Low light essentials

Here is a great article, a long but informative read, courtesy of John_Wayne777 from AR15.com.

While most of the focus of the article is on handguns, I believe that using the principles outlined here to properly set up a rifle for operations at night/low light are invaluable.  You have to be able to see not only the target but also your sights if you want to make consistent hits at night.



A good weapon light, used properly, combined with a red dot sight (not a laser) gives you a very effective weapon for engaging targets at night.  The weapon light's employment will mire the vision of the enemy and disorient him while providing you with semi-stealth target acquisition when used in an on/off look & move technique.

Also, as mentioned below, choose a light output rating that matches the intended use of the weapon; be it indoors or outside.  Too much light inside a structure with light colored walls will blind you as well as your target.


LWM out............

Low Light Essentials #1 - The Anatomy of Low Light

Human beings have a natural fear of the dark. Human beings depend primarily on sight as a means of figuring out what is going on in the world around them so it should come as no surprise that we naturally find conditions where this sense is significantly diminished or useless to be extremely disconcerting. Our eyes are remarkable organs capable of incredible feats, but seeing in the dark isn't one of them. As a species our night vision capabilities are some of the worst you can find on the planet.... certainly the worst you will find among top level predators.

Our night vision depends on photoreceptive structures in our eyes called "rods" that have a pigment called rhodopsin which is sensitive enough to be triggered by as little as a single photon of light under ideal conditions.

Unfortunately our rods have a saturation point, a point at which they essentially white out and our cones (the structures of our eye responsible for vision in daylight and perceiving color) take over.

If our rods are exposed to too much light they become essentially useless for a brief period of time, and it takes as long as 30 minutes for them to "recharge" to the point where you regain your peak night vision capabilities.

All of us have at some point gone from a place where there is abundant light into a place that has almost no light and we've all found out that it takes us a couple of minutes in the dark for our eyes to adjust so we can actually have some idea of what the environment around us is like.

Some human beings have learned to use this shortcoming we all share to their advantage. Statistics tell us that most violent crimes happen at night or in conditions of low light. A sizeable majority of officer involved shootings happen at night. Bad guys seem to like the cover of darkness and often use it to prey on their fellow man.
Men who make preying upon their fellow man a lifestyle look at the world much differently than normal people do. They view darkness as an asset. They use the cloak of darkness as a weapon against those they would victimize. Knowing this you should now understand why the statistics show that bad guys do most of their work at night.

The defense minded individual should also notice that these realities mean that if they are forced to defend themselves odds are it will be under conditions of low light.

........so what do they do about it?

Thankfully there are some options.

Low Light Essentials #2 - Gear - General Purpose Tactical Lights

The most obvious solution to a lack of light is to bring a light source with you. These days there are literally thousands of light options out there.

Practically every home in America has a tried and true Mag-Lite in it. This is a good thing as they are durable, dependable lights that almost all of us have used at some point or another to deal with a blown breaker or to fix a broken belt on the side of a lonely road on some dark night. (Well, maybe that last one is something only old timers have done) I have over a dozen Mag-Lites in my house as I type this. I have depended on them for years.

.....but let's face facts. As a light used for self defense purposes, THEY ARE TERRIBLE.

Yes, I know that back in the day every cop walking the beat could be found to have a Mag-lite on hand at all times to use in conjunction with his Smith & Wesson model 19 revolver and that they managed to use them successfully... but the reason they used the 4 D-Cell mag lites back in "the day" was because they were pretty much the only available option. Times have changed and technology has changed with it. Today there are lights that are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand that put out good amounts of light, with almost indestructible LED lamp elements that never blow out, and that don't weigh more than a .44 magnum with an 8 inch barrel on it.

These new generation lights can be had for VERY reasonable prices and are MUCH easier to carry on your person at all times and to use in conjunction with a handgun, which is the main personal defense weapon for most people in the US.

Yes, I know you can't crack a grizzly's skull with one of these smaller lights, but I would challenge those who bring that up as a reason to keep using a Mag-lite to tell us whether or not they go about their daily life with one of those big beasts on their belt or in their back pocket at all times. The answer, dear reader, will be NO. Buying a big, hardly carried, hard to use light simply because it would make a better impact weapon is about as sensible as buying a Walker Colt revolver as your primary self defense handgun because it will make a bigger dent in somebody's skull when you pistol whip them with it.
There are dedicated tactical lights out there meant to be used in conjunction with a weapon under stressful conditions to stop a threat. YOUR MAIN CARRY LIGHT SHOULD BE ONE OF THESE LIGHTS. Leave the mag-lites (this also applies to mini-mag-lites) at home or in the trunk for less deadly emergencies. Stick to dedicated tactical lights for every-day carry. Every tool has its limits. Mag-lites are great tools for what they are... but they are NOT the best tool for every job.
Now that we've dealt with the dinosaurs of the flashlight world, which of the modern dedicated tactical lights should you choose?

Surefire's 6P lights and the derivatives of that design set the standard by which all other tactical lights are judged.

They are compact, reasonably light, powerful, and easy to use in conjunction with a weapon. They are essentially the Glock 17 of the flashlight world.

Many years ago I purchased a Surefire 6Z, a derivative of the 6P that had some improvements aimed at making the light easier to use in conjunction with a handgun.

The light had a lanyard attached to it to allow for dropping the light without losing it if you had to do something like clear a malfunction or reload your weapon. It also included rubber O-rings around the smooth body of the light with one larger ring just behind the mid-point of the light to allow use of a light technique called the "Rogers technique."

The Rogers technique is similar to how you see doctors use hypodermic needles. The big ring allows the user to set the light between the index and middle fingers of the weak hand.

Instead of putting his thumb on the pressure button, the user instead rests the rear of the light against the meat of his palm.

This allows the user to turn on the light simply by applying backwards pressure against the large ring, which presses the rear of the light into the base of the thumb, activating the light. 

This hold allows the user to still get at least three of his weak-hand fingers around the grip of the weapon

To this day I have not found a handheld light technique that works better in conjunction with a handgun than the Rogers technique. (Also called the "hypodermic needle" technique, "cigar technique") As a result, the configuration found on the 6Z has remained my favorite configuration for a tactical light.

