Low light tactics

Everybody has at least one tactical flashlight, right? So how about some tactics to go with that light. Nothing here should be of value to criminals.

Tactics aren't just for soldiers and cops, but anybody who might have to protect themselves, others, or property. The tactics should be realistic, though.

The first tactic is to decide when, and when not to use a flashlight. If you are in a lighted area and can be seen, there is little reason not to use a flashlight to see what is in dark areas around you. For example, looking into a drainage tube during the day. You are totally visible to anyone inside the tube, but you cannot see inside. Use the light.

If the bad guy is not believed to have a gun or other range weapon, you don't want him to approach you unseen nor do you want to approach him without seeing him. You want light to see him from a distance. Use the light.

If the bad guy may have a gun, and you are concealed by darkness, you must be more careful in using a light. Use your ears more and listen for coughing, talking, whispering, movement, prying and breaking, or other noise. In Silence of the Lambs, Jodie Foster hears the click of a .357 Magnum hammer **** behind her head and she turns and empties her gun instantly. That is fiction, of course, but I've heard of similar real life examples.

Try to position yourself to observe lighted areas (streetlights on a road or moonlight on an open field) or areas that would create noise moving through them such as a rocks or dry branches on the ground or a yard with a dog in it that will bark at noises. Observing a door may give you warning when it opens.

There are more active ways to see your surroundings without being connected to a light. Turn on a light switch. Toss a durable, wide area light into a dark area. The Lumapower M1 Tactical with bezel and reflector removed and a pullcord tied to the tailcap is something I've experimented with. Send in a dog to find people. Or deploy pepper spray (fog, mist, or powdered) into a confined space like a tool shed to see if you get any sniffling, coughing or sneezing from somebody hiding inside. I wouldn't do this to an area I was going to enter or to an area where friendlies might be, though.

Obviously, some police and military may have access to helicopters, robots and night vision gear, to add to the other tactics I've listed. The Generation I and II night vision gear isn't nearly as good as Generation III, but it works at close range in the right conditions. For police and armed security, spending a few hundred on a Gen II nightscope might be better spent than yet another expensive flashlight.

The idea is to find out who is around you and where they are without using a light connected to you. Once you gain this information, you could stay hidden, move away and call for help, or confront them (ideally from behind cover)--with or without a flashlight. You should only do the latter if you are armed (with a gun for U.S. residents, another weapon for countries where guns are difficult for criminals to obtain). An unarmed, or lightly armed homeowner or security guard has nothing to gain by lighting up a gang member spray painting a wall and getting shot in response.

"Toss a durable, wide area light into a dark area. The Lumapower M1 Tactical with bezel and reflector removed and a pullcord tied to the tailcap is something I've experimented with."


Interesting thread.... Most of us here have spent so much time, effort and put love into our lights that we wouldnt even "consider" throwing them on purpose (What! Scratch it? Risk loosing that expensive drop in bulb???) But perhaps a series of cheap, small and durable; almost "puck" like (So that they land face up) would be an intesting approach...........

Anyone have any more thoughts on this subject? Or should this be a new thread since its moving away from pure tactics and going towards a specific tactic

Lightraven said:

Toss a durable, wide area light into a dark area.

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Never considered this one, but it makes total sense. Thanks for starting this thread, I feel it's much needed.

Ken

Pierat said:

"Toss a durable, wide area light into a dark area. The Lumapower M1 Tactical with bezel and reflector removed and a pullcord tied to the tailcap is something I've experimented with."


Interesting thread.... Most of us here have spent so much time, effort and put love into our lights that we wouldnt even "consider" throwing them on purpose (What! Scratch it? Risk loosing that expensive drop in bulb???) But perhaps a series of cheap, small and durable; almost "puck" like (So that they land face up) would be an intesting approach...........

Anyone have any more thoughts on this subject? Or should this be a new thread since its moving away from pure tactics and going towards a specific tactic

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Tad gear or Lighthound have some products that are variations of that idea.

Lightraven said:

Everybody has at least one tactical flashlight, right? So how about some tactics to go with that light. Nothing here should be of value to criminals...
An unarmed, or lightly armed homeowner or security guard has nothing to gain by lighting up a gang member spray painting a wall and getting shot in response.

