We just finished our first Basic Low Light session for the 2015 season at Cedar Ridge Range in San Antonio, Texas. The format we use for these sessions includes a review of flashlight techniques, low-light drills to develop skill, a standard qualification course and several decision-based scenarios.

The shooters had no difficulty with the qualification course. We used a modified Texas CHL qualification as the first one for this year. We stayed within Texas CHL time limits, but shooters started all strings of fire with flashlight in hand and drawing from the holster. The lowest score was a 246 out of a possible 250 with many scoring 250. As we conduct additional sessions this season, the qualification courses will increase in difficulty.

Despite the ease of the course, there were some lessons to be learned for shooting in low-light conditions.

Flashlights

Through experimentation over the past several years, we have confirmed much of the conventional wisdom concerning low-light gear. While the 60 lumen Surefire 6P was certainly state of the art many years ago, modern high-intensity lights have come into their own. We have discovered that a powerful light (300 lumens and up) overpowers a weaker light and permits the shooter to identify and engage targets that would otherwise be hidden from view.

The spot size of the flashlight beam is also important. Ideally, when you illuminate a threat, you want the spot shining directly in their eyes. Some lights have a small spot designed to throw the light over longer distances. While this works well as a spotlight, it loses effectiveness when used as a self-defense light because the narrow spot requires too much precision to effectively blind the threat.

A flashlight with a large spot requires much less precision and therefore works better. The new Fenix PD35TAC LED is a good choice and will likely prove to be a good general-purpose everyday carry and self-defense light. It is small, lightweight, takes rechargeable and standard batteries, and is adjustable from 8-1,000 lumens. At 20 feet, the spot is almost 3 feet in diameter with a generous spill.

The one drawback to the Fenix and many lights like it is the tail cap design, which makes using some flashlight techniques difficult. The newer Surefire lights also work well, although they typically have a fairly small spot.

There are literally dozens of models on the market today and it is impossible to test them all — although, the members of Candle Power Forums certainly try. That is a good place to learn about all aspects of modern LED lights.

How about a flashlight on the pistol? We have several police officers who attend our low-light classes and practice sessions, and some are issued pistols with mounted lights. I have no objection to pistol-mounted lights, and they can make firing the pistol much simpler with the proper switch configuration.

However, I do require everyone to master the handheld light techniques for several reasons. Searching with a mounted light virtually guarantees you are pointing the pistol in unsafe directions. I require shooters to search with their handheld light, then they are free to release it and go to the pistol-mounted light if they wish to engage.

Decision-based scenarios

The decision-based scenarios we use are surprise scenarios where proper target recognition, flashlight techniques, movement and marksmanship are critical to success. We use photo-realistic targets with a mix of threats and nonthreats.

Although our shooters for this session had no difficulty with the qualification course, they found the decision scenarios demanding. The two biggest challenges for the shooters were identifying and then hitting the threats. Several shooters managed to completely avoid hitting targets that were well within 10 yards even though they fired several rounds. Others misidentified nonthreat targets and engaged them with enthusiasm.

The participants for this session were generally accomplished shooters and have extensive experience with IDPA or USPSA — they have little difficultly hitting a target under normal lighting conditions. So what is posing a challenge for them under low-lighting conditions?

Almost every shooter was shooting high on the target or (presumably) over the target. This would indicate they are not properly aligning the sights and are subconsciously tilting the pistol up slightly in order to see the front sight better in the low light.

The solution? Clearly, regardless of the lighting conditions, you must properly align the sights and then concentrate on the front sight while simultaneously pressing the trigger. That can be difficult to do under normal circumstances with good light — much more difficult to do under low-light conditions.

Another aspect that challenges shooters is manipulating the pistol with the flashlight deployed. Practice shooting and manipulating the pistol with the light in hand, and recovering the light dangling from the lanyard (reloading) is crucial. Happily, this can be done in daylight on the range and in dry practice.

We practiced shooting from cover in this session, and several shooters discovered how unpleasant and challenging reflection off cover can be with high-intensity lights. Several shooters initially disliked the Rogers/Cigar/Syringe (call it what you wish) techniques only to find that it was necessary to use one while shooting around the left side of cover (right–handed shooter). Some flashlight tail cap designs render this technique a challenge to use and the shooters resorted to the Neck Index technique.

The decision scenarios required the shooter to identify and engage targets behind (simulated) car headlights and deal with home invaders using flashlights. One shooter literally walked into a threat target without noticing it due to the car headlights overpowering his vision and his 100 lumen flashlight.

We have the shooters engage targets that are using a strobe light as well where the target simulates a person holding the light at upper chest height. Although certainly irritating, the strobe light had little effect on the shooter's ability to judge the target location and successfully engage. When the shooter used the high-intensity light, the strobe had no effect on target engagement.

Conclusion

Depending upon which study you believe, somewhere between 60 and 85 percent of all police officer-involved shootings occur during the hours of darkness. No such data exists concerning private citizen-involved shootings with criminals. However, since a lot of criminal activity occurs in low-light conditions, we can assume there is a likely correlation.

There are several reasons to use a flashlight: to observe and detect, to eliminate anonymity, to identify and engage threats, and to illuminate and navigate. Used properly, a flashlight lets you see danger before it can affect you, and it can encourage the goblins waiting in the dark to run away.