I bought and carried two of them because the incandescent elements, while very powerful and bright, had a bad habit of blowing out on me at the worst time. I was not alone in this experience which is why you hear people often tell you that with flashlights two are one, one is none. A few years ago Surefire released a polymer bodied update of the 6Z called the Z2 combat light.

This is essentially just a 6Z in polymer with a couple of improvements like a roll resistant bezel. I bought one as soon as they came out and I've been using it as my primary carry light ever since.  I heartily recommend  these two lights to the defense minded individual. NOTE: Surefire still offers these "combat" lights but they now have different model designations. Now does that mean that all other lights are unsuitable for the task? No, it simply means that after much trial and error those are the lights I have found to be best suited for using in conjunction with a handgun, which is the primary defensive weapon for practically every legally armed individual in this country, LE or ordinary Joe. There are other lights that will work with the Rogers technique like Surefire's G2 or the old 6P, but I find them more difficult to use with the technique than the dedicated "combat" lights. Surefire has, however, recently released a line of rings for the G2 and 6P style lights that will let you configure them to look very similar to the setup seen on the "combat" lights. I haven't had the chance to thoroughly evaluate them, but from a glance they look like they may be just the ticket for someone who wants a more positive use of the Rogers technique. There are other arrangements as well. Use of a large key ring affixed to the light is also a fairly popular (and effective) technique. Low Light Essentials #3 - Gear - Features to look for in a General Purpose Tactical Light The Surefire lights mentioned before are not the ONLY options on the market worth considering, however. Surefire makes a wide range of lights in all sorts of sizes and configurations that work fairly well. Some other companies make some decent lights as well. If someone wants a simple recommendation for a light with a minimum of fuss and bother, I'd say the mentioned lights are your best bet. If, however, you are willing to do some research and want just a general list of features to look for, here you go. 1. A general purpose handheld tactical light should put out between 60 and 80 lumens This is another point of controversy in the world of flashlight geeks. A lot of people are, to borrow Ken Hackathorn's description, "absolutely queer" for how many lumens a particular light can generate. Contrary to what people think a light that can double as the bat signal or that puts out enough light to melt the face of a bad guy like that Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark is not necessarily a good thing. Remember the opening discussion about the rods in our eyes and their saturation point? The more lumens your light puts out the higher the chances that once you use the light you will actually "flashbulb" yourself when using it. Most interior structures in the United States have walls painted with light colors. Light colors reflect more light than dark colors. Somebody who lights up a normal residential hallway with a 200 lumen face-melter even for just a split second is going to experience what is known as the "flashbulb effect". (Be aware that “lumen” measures are often wildly overstated by some companies) The flashbulb effect happens when the rods in your eyes are hit with a flash of light sufficient to saturate them, but not long enough to allow the cones in your eyes to take over completely. This leaves you literally blind for a short period of time... completely unable to see a bloody thing. You can ask the guys who went through the Vickers/Hackathorn low light training courses about too much light. If anyone doubts the validity of the flashbulb effect, conduct a simple experiment. Find a friend who is a photography nerd and ask to borrow their big camera flash. Wait until it is completely dark in your house and give yourself at least 30 minutes in the dark for your eyes to adjust to their peak night vision efficiency. Then point the camera flash down the hallway and trigger it. See how long it takes you to recover the ability to see to a useful level. You will then understand why it is called the "flashbulb" effect. (Note: You can also set up a game camera in the bathroom and ask the missus to report back on what effect it had on her during the night, but be sure you have a comfortable couch first.) A 60-80 lumen light offers enough power to clearly identify what is going on within the hotspot of the light, but not so much light that you obliterate your night vision entirely.  2. LED lamp elements vs incandescents LED's have proven to allow for longer battery life and can survive more abuse than incandescent lamp units. The downside to LED units is that they don't tend to penetrate smoke as well as incandescent lights do. 3. The activation switch should be pressure based ...meaning you have to apply deliberate pressure to keep the light on rather than a "click" style on/off switch reminiscent of the old Mag lites. The pressure based switches are a pain in the neck if you are using the light to fix a circuit breaker or a fan belt... but click style switches are even MORE annoying when you are trying to use the light in a tactically sound fashion or in conjunction with a handgun. Under stress they inevitably get switched on when they shouldn't or left on for far longer than is desirable, making the person holding the light a target. There are a number of switch styles on the market that do everything from just keeping the light on with a click to engaging a strobe function... but my advice is to avoid anything that isn't pressure based. The simple lock-out tailcaps seen as standard equipment on the Surefires pictured here and that are the default on most Surefire lights are already very good for their intended purpose. Low Light Essentials #4 - Gear - Weapon Lights for Handguns For as long as there have been flashlights, there have been people wishing they could mount them to a weapon. If you've ever tried to use a hand held light in conjunction with a weapon it becomes instantly clear that doing so is a pain in the neck. It's awkward, uncomfortable, and I've never met anyone who found it “easy” to do. Dedicated weapon lights were invented to help make the process of using a light and a weapon at the same time easier. Handguns Today the two most popular options on the market are the Streamlight TLR-1 and the Surefire X series weapon lights….and both are very good units. The TLR-1 is by all accounts a durable, reliable, eminently useful weapon light option….and coming in at around 100 bucks it is probably the best value in a weapon light currently on the market. Insight recently released the Procyon weapon light which I've been testing for a while. So far it's also proven to be a very good light for a handgun. The Surefire X-series weapon lights are my personal choice for a dedicated handgun mounted weapon light. I prefer the Surefire units because they are a bit more compact and have a mounting system that I like better than the TLR-1's screw based system. They also have much better tape switches available than the TLR-1 does. My second choice would be the Procyon. With these weapon lights there are essentially two types of controls: 1. Rocker switches A switch mounted directly to the back of the light unit that is activated by moving the switch up or down by a either the trigger finger or a finger on the weak hand. The TLR-1, X series and the various M3 derivative lights all come with rocker switches as a standard option. For a number of people the standard rocker switch is just fine. Others, however, have trouble using them effectively. I have found that rocker switches on weapon lights just don't work well for me. My fingers are considerably shorter than the length of my palm making it difficult for me to reach out in front of the trigger guard on many handguns to use the rocker switch on a weapon light. On a handgun like a Glock I don't have much trouble with it, but on something like a Beretta 92 it's incredibly difficult for me. As a result I prefer tape switches for my handgun mounted lights. 