Night time HD / Night sights

[astrozician]

My concern is effective, aimed home defense at night and how best to do it. Anyone with insight or experience? What have you got? What works? Colors? Techniques? How do they work with flashlights, lasers, etc?

I was looking at some TruGLO TFOs, and thought they'd be great for my Glock 35 and SW M&P Shield. Truth be told, I like the idea of a flashlight in one hand, and a laser on the gun. I don't like the idea of crossing my hands, so no Harries technique; shooting one handed is not an issue. What is an issue is keeping my family safe, and doing as right as possible by the law, if it ever came to it.

Here in California, we have a "presumption of reasonable fear" regarding intruders. (CPC 198.5)

Can anyone impart some wisdom and experience? Thanks.

 

[Chesten_Hesten]

Here's my opinions:

II have one of these on a XDM 9mm

The turn on switch is on the left side and can be actuated with the left thumb with a two hand grip on the pistol.



When I was a kid a buddy of mine and I would play BB wars in a deserted hotel with Crosman C02 BB pistols. He got the bright idea to bring a flashlight and it was to his detriment, because it screamed his location in the almost total darkness of the Hotel at night.

So two lines of thought, wait till the last second, pointing at the direction of target, light on shoot, then back off.

or

Shine it and the laser from the get go, yelling menacing shit at the intruder, the harsher the better, ask @Cubo de Sangre what curse words are good, he's a profane and foul mouthed fucker!

All I got worth mentioning....

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Shine it and the laser from the get go, yelling menacing shit at the intruder, the harsher the better, ask @Cubo de Sangre what curse words are good, he's a profane and foul mouthed fucker!

This movie is a fine tutorial in the art.

 

[RerouteToRemain]

My concern is effective, aimed home defense at night and how best to do it. Anyone with insight or experience? What have you got? What works? Colors? Techniques? How do they work with flashlights, lasers, etc?

I was looking at some TruGLO TFOs, and thought they'd be great for my Glock 35 and SW M&P Shield. Truth be told, I like the idea of a flashlight in one hand, and a laser on the gun. I don't like the idea of crossing my hands, so no Harries technique; shooting one handed is not an issue. What is an issue is keeping my family safe, and doing as right as possible by the law, if it ever came to it.

Here in California, we have a "presumption of reasonable fear" regarding intruders. (CPC 198.5)

Can anyone impart some wisdom and experience? Thanks.

I'll share some opinions but I'm not an expert on this whatsoever. I have taken courses, this is opinion on what I like in regards to sights, etc. One thing I was told by an instructor at SGC when my friend was looking at weapon lights there. I'll touch on this later with pics.

Favorite night sights I've personally shot with are Sig Sauer X-Ray3. Great on the range during the day and good at night.

Trijicon has a similar sight(hdxr) but with contrast which is really nice. Easier to distinguish the front/rear quickly. I've looked at these but never shot with them. I've shot guns with the old trijicon contrast(hd) sights.

Surefire is releasing the XC2 laser light combo. Nice and compact. It's not cheap. I've messed with the XC1 and I like it. My friend has them on his hd pistols.

Streamlight has quite a few laser light combos. Surefire also has other laser light combos but of course come at the surefire price.

I personally would want the light on my gun. I'd prefer to have both hands on the gun and/or a free hand to do other things. Call 911 or whatever. Also I'd take light only vs laser only if it came down to it. This is the thing the instructor pointed out.

Depending on the light it will somewhat work like a laser in terms of lining up and instinct shooting slightly over sights vs focused aiming down sights. I'll try to explain.

15 feet

30 feet

So at 15 feet the spotlight part of the beam is roughly 10-11 inch circle. The picture is getting quite a bit of blooming but you somewhat get the idea. Put that beam on the intruders chest and the rough middle of the beam is your laser so to speak.

At 10 yards the beam is roughly 20-22 inches. Just outside the average man's shoulder width. Again put rough middle of that beam on the chest and shoot.

So if you got a light with a tight beam it works somewhat similarly to a laser for short hd distances.

Laser pics, because why not.

I like it about 1 inch high or so at 10-15 feet. That gets incrementally higher the further out you go.

This laser light combo I got for free on dvor. Brand is osprey. Quality seems lower but alright but I haven't put it through the paces while it's on at the range.

