS 24/7 sights. I like late white/green front and just the line on the rear. I believe in a high tense situation your front sight will probably shrink so I want the largest possible.

The 24/7 Big Dots are the ones I've considered. I just wish the white front and rear around the tritium was orange like on my Trijicon HD's. That might be nearly a perfect sight system.

The ones TAM posted a few post up might work for you.

I like that front sight having two colors just in case my target is wearing one of those colors. I don't want my front sight blending in with my target.

I have had those same sights on both Glocks for over a year and they are great! I'm just wondering that in a high stress close quarters situation if I'll even be able to see them or have the gun up at an angle to make use of the night sights.

carlson1 wrote:I use the XS 24/7 sights. I like late white/green front and just the line on the rear. I believe in a high tense situation your front sight will probably shrink so I want the largest possible.

The 24/7 Big Dots are the ones I've considered. I just wish the white front and rear around the tritium was orange like on my Trijicon HD's. That might be nearly a perfect sight system.

Beiruty wrote:I carry with TLR-2 HL (600 Lumens) and my home pistol has the older TLR-2 (250 lumens?)
See what you shoot and for shooting behind cover or from the hip, use the red laser.

The laser is an interesting tactic when shooting like this. I have tried a rail mounted laser before and didn't like it, but that was from a regular stance with arms extended. I've always liked, but never tried, the guide rod replacement with the laser in there. For shooting, when a traditional stance and aim cannot be taken, that might be helpful.

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.

Keith B wrote: With that said, i do have night sights on my main defense guns. The reason is when I need to grab it quickly at night if rousted out of bed I can easily see where the gun is in the dark.

I was waiting to see if someone mentioned this. I have shot at night and it was a huge eye opener for just how much accuracy decreased even with night sights and various light sources. IIRC, the distances were al from 3-7 yards and we could use a weapon mounted light on one stage, a hand held flash light on another, and another stage was setup with a single road flare. So, it wasn't completely black.

However, the biggest use I've seen so far for the night sights is being able to locate the gun more quickly on the night stand next to the bed in the dark.

BTW, during that night match, I did not notice any muzzle flash from my gun when shooting. There may have been some because I did notice it from others' guns when they were shooting. I just didn't notice it from mine when I was shooting.

To clarify, I've been practicing taking the shots with the gun held from hip to chest height. The groups on the paper have been about 4-5" groups with three rapid shots. I figure I won't always have the luxury of being able to take a properly aimed shot in a SD situation due to time and proximity.

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?