2. Tape switches Pressure activated switches that are connected to the back of the light by a wire and that can generally be mounted on the grip of the weapon, allowing a squeeze to the grip of the weapon to activate the light. Like everything else in the “tactical” world, tape switches on handguns bring their own unique challenges and issues to the table. The biggest is accidental light discharges. As I stated earlier, light is a target indicator. You want to use a minimum amount of light when you are searching a structure or doing something similar because you don't want the bad guy to know where you are. Tape switches are easier to use on purpose than rocker switches, but the downside to them is that they are also easier to use by accident than rocker switches, which can lead to lighting yourself or your teammates (if you do the CQB thing for a living) by accident. The consequences of this can range from being a minor inconvenience to alerting the enemy to your presence and getting yourself and/or team members killed. The consequences for the average citizen or law enforcement officer are typically going to be on the very low end of that spectrum, thus I would say that the higher risk of light AD's with tape switches is a good trade-off for those individuals (like myself) who find that rocker switches don't work well for them. I stated earlier that I prefer the tape switches used by the Surefire X series lights and now I'll explain why: Many tape switches out there are held on to the grip of a handgun via an adhesive, or Velcro that is glued to the grip and the tape switch with an adhesive. These do not tend to be good long term mounting solutions, and they don't offer the freedom to take the light on and off of the weapon at will. The Surefire X series lights, however, have the “DG” switch which is molded around a stiff metal insert that is specifically designed for mounting on a particular type of weapon. This means you can take the X series light (an X200B in the pictures) on and off of the weapon at will without worry. You also don't have to find ranger bands or similar tricks to hold the switch on the grip of the weapon for hard use. Now all of that is great for those who have a weapon with an integrated accessory rail, but what if your weapon doesn't have one? Thankfully the various light companies have realized that there are lots of people out there who don't have rails on their handguns and have figured out various aftermarket solutions for this problem. One such solution is the Surefire MR-11 mounting rail you see here. The MR-11 attaches to the front of the trigger guard on the Beretta 92 without damaging the finish, and allows you to mount a Surefire X series weapon light. Other manufacturers also offer similar adapters, but the Surefire add-on rails are the best I've seen from anyone. They are available for a number of service weapons like the Sig P226, the 1911, and the H&K USP Okay…. so you now have a weapon light and you've got it mounted to your weapon...but how do you carry the bloody thing? There are a number of holster makers out there who offer carry options for weapon mounted lights. Safariland offers versions of their excellent law-enforcement holsters (like the 6004) to accommodate handguns with weapon lights, and so do other makers like Com-Tac, Blade-Tech, etc. Unfortunately when it comes to concealed carry of a handgun with a weapon light your options are significantly narrowed. Most of the previously mentioned holsters are belt holsters that require some sort of covering garment. If you want to carry IWB it's decidedly harder to find a holster to accommodate that. Thankfully Raven Concealment has come up with a great system that allows you to take one of their belt holsters and convert it into an IWB if you choose to do so. As you can see in the photograph the Raven Concealment system uses screws to hold on the belt loops. You can remove the belt loops and replace them with rubber IWB loops on the front of the holster, J hooks, or even tuckable loops. Their standard belt configuration is also the most concealable holster for a mounted handgun on a light that I've found. While a mounted light does add some bulk to the weapon, theRaven Concealment holsters handle it better than any other design I've tried. Lots of very experienced people are buying gear from Raven Concealment and consider them the best kydex maker around right now. I'm very pleased with the gear I have from them. Low Light Essentials #5 - Gear - Weapon Lights for Long Guns There are many more options out there for long gun lights than there are for handgun lights. While this means more choice, it can also mean more confusion about what you need. There are essentially two basic categories of long gun lights: Dedicated weapon lights, and mounts that let you use general purpose tactical lights. An example of a dedicated weapon light is the 9 volt Surefire you see in the picture.  It attaches to the rifle via a dedicated throw lever mount (you can get one with a thumbscrew mount which is preferable because the ARMS throw lever mount pictured is absolutely terrible) and it has a remote tape switch activation. It's a very good light, durable, reliable, and more than bright enough for any general purpose carbine work. It is also heavy and expensive. I purchased the pictured light for over 300 bucks several years ago and other than the fact that the stinking mount falls off the weapon entirely on occasion, it's been a good light. (if you want a good throw lever mount for this sort of light, buy a LaRue) Recently, however, I saw that Larry Vickers was using a Surefire G2 mounted to his rifle with a VLTOR mount and I started thinking. The G2 setup described costs less than 100 bucks even if you replace the standard G2 element with an LED upgrade.  It's also a good bit lighter than the big Surefire, takes up less rail space, and doesn't seem to have any real disadvantages in actual use. I decided to give it a whirl myself and since running it in dedicated low light training I've found it to be a wonderful option. It's effective, reliable, and cheap. What more could you ask for? One note of caution: If you want to use an incandescent G2 in this sort of setup in a weapon bigger than 5.56, you should invest in a shock isolated bezel to keep from constantly blowing out lamp elements. Are there other options? Sure. The Surefire X300 is also very much at home on the rail of a carbine. Pentagon makes some nice carbine lights that seem to perform well. Because there are so many options you shouldn't have any issue finding something that will fit your budget and your needs. My only caution would be to remember that our earlier discussion about the lumens you want on a tactical light also applies here. You don't want to have a face-melter on your carbine any more than you want one on your handgun or in a handheld light. Anything from 60 to 100 lumens is preferred for a carbine light that will be doing work indoors and outdoors. If you won't have to go into enclosed structures and you have lots of money then you can buy one of the super-high lumen Surefire anti-aircraft lights if you want Low Light Essentials #6 - Gear - Handgun Sights and Lasers Handgun Sights At a bare minimum you NEED a tritium dot in your front sight. Ever since the handgun was invented people have been trying various methods to make the front sight easier to see, especially in low light. In the old days guys used to paint their front sight a loud color to help it stand out. Somewhere along the line somebody thought of putting a small gold insert in the front sight and buffing it to a high shine so that it would be more visible in low light. Today practically every maker out there offers a weapon with tritium sights pre-installed from the factory. While this is a good thing, unfortunately the dominant sight configuration is to have three “dots”, each with a tritium vial in it that is the same size, color, and brightness. This, as it turns out, isn't an ideal setup. When you look through the sights of a handgun, the rear sight appears to be