 

[RerouteToRemain]

My concern is effective, aimed home defense at night and how best to do it. Anyone with insight or experience? What have you got? What works? Colors? Techniques? How do they work with flashlights, lasers, etc?

I was looking at some TruGLO TFOs, and thought they'd be great for my Glock 35 and SW M&P Shield. Truth be told, I like the idea of a flashlight in one hand, and a laser on the gun. I don't like the idea of crossing my hands, so no Harries technique; shooting one handed is not an issue. What is an issue is keeping my family safe, and doing as right as possible by the law, if it ever came to it.

Here in California, we have a "presumption of reasonable fear" regarding intruders. (CPC 198.5)

Can anyone impart some wisdom and experience? Thanks.

@Protectandserve would probably be able to impart the most wisdom and experience on your questions.

 

[Protectandserve]

I've always used Trijicons on all my guns.

Biggest part of shooting at night is positive target ID so a light is a must. Whether its weapon mounted or hand carried is preference.

I like having a gunlight. You can use it, properly, for searching, good for target ID and you can shoot with both hands or have a hand free do other shit with. And the weight decreases your felt recoil.

Lasers are good for shooting from cover or a barricade. Other than that, I am not a proponent of using one.

All that said, you should not be trying to clear your house at night by yourself. Barricade somewhere safe(ish) or if you have to go, get family especially kids and move back to a barricaded spot.

Surefire institute provides good trsining for night shoots.

 

[jericksen5]

I'm a firm believer in having a weapon light. As a civilian, you have even more so of a duty to identify your target before you shoot. I also picture a bump in the night, coming downstairs and it's dark and seeing a shadowy figure. Is it a bad guy that wants to kill my family? Or is it the idiot neighbors 15 year old kid that thought he could steal my TV? The former I want to shoot, but the latter, obviously not.

My home defense gun is a Springfield Champions operator 1911, with a Streamlight TLR3.

Not the brightest light of the bunch, but more than bright enough to fully illuminate a room. Gun also has Trijocon Night sights.

I carry lately a Glock 43 with a TLR-6.

I usually don't have the laser ready on the switch, just the light. But I'm not opposed to using the laser, I just haven't trained with it at all. I'll probably put Tru Glo TFOs on it soon.

 

[FyrFytr998]

I'm a firm believer in having a weapon light. As a civilian, you have even more so of a duty to identify your target before you shoot. I also picture a bump in the night, coming downstairs and it's dark and seeing a shadowy figure. Is it a bad guy that wants to kill my family? Or is it the idiot neighbors 15 year old kid that thought he could steal my TV? The former I want to shoot, but the latter, obviously not.

My home defense gun is a Springfield Champions operator 1911, with a Streamlight TLR3.

Not the brightest light of the bunch, but more than bright enough to fully illuminate a room. Gun also has Trijocon Night sights.

I carry lately a Glock 43 with a TLR-6.

I usually don't have the laser ready on the switch, just the light. But I'm not opposed to using the laser, I just haven't trained with it at all. I'll probably put Tru Glo TFOs on it soon.

My G43 set up is similar.
TLR-6
Pearce +1's on the mags
Glock Night Sights (might switch to XS Big Dot Nights)

As far as night time target acquisition. Laser/Light combo all the way. I would barricade in place, but my kids are downstairs.

I really need to get a light attachment for the shotgun.

 

[mjmj]

I go for simple. I don't want to have to take time to activate a light, laser, etc..., but it's still far better than needing to hold a flashlight in one hand. Personally, I keep a shotgun loaded will bird shot next to my bed. No precise aiming needed.

 

[astrozician]

Thank you all for the responses everyone; very informative. I agree on everybody's points: positive target ID and threat assessment, calling 911, not doing a house cleaning. I think you gotta do everything you can to demonstrate you were in the right... basically I'm a follower of Rev. Massad Ayoob.

 

[astrozician]

I'll share some opinions but I'm not an expert on this whatsoever. I haven't taken any courses, this is opinion on what I like in regards to sights, etc. One thing I was told by an instructor at SGC when my friend was looking at weapon lights there. I'll touch on this later with pics..

"Post of the Year" material. Thank you.