Thinking Man's Corner

More thoughts on low light firearms training…..

Article by: William G.

Low Light and adverse light shooting problems are similar, but different. This will primarily be about low light aspects. This is a good a place as any to readdress Jeff Cooper’s 4 safety rules:

All guns are always loaded. Check them when you pick them up. Before you go on duty, before you start a practice session, before you put them up. Check them. I have adverted disaster, and seen disaster avoided by simply checking the gun before and/or after many times. Getting ready for your tour of duty, check to make sure there is a round in the chamber, same goes prior to the beginning of a course of fire or a match stage. Before you clean a gun, or examine one, or pass it off to someone; check to make sure there isn’t a round in the chamber. Regardless of the situation, check the gun to see its condition. Don’t get complacent with it. In low light, this has to be done by feel, and in a manner that conforms with the other 3 rules to minimize any little accidents. If you have a task light or an area that is lit to check, fine, but the skill of feel should be one that is taught, practiced, and maintained.

Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not fully willing to destroy. Just because someone is shooting at you, or you are checking to see if a round is in the chamber, or any other reason, if you can avoid it at all, simply don’t point the muzzle at anything you are not willing to destroy. If it is dark out, and you didn’t see the person standing off in the distance, and you slip up and fire a round off, and it hits that person, “I didn’t see them” is not a defense. So, how about searching with a Weapon Mounted Light? It can be done, safely, but it requires some proper training and practice. For most people, and most situations, searching with a handheld light, and shooting with a WML is a better option. Just because it is harder to juggle them, doesn’t give you an excuse to be reckless with a gun simply because a WML is attached to it. This is why Dr. Matthews invented lanyards for his lights.

Keep you finger off the trigger until your sights are on target. Just because you are under the clock, or someone is shooting at you, doesn’t justify you putting your finger on the trigger before your gun is on target. With WML there is a phenomenon of sympathetic muscle response (going to activate the light, but pressing the trigger instead). This is due to a variety of reasons outside the scope of this article, so if you would like to learn more, I recommend researching the excellent work done by Force Science Institute. I personally still prefer the DG switch from Surefire, and keeping my finger OFF the trigger, until I am ready to shoot. The DG switch, like the regular switching on a WML, has its own set of unique problems, and like everything – you must train properly and refresh that training periodically. It is, however, the only realistic and time efficient way of operating a WML and gun one handed. The problem doesn’t change just because it is dark or you make bad life choices.

Always know what your target is, what is behind, in front of, and around it. If violent felons use tactics and try to conceal themselves behind cover or concealment in the day, why would they not do the same at night? Same goes for bystanders, but it can be even trickier now, because we may only be able to see within a cone of light, or the fringes of that cone in certain situation. Better make sure you actually hit the target. The Grand Jury probably will not be too sympathetic if you accidentally hit a child because you “couldn’t see them,” or you got “scared” because someone was trying to kill you. Doesn’t give you any excuses from not following established safety doctrine and proper techniques.

Teaching the mechanics of using accessing the WML or the handheld light can, and should be, done during daylight; initially. How to access and mate the handheld with the gun is something that should be taught slowly, in steps, under the watchful eye of a practiced instructor. Likewise, how and when to activate the switching on a WML like should be done the same way. You do not want to let the muzzle cover the other hand when the two mate for a handheld technique. You also don’t want to activate the WML too soon on the presentation.

Once we can do that safely, we can move onto the shooting problem at night, which is not very hard. (We talked about training methodology in a prior article for basic shooting with a light, so no need to rehash it here.) The decision making problem is the real problem, but then again, it always has been. Teaching mindset, which is the basis of decision making, seems to get harder and harder these days. Life experience and having to learn to do it the hard way are a thing, and the old ways got old because they worked, or we did, or some combination of that.

When we are faced with decision making problems at night, we have to learn to look in order to see. Often, I see or hear excuses about low light training because “we don’t have the facility, shoot house, time, money, etc. for that.” I recently ran some low light training on a simple 25 yard pistol bay with some paper and cardboard targets. The paper targets had very small valid hit areas or “10 rings,” Much smaller than what is common on LE qualification targets. The steel targets were painted in dark, subdued colors, except for one drill. This makes them more difficult to hit if you do not LOOK to see, and if you have less than ideal equipment.

Start looking at candela, as well as, lumens. Simple terms are lumens are how bright it is, but candela is how deep the throw goes. You may have a really bright light that runs a pitch-black room into daylight, but you can’t ID a subdued target in light brush. Or it doesn’t throw far enough to make a 22 yard partially obscured head shot. Likewise, you may have a light that is way too bright to use in a close range, confined space. Yes, there is such a thing as too bright, just as there is not bright enough. The only way to determine this is to get out and test your equipment in a bunch of conditions and areas that you are morally certain to probably be faced with. It doesn’t, and can’t be the best at everything but it has to be acceptable and reliable in the vast majority of them. Don’t fool yourself into the false assurance of “that isn’t likely to happen.” Get out test, your gear, on realistic problems, and LOOK to see what actually happens. Put it on a timer, and hold yourself accountable.

Here is a simple, cheap, fast drill: three pepper poppers (use cardboard IDPA target if you don’t have access to falling steel), and a 6-8” steel plate on a 2×4 (you can get really good, affordable steel from Krate Tactical: https://kratetactical.com/) Paint 1 pepper popper blue, 1 tan, and one green (you can use any three colors you want, but 1 bright, and the other 2 subdued seems to work the best). Position the poppers (from left to right) 18 yards from the shooter, middle at 12 yards from the shooter, and the right one at 16 yards from the shooter. Space them about 5-7 yards apart. Then take a 6-8” steel plate, spray it mainly green, and spray the whole 2×4 green. Go back and paint about 25% of the steel plate tan, and go about 2’ from the bottom of the 2×4, and paint about a 6” stripe tan. Now put the steel target behind some type of naturally occurring concealment, or let it peak out, partially, behind some type of barricade. (If you use a barricade, there is no need to paint the 2×4 with a tan stripe.

Give the following instructions: There are FOUR targets. I will give you a list of colors to look for five seconds, prior to the beginning to the exercise. Once you have looked at this list, the stage will begin at the sound of the buzzer. You will shoot the targets in the order of the way the colors are written. There are FOUR targets.” Before you show them the piece of paper with the colors on it, ask them how many targets there are. After they look at the list, ask them how many targets there are. Then start the buzzer.

A very large number of people I run through this drill get tunneled in on the 3 pepper poppers, and never see the partially obscured plate. They shoot the 3 they can see and then stop. I have to ask them how many targets, and they blankly look at me and say 4. Then I ask how many they shot, and they say 3. I ask where the 4^th target is, and then they start looking. Sometimes I have to verbally walk them into the 4^th target. This is not their fault, because no one ever taught them to LOOK, or either they did not do practical exercises to teach them what looking actually is. Other times it is because the light is not bright enough, or doesn’t have a deep enough throw. Yet, other times, the batteries are weak or the lens of the light wasn’t cleaned of carbon from the last practice session. Whatever the reason, it can be a learning moment if it is structured correctly, and reinforced properly. You can’t see if you don’t look, and you can’t look into the darkness without light.