bigger than the front sight of the handgun. This is because it is closer to your face. In low light with tritium sights that are all the same color and brightness when side by side, the rear sights are actually going to appear to be bigger and BRIGHTER than the front sight, making it harder to find and focus on the front sight under stress. Thankfully there are sight makers who have realized this and who offer sights in various color combinations to try and help a shooter to distinguish between the front and rear sights under stress. This picture of a typical 3 dot night sight setup, generously provided by a member ofM4Carbine.net, illustrates my point. While this is progress, it still isn't ideal. Even with orange or yellow rear sight “dots” you can still end up losing the smaller, dimmer front sight. As a result I've pretty much transitioned all my carry guns to a plain black rear sight and a tritium front like the plain black Warren Tactical rear sight you see here on my M&P. With this arrangement I have found that even when shooting in almost no light I can make A zone hits without problem using just my glowing front sight out to 25 yards. A plain black rear sight is useable and more accurate than a traditional three dot setup under stress, but still isn't ideal. Some folks have examined the problem and have come up with a great solution: Make the rear sight “dots” smaller and dimmer. Scott Warren is one of those folks and he created a rear sight with a smaller subdued dot and a front sight with a green dot of standard size and brightness, and the result is the best night sight setup I've tried. You can see the Warren rear sight with smaller, subdued tritium elementon my Glock 19 here. The rear dot doesn't distract from the brighter front dot but it does allow you to figure out where your front sight is in relation to the rear sight… and at least in my experience the vertical dot-on-dot arrangement seems to align very naturally for me. I currently run the Warren 2 dot sight arrangement on all of my Glocks and M&P's Plain black Warren rear. The following pictures attempt to illustrate some of the differences in sighting setups. They are fuzzy because the camera wasn't at all happy with the level of light being used, and the fact that I was trying to snap the picture with one hand while holding the weapon with the other didn't help any either. Still, while they aren't 100% true to life, they do help illustrate the point. First up, plain black sights as found on a S&W K frame. Next, the plain black rear with a tritium front. Next, the Warren tritium rear with tritium front. I know what you're thinking... where are the 3 dot sight pictures? Well I couldn't get the camera to take a useful picture of the 3 dot setup. Handgun Lasers The best available option for low light shooting with handguns these days is the laser. While lasers aren't as durable or reliable as iron sights with tritium vials in them, they are MUCH easier to use in low light than even iron sights that glow. Our natural instinct when we perceive a threat is to focus intensely on the threat itself… and yet to be accurate with a handgun you have to focus on some sort of sighting reference (like the sights) rather than the threat. The laser, on the other hand, allows someone to see a valid aiming index that is literally ON the target, working more in line with how we operate under stress. The laser is to the handgun what the red dot is to the carbine, a simpler aiming index that allows for more accurately placed fire under stress and especially in low light. I know that some people have regarded lasers on handguns as unnecessary “gadgets” and something that shouldn't be used for any serious purpose. Many of those people have changed their tune and now heartily recommend lasers to their students. Lasers are really something that you can't fully appreciate until you've given them a shot. Explanations invariably fail to communicate the true benefit they offer. The best example is the little S&W J frame. The J frame is probably the single most difficult handgun to master. It's got a heavy trigger, a short sight radius and stock sights that are almost impossible to see even in bright daylight. With a laser attached, however, it suddenly becomes easier to get a good sighting index. Ask anyone who has used the CT grips on a revolver for serious evaluation and they'll tell you that they have used them to make shots they never could have made without the laser. My own personal testimony is that I and several other shooters were able to use a S&W J frame at about 15yards in almost pitch blackness to make solid center mass hits on a target with the laser activated. Everyone who tried it was sold on the utility of the CT lasers. As an example, this is what it's like to try and aim the J frame in dimming light. This is what it looks like when you use the laser. It takes some dedicated training and practice to learn to use the laser properly, but it's worth it. They are also tremendous training tools. The laser offers you instant feedback on your trigger control. If you see the laser making a checkmark or a U while you shoot, you are snatching the trigger. It's much more difficult to get that kind of feedback from iron sights. Low Light Essentials #7 - Gear - Long Gun Sights and Lasers Long Gun Sights The best option for low light use for most people is an Aimpoint red dot. They work great in conjunction with a white light and they'll work if you mount some sort of NV behind them. They have a long battery life, they are durable, reliable… pretty much everything you could hope to want in an optic. A decidedly inferior option to the red dot sight, the various tritium equipped iron sights available for long guns can be used. These are better than straight iron sights, but once you've used a good red dot there really is no comparison. Long Gun Lasers There are a number of laser systems out there for the long gun. Generally they aren't necessary for most folks who have a red dot optic on their rifle or shotgun. There are a couple of exceptions worth noting, however…. 1. Night Vision if you are using a night vision device that is mounted on a helmet (generally the preferred method for using them) then you aren't going to be able to look through your red dot optic to aim. This is why IR laser systems exist, to allow for an accurate aiming reference without having to have a cheek weld on the weapon. 2. Gas mask/hazmat/chem-bio suits The masks in these suits generally prevent a decent cheek weld, meaning you probably won't be able to use the optic/sights on your carbine. A laser system like the DBAL would be an asset here. 3. Sight-to-barrel relationship If you have a weapon intended mainly for close quarters that has a big difference in sight to barrel relationship it may be to your advantage to mount a laser to help deal with close quarters work. An example is a Colt 9mm SMG. I was using one in a shoothouse recently that had an Aimpoint mounted to the top of the carry handle. As good as the Colt is and as good as the Aimpoint is, the combination wasn't so hot. The Aimpoint mounted on top of the carry handle left a great deal to be desired. It made for a really nasty sight offset that complicated close range work. In that situation a Crimson Trace unit or a DBAL would have helped to deal with the sight offset issue and would have made A zone hits and headshots much easier at the close ranges found inside the shoothouse. If you aren't in those categories you probably don't need the laser on your weapon. Generally the sorts of guys who are in those situations are paid to carry machineguns by some sort of government entity. Low Light Essentials #8 - Gear - Ammunition Something VERY few people ever stop to consider is how their carry ammo performs in low light. Most people have never shot their carry ammo at night and have no idea what sort of issues it can cause for them. I talked earlier about the "flashbulb" effect that too bright of a light can cause and why that happens. The same concern exists with the muzzle flash from various types of ammunition. Believe it or not muzzle flash can end up flashbulbing you and in some extreme cases everyone else within a 10 yard radius, rendering you temporarily blind. For a long time US military ammo had a flash retardant in the powder mix, but recently that practice was discontinued in the name of cutting expense. Muzzle flash falls into four basic categories: 1. Red This is the most desirable type of muzzle flash because the rods in our eyes don't respond to light in the red wavelengths... meaning that a red muzzle flash won't damage your night vision at all. 2. Orange This is not as good as red because it can actually affect your night vision somewhat, but it's still quite manageable most of the time. 3. Yellow This is where you start to get into flashbulb territory. Yellow muzzle flash is bright and typically interferes significantly with your night vision. Most of the FMJ practice ammo on the market that I've tried has a yellow muzzle flash. A number of duty/defensive ammo choices also have a yellow muzzle flash. 4. White This is the worst. A white muzzle flash gives you the full flashbulb effect and temporarily blinds you. It takes at least half a second if not longer for you to recover any useful vision. When you are in a dynamic situation it's really bad to have yourself blinded for a second or more. It can also make it almost impossible to pick up your tritium sights for several seconds after you are flashbulbed. While muzzle flash is not the most important factor in selecting ammunition for your carry/duty weapons, it is nevertheless an aspect of ammunition performance that needs to be weighed in as part of the decision. For handguns, the Winchester "Ranger" line of ammunition includes a flash retardant that gives it a very mild red muzzle flash from most weapons. Speer's Gold Dot ammo tends to give a reddish-orange muzzle flash that isn't bad at all from most full sized guns. It's a bit more objectionable from compact guns. If I remember correctly Federal's HST is a bit worse than Gold Dot. The absolute worst muzzle flash that I've seen from ANY ammo, carbine or pistol is Remington's 230 grain .45 ACP Golden Saber JHP load. That produces a hideous white muzzle flash that flashbulbs everyone within a 15 yard radius. It's insane... and it just happens to be the FBI choice for their 1911s. This demonstrates that just because agency X uses load Y it doesn't make it ideally suited for your needs or for all situations. In fact, it might be a pretty stupid choice for your needs. Now for handguns there aren't many things you can do to tone down muzzle flash beyond using a full sized handgun and selecting ammo that doesn't have too much muzzle flash. Generally ammo selection is going to be the most powerful control you have over muzzle flash in your handgun. Carbines are a much different animal. There are a number of muzzle devices out there that are aimed at dealing with muzzle flash. The standard A2 birdcage hider works pretty well as do some other devices. Some muzzle devices don't work as well. Actual muzzle brakes do NOT limit flash, so don't be confused. Muzzle brakes actually cause the flash to be worse. Low Light Essentials #9 - Training - Hand-held Light Techniques If you've read the article to this point you'll remember that different handheld light techniques have been mentioned but not explained. I want to take some time to describe some of the most used flashlight techniques. The general idea behind the use of a handheld light and a handgun is to index both the hotspot of the light and the sights of the handgun in the same place. The terms I'm using are fairly standard terms, but it's possible that some folks have learned a different technique with the same name as one of the techniques I'm describing. Term creep happens in the “tactical” world moreso than just about any other, so don't be surprised if you see some. Techniques we'll review next: The FBI Technique The Neck Index Technique The Harries Technique The Rogers Technique The Push/Pull Technique Low Light Essentials #10 - Training - Hand-held Light - The FBI Technique The FBI technique involves holding the flashlight in your weak hand and holding it above your head and to the left or right at the full extension of your arm. Think of the Statue of Liberty and imagine that instead of a torch in her upraised hand that she has a flashlight and that instead of a tablet in her other hand she's instead pointing a handgun at eye level and you've pretty much got it. Strengths The FBI technique allows you to sometimes get a light behind objects so you can't get a light behind any other way. It's also a very free technique, meaning that if for some reason you need to radically alter the orientation of the light you can very easily move it around to the position you need. One of the oft-stated advantages of the FBI technique is that if the light is up and away from your body if someone shoots at the light they will be missing you. This is of dubious value, in my opinion, because while there are some guys who will probably take dead aim at the light and shoot it, most will simply shoot in the general direction of the light. Weaknesses The FBI technique is one of the most difficult techniques for indexing the light and the sights of the weapon together, in my opinion. It is also easy to end up backlighting yourself using this technique if you aren't careful because a fair chunk of your body is in front of the light source. It also assures that if you have to shoot you will be doing so with one hand, and one handed shooting is no small task under stress in low light. Low Light Essentials #11 - Training - Hand-held Light - The Neck Index Technique The neck index involves holding the light in your weak hand along your jaw line. Your arm is pulled back into the body and it remains locked in place as does your neck. The general idea here is that when you turn you turn your entire torso sort of like the turret on a tank. In theory this essentially indexes the light wherever your head is turned, making it easier to index the light and the sights of your weapon in the same place. Strengths This technique makes it easier to coordinate the hotspot of the light and the sights of the weapon, in my opinion. It is also a very free technique, allowing you to quickly adjust the orientation of the light if you need to do so. It's very easy to transition between this technique and the FBI technique. Weaknesses The neck index technique is also easy to get wrong. The most common failing I see is folks who end up improperly indexing the light so that it ends up shining on the rear of the handgun, which partially backlights the shooter AND makes it nigh unto impossible to see the sights properly… especially if they are using a face melter like we discussed in the gear section. This is also a technique that limits you to one handed shooting. Another mentioned weakness of this technique is that it directs incoming fire at your head and upper chest area if someone shoots accurately at the light. Low Light Essentials #12 - Training - Hand-held Light - The Harries Technique The Harries technique is one of the more popular techniques out there, probably the single most popular technique among law enforcement. The Harries technique involves holding the flashlight in your weak hand, crossing your weak hand under your gun hand, and then pressing the back of your weak hand against the back of your strong hand. In this position you push your strong hand against your weak hand while pulling the weak hand against the strong hand utilizing the stabilizing power of isometric tension. (Similar to how the Weaver stance works) Strengths The Harries technique is more stable than the FBI or neck index techniques because it gives some extra support to the shooting hand. Personally I find that my accuracy is much improved using the Harries over the FBI or neck index methods. When used properly the Harries also makes it very easy to index the light and the sights in the same place. The positioning of the hands tends to make it fairly easy to get the indexes aligned right off the bat. Weaknesses The Harries technique is fatiguing. While the isometric tension used in the technique helps to stabilize your shooting platform, it also requires muscle tension, and that gets old real quick. The positioning of the hands is also pretty un-natural and it takes a good deal of muscle energy to simply hold the Harries position even if you aren't using the isometric tension. As a result you'll watch guys on the line start to drop the light and the weapon down to about a low-ready position and try to bring the light and the weapon up. The Harries is more of a committed position than the FBI or neck index. It requires slightly more time and effort to get out of so you can transition into the FBI or neck index techniques. Low Light Essentials #13 - Training - Hand-held Light - The Rogers Technique The following is an explanation of the Rogers technique from M4Carbine.net member HeadHunter, an instructor at the Rogers shooting school. At the Rogers School, we teach the students to straddle the magazine catch with the middle finger and thumb of the right hand. We call this "making a tunnel" for the light. The light is then pressed against the groove between the two digits rather than against the weapon itself. This picture does not show the grip on the light itself, just the positioning of the light against the firing hand. Seen from a front angle. The flashlight is gripped between the forefinger and the middle finger with the switch at the base of the thumb. Each person needs to find their individual grip so they can repeatedly index the light the same way. The gripped flashlight is then placed against the tunnel formed by the thumb and middle finger of the other hand. Note that the flashlight does NOT touch the weapon. This accomplishes two things: a) protects the magazine catch from the light, and b) helps index the light repeatedly in the same spot. The object is that the flashlight should be coaxially aligned with the bore of the weapon in both axes. The vertical axis. And the horizontal axis. Note that if the flashlight isn't coaxial to the bore, the light will shine below the weapon's sights, typically at ranges in excess of 10 yards. Night shooting is difficult enough without having the light and weapon pointing in different directions. I have a high tech solution to help me repeatedly index the light the same way - a 1 inch O ring with a rubber band to keep it from sliding rearward. Unsophisticated but it works better than anything else I have tried. Strengths The Rogers technique is, in my opinion, the absolute best technique when it comes to shooting accurately with a hand-held light. The technique allows the three free fingers of your weak hand to grab on to the weapon and help to stabilize it. Once mastered, it allows you to shoot every bit as good as you can with a normal two handed hold. Once mastered, it also allows you to put the hot spot of the light where it is centered around the front sight of the weapon the first time every time. Weaknesses The Rogers technique is probably the most difficult hand-held light technique to master. When you first try it out it is probably the most awkward and unnatural feeling technique you will try. On some weapons the Rogers technique can interfere with the function of the weapon. It's particularly bad about ejecting magazines on some semi-autos. While you can use the Rogers technique with many flashlights, it really does work best with lights dedicated to the technique like the 6Z/Z2 combat lights discussed earlier. People usually require A LOT of practice to get the light indexed with the sights using this technique. Generally they end up pointing the light at the ground or way up in the air while the sights are more or less on target until they've mastered the technique. Low Light Essentials #14 - Training - Hand-held Light - The Push/Pull Technique This is a relatively new technique that developed in response to the very small lights that have recently come on to the market like the Surefire E1B. The technique entails putting the head of the small light between the thumb and first fingers of your weak hand so that the tailcap of the small light rests against the base of your STRONG hand's thumb. You then push slightly forward with the base of your thumb to activate the light. Strengths It's essentially the only technique that allows you to use 2 hands with the super compact lights like the E1B. Weaknesses If you aren't careful you can get the rear of the light into the trigger guard and actually launch a round downrange. Don't attempt to use this technique in real life until you've trained EXTENSIVELY on it. Low Light Essentials #15 - Training - Hand-held Light Techniques Conclusions Now you'll notice that I listed the strengths and weaknesses of each light technique. Each technique has situations where it is utterly useless. This means you ***MUST*** learn MULTIPLE techniques and become proficient with them. I prefer the Rogers technique as my main light technique and I am a right handed shooter. If I attempt to use the technique on a corner that opens to my right, if I activate the light I am going to blast myself with the light instead of lighting the unknown space I am trying to clear. My choices here are to expose more of myself than necessary to get my light out past the corner, or to transition to the Harries technique which allows me to keep most of myself hidden while still allowing me to search the unknown space because the light is now to the right of my weapon. (For a wrong-handed shooter it would be the opposite.) The world is a very big place and is full of all sorts of problems and issues. When you are trying to clear the average structure it will be almost impossible to use just one light technique to get the job done. Having multiple techniques in your toolbox is vital for the defense minded individual. You will also encounter situations where none of the stated techniques is appropriate and you'll have to improvise one on the spot. An example is if you have to look under something like a porch or a car. The FBI technique isn't going to be terribly useful here, but putting the light at waist level may work for you, or even putting it at knee level. The most critical thing I can tell you at this point is that YOU MUST TRAIN DILLIGENTLY WITH EACH OF THESE TECHNIQUES TO HAVE ANY HOPE OF USING THEM UNDER STRESS. You cannot practice it once and get it down pat. Using a light in conjunction with a handgun is difficult and it will not come easy. You need to spend considerable amounts of time practicing these techniques with an empty weapon inside a structure and also with live fire on the range. Thankfully you can practice the techniques with live fire during daylight if your range won't allow night shooting. You need to practice engaging multiple targets with these techniques and you need to practice shooting on the move with these techniques. You need to spend time searching a structure (like your house when nobody is home) in the dark and learning how the various angles and corners in your house make one technique a better option than the other. You need to practice getting into these techniques when drawing from concealment…. Starting to see my point? You need to train on these techniques in a wide variety of situations and scenarios that you can find yourself in. It is also necessary to practice weapon manipulations with the light. Most of the techniques leave you shooting the weapon with one hand, but when the time comes to reload or clear a malfunction you are going to want to use both hands. This means you have to do something with that light. A lot of people teach tucking the light under the strong arm and then using the weak hand as normal and this is very effective. Some teach putting the light back into its holster (assuming you are carrying your hand held light in a dedicated readily accessible light holster) Some teach putting the light in your mouth. Some teach dropping the light on the ground and then simply drawing a second light from your belt. Generally the folks I've met who use this tactic carry a minimum of THREE lights on them at all times. My personal favorite technique is to use the lanyard or a large key-ring on the weapon light. If you remember I listed the lanyard available from the factory on the 6Z/Z2 combat lights as a desirable feature. It is a desirable feature because it allows you to let go of the light and use your weak hand to do something like reload your weapon or clear a malfunction without losing the light and it allows you to get the light back into play very quickly when you are loaded up again. Now some people's physiology is not suited to performing something like a reload with a light strapped to the inside of their palm like I do. Because of this you really need to be able to do the tuck or the reholster even if your main lights have a lanyard on them. Again, knowing these techniques in concept is not difficult… but reading a description of them or even seeing them used is not going to prepare you to use them under stress. IF you do not make a discipline of training on this stuff you will NOT be able to use it effectively. Worse still, you may fall victim to a common foul up. One of the most problematic aspects of using a hand-held light with a handgun is indexing the light and the sights of the weapon on the same spot. Often individuals only manage to get the weapon indexed properly initially. Under stress they have a bad habit of noticing that their light is indexed improperly and then moving the light until the hotspot is where they want it… but they also move the weapon. Under stress they aren't looking at their sights and are instead treating the light like a really big laser sight and are assuming that the light and the weapon are pointed at the same place. They then proceed to launch rounds into the dirt, into the walls, over the head of the target, over the berm, and anywhere else you can imagine except the intended target. In a real fight you won't have an instructor by your side spotting your shots and telling you what you are doing wrong. Again: It is CRITICAL that you train on these techniques. There are no shortcuts or magic fixes. Weapon lights, of course, make all of this much simpler. You don't have to worry about all these complex hand techniques and you can use a normal two handed hold with a weapon light… and you can also perform standard weapon manipulation drills without worrying about what you do with the light. BUT… that doesn't mean you don't need handheld light or handheld light techniques if you have a weapon light. Weapon lights are useful in only in certain narrow circumstances. If you have to have your weapon out and pointed at somebody a weapon light is a good thing… but that's not an appropriate action for the majority of circumstances. Naturally you can't go around pointing firearms at suspicious situations so depending on a weapon light as your ONLY light is a really bad idea. While on the topic of weapon lights for handguns it's critical to mention something else: If you are going to use a weapon mounted light on your handgun, use a holster that can accommodate your weapon mounted light. This business of putting the light on after you clear leather and taking it back off when you need to holster up is ASKING for problems. A number of police officers have managed to shoot themselves in the hand while attempting to take weapon lights on and off under stress. If you don't have a holster that can accommodate a weapon mounted light, you can still use the weapon mounted light with the FBI or neck index techniques very well. Low Light Essentials #16 - Training - General Principles of White Light Use It has been said multiple times by this point but it bears repeating now: White light is a target indicator. Whenever you use it you are exposing yourself to whatever is out there in the dark potentially waiting to hurt you. As a general principle you want to use as little white light as you can get away with. The failing most common among the untrained or the poorly trained (and the frightened) is to lean entirely too much on the white light. Thankfully because most of the criminal types are not meat eating gunfighters and are more interested in escape than a body count the improper use of lights doesn't routinely have dire consequences. Nevertheless, it's not good to plan on encountering just the stupid or the scared. There is a balance to be reached in the use of white light. It's almost impossible to navigate (especially in unfamiliar surroundings) entirely in the dark and you're darn sure not going to be able to clear the room without using SOME white light. (Unless you have night vision) It's also not a good idea to walk around with the light turned on all the time so you can see where you are going. The compromise is to use short bursts of light to allow you to navigate in the dark. The bursts of light should be around ½ a second, which is just enough to allow you to see what you need to see… and you are moving the whole time so that if a bad guy does see the burst of light you aren't where it was. Some folks call this “flashing”, some call it “strobing”. It's used to navigate and to see what you need to see inside a room. You can't simply enter a room that you haven't checked out at all… that's asking for disaster. Generally you want to try and use the LIE principle in low light. LIE stands for: Locate ½ second burst of light to locate a potential threat Identify 1 second burst of light to determine whether or not the potential threat you located needs to be shot Engage Pulling the trigger, with the light off if possible. (It's not always possible) After each of these steps you MOVE so as not to be in the same location as the light or the muzzle flash (Muzzle flash is also a target indicator) Now this process if done at speed is extremely difficult for the guy on the other side of the light to figure out. Low Light Essentials #17 - Training - General Principles - "Enough" Light This is where it all gets really mushy. There's simply no way to put into words how you tell what is "enough" light and what is "too much" light. A good general rule is that you need less light than you feel like you need, but that can only take you so far. You really have to get out there and practice this stuff to develop the judgment necessary to figure out what is "too much" and what is "enough". There are ways to accomplish this that just about anyone can practice. One of the best things you can do is get a buddy to come to your house and set up about five targets in your house. Have him go through the house and identify good hiding places for bad guys or other challenging areas in your house and then set up targets there. Use cardboard cutouts or spray-paint templates (there are many available) to put empty hands and hands holding weapons on the targets. Only one or two of the targets should have weapons. Then go through and clear your house using an EMPTY WEAPON and your white light. The goal here is to force you to examine familiar surroundings in a new light and to get you learning to use the white light minimally to navigate and to identify threats, it will get you using your white light techniques, and it may even get your heart rate and breathing up giving you a tiny taste of some of the stress that will be in play should you have to do it for real. The goal should be to go through the house multiple times (with different target placements, of course) using less light than the previous run to find out how much light you truly need. Professional training is, of course, better than this approach, but this approach is better than nothing… and nothing is what most people do for low light training. 12 shots with Welder's goggles on (an actual LE night fire qualification in one of the states in our nation) is NOT low light training. Shooting at night with patrol cars behind you lighting up the target isn't low light training. If you're not at least trying to replicate the circumstances you'll face should things really go sideways you are cheating yourself. There are no shortcuts here. You have to be willing to put in the time and the effort to get these concepts down.  Low Light Essentials #18 - Training - The Importance of Darkness While it is true that you can practice hand-held light techniques and use of the LIE method (incorporating movement) during daylight hours, you MUST take the time to run through some drills at night, even if you can only manage dry-fire drills. (Note: At some point you need to test your carry ammo in the dark to see what it does in the muzzle flash department and how that impacts your ability to see and effectively engage a target) The majority of the concern here is learning how ***your*** eyes and ***your*** equipment work at night. You need to spend time in different levels of darkness to figure out how the continually changing environment affects your ability to see a threat, your ability to see your sights, and how much white light you need to use. Everybody's eyes are different. We all see the world uniquely. I may be able to see much better than you can in the dark or vice versa... as such I may not need as much white light to navigate as you need, or you may need less than I do. If you make a dedicated effort to familiarize yourself with how your eyes and your equipment work in actual darkness you will begin to get a feel for how much light you need to use in the myriad of lighting circumstances that exist in our environment at any time. As I've said a number of times you can only get the benefit of this stuff if you actually try it. Dedicated low light training on a range with quality instructors is the BEST way to accomplish this... but if that isn't an option for you and if you are resourceful and committed enough there are other ways to help develop the skills I've outlined. Low Light Essentials #19 - Training - Accuracy in Low Light Accuracy becomes extremely important in low light conditions. When you take a group of relatively good shooters and run them through a series of drills in the daylight and then you take the exact same shooters and run the exact same drills in low light the *best*of them will shoot only about half as good as he did during the day. Everything gets more complicated in the dark. Accuracy is no exception. The accuracy standards you hold yourself to during the day will come back to either help you or hurt you in low light. If your concept of combat accuracy is hitting paper at 7 yards on a stationary target in the daylight you are going to be up that bad, bad creek without a paddle at night. You need to be able to keep your shots within the A zone of an IDPA target, essentially shooting groups you can cover with your hand during the day to have any hope of acceptable accuracy at night. When you get people under stress, trying to remember how to hold their handheld light and to use it in a tactically sound fashion, typically trigger control suffers immensely. The more clock cycles of brain power you have to dedicate to these other tasks, the less likely it is that you'll give the proper attention to properly controlling the trigger. Trigger control is the fundamental building block of accuracy and without exercising proper trigger control you won't hit a bloody thing you mean to hit… that means you need to develop these other skills to an almost reflexive level through PERFECT PRACTICE if you want to have the best shot at making the hits you'll need to stop a threat. The best thing you can do to aid your accuracy in low light is to hold yourself to a VERY HIGH accuracy standard during daylight shooting understanding the whole time that under stress and in conditions of low light your accuracy will degrade from the peak you experience on the range. If the best you can manage during daylight hours with nobody shooting back at you is barely keeping it on paper, then you are in real trouble when the fertilizer hits the fan. Remember: Every bullet you fire has a lawyer attached to it. Low Light Essentials #20 - Training - Lasers I mentioned earlier that lasers take some dedicated practice to learn to use properly, and now I'll expand on that. Lasers shoot a beam of light in a straight line. Firearms shoot a bullet in an arc. This means that the laser will not necessarily be where the bullet strikes. Lasers are meant to be an aiming reference similar to how a red dot operates on a carbine. The red dot on a carbine doesn't cover the exact spot that the bullet strikes at all ranges, and the laser on a handgun won't cover the exact spot the bullet will strike at all ranges. This means that how you zero the laser has implications for how you will shoot in real life. If we look again at my S&W 442 you'll see that there is an offset between the bore and the laser diode: This offset is noticeable at ranges of 5 yards or less. At extremely close range the laser is going to be low and to the right of where the bore is aimed. Part of your laser training should be live fire to determine the effect of this offset with your carry ammo and to learn how to deal with it. The offset will be most extreme at extremely close range, but because the laser can only be zeroed at one spot in the bullet's trajectory there will be offset issues at every range except the range at which you choose to zero your laser. Generally once you get out past 5 yards the offset is minimal out to well beyond handgun distances, but if you are trying to make an extremely precise shot you still need to know the offset. For most people the offset is well within the margin of error inherently present in their shooting, but it's still worthwhile to understand your setup and how it works. Use a rest if possible to remove shooter issues from the equation as much as possible. So at what range should you zero your laser? It depends on personal preference. From the factory the CT grips are supposedly zeroed at 50 feet. Some advocate making your zero at precisely 15 yards, others at 25 yards, and others at 7 yards. It all depends on what you are comfortable with and what works best for you. The most important thing is to learn how your setup works and to train with it. Another common failing people have when using a laser is trying to make the laser absolutely still. This is never going to happen. What you must learn to do is to work within the acceptable "wobble zone" of the laser, essentially learning to keep its movement within the acceptable hit area you are working with. The tendency to try and get the laser still and then hurry the shot right as the dot stops is what typically leads to people snatching the unholy hell out of the trigger. You need to be able to make a good trigger pull even while the sights/laser are moving around while you simply keep the sights/laser within the A zone to make the necessary shot. You also need to realize that lasers are a target indicator. That bright red dot shining out in the night can give away your position or telegraph your movement. This is why the Crimson Trace grips are preferred as a laser solution. They are activated by a pressure switch rather than a traditional on/off switch allowing you to quickly engage the laser when you have to shoot and to leave the laser off when you don't need to shoot. If your weapon isn't lined up on a threat, your laser shouldn't be on. Moisture can affect lasers dramatically. If you get a drop of water on the laser diode it can completely block the laser or can cause the laser to spider web or take on odd shapes at longer ranges, reducing the laser's useful range and precision. You should make a practice of checking your laser for function and making sure the dot is appearing properly as part of your every-time-you-walk-out-the-door equipment check. Low Light Essentials #21 - Training - Final Conclusions And there you have it. Again, this is meant only to be a starting point for those who haven't had the benefit of good low light training. Unfortunately good low light training is hard to find and while the knowledge is out there it's often difficult for the beginner to find. Everything presented here is based on the low light training I have received, including the excellent Vickers/Hackathorn low light training courses. The information is a blend of what I've learned from subject matter experts like Mr. Vickers and Mr. Hackathorn and some of what I've figured out while under their instruction and on my own. Many of the things mentioned in this write-up can also be found in the AAR's of the low light classes. A note of caution: This write-up is not a substitute for actual low light training conducted by a competent instructor. Hopefully it will give the seeker of knowledge enough information to start out on the right track and will encourage them to seek out quality instruction in this area. Reading is good, but practice is ESSENTIAL for any of this to do you any good. John_Wayne777