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I would say that a heavily armed homeowner or security guard has nothing to gain confronting a gang member spray painting a wall and getting shot in response.

I have firearms and other means to protect my loved ones and myself because I firmly believe that it takes only seconds for an intruder to injure someone (or worse) and minutes for the police to arrive. However, confrontation against an aversary of unknown strength is something that I would strive to avoid. If I'm certain someone's in my barn who doesn't belong and I'm outside in the dark-that's where I'm staying. I'm going to stay stealthy until the police arrive.

"I'm going to stay stealthy until the police arrive."

And for the poor police officer who has to go in your dark barn? Many posters here are LEO of one type or another

The glo-tube option isnt really viable. Having owned one for a while (Maybe its 2 years old) it doesnt put out enough light to illuminate very much at all. Its a good enough marker for its (or your) location but not bright enough to expose someone hiding. Of course it might be bright enough to spook the person into "thinking" they can be seen.... dunno

Pierat said:

"I'm going to stay stealthy until the police arrive."

And for the poor police officer who has to go in your dark barn? Many posters here are LEO of one type or another

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They've got cooler weapons, greater numbers and better lawyers than me.

Interesting. I think this may be a very useful subject to think about -- especially since it is entirely possible that for one reason or another you may not have the luxury of waiting for the police.

This reminds me of something that comes up every now and again. Most of us can probably recall threads where someone heard something suspicious, perhaps a block away, and lit up a 'throw king' only to see a couple guys stealing a car (or whatever). On one of these threads Icebreak posted that when using a thrower to illuminate potential bad guys a block or more away it may be a prudent and effective tactic to only lite them up for a second. It's a great idea in many situations because it lets them know that someone is onto them without revealing your exact location. The idea would be that by the time they could look up to get a fix on the light you would have already turned it off, perhaps only narrowing down your position to a thirty-five degree arc.

Every situation will be different but I think this would be a useful tactic not only in rural environs but also at other times where help may be delayed or unable to come at all.

When I bought my Gladius, I had the opportunity to buy a low-light tactics book at a big discount. Seeing as how I'm a sucker for any kind of savings, I bought it. I might even read it someday.

It's called "The Strategies of Low-Light Engagements," by Ken J. Good.

If y'all are in the PNW (actually, they get people from all over the country), I wholeheartedly recommend Oregon Firearms Academy's for your training. I just went through their Low Light and Advanced Low Light/Night Fire curriculum and can't say enough good things about the quality of instruction there. I'll have to post a review a little later.

Pierat said:

"I'm going to stay stealthy until the police arrive."

And for the poor police officer who has to go in your dark barn? Many posters here are LEO of one type or another

The glo-tube option isnt really viable. Having owned one for a while (Maybe its 2 years old) it doesnt put out enough light to illuminate very much at all. Its a good enough marker for its (or your) location but not bright enough to expose someone hiding. Of course it might be bright enough to spook the person into "thinking" they can be seen.... dunno

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I haven't had a reason to buy or use any of those, as a doorman I pretty much just use flashlights as "operant training devices"

As an officer target identification is crucial to my work as I am held liable for any accidents should I fire on an innocent person. With such value placed on target identification we are mostly trained to use the most powerful light available that is small enough to carry and the general rule of thumb is you cant have enough light....

However most everyday citizens are not held to the same standard and will most often have a confrontation under suprise situations. This will usually mean that proper light is not available thus low light shooting is more important to those who are not officers/military.

I was amazed at the degree of accuracy one can reach with practice under low light. Honestly with enough practice and training on how to better use a weapon one can hit a target almost without nothing more than good night sights.

I recently had a course where we were shooting almost totally blind. There were street lamps behind us however the course would similate something such as a large yard or alley with average ambient moon light. I could barely see the outline of the target however with the first shot I was able to actually use the muzzle blast as a guide. If you practice and can align the sights up decent (quickly)you can actually obtain a quick sight picture from muzzle blast alone and get off several more shots using nothing but the light from your shots.

In most urban settings there is enough ambient light to use a weapon for almost any armed confrontation. remember most of the shootings happen from within 5 to 6 feet and with practice one can hit a target from the hip without any sights nor light at all. Low light practice I believe is even more important than day light practice as again most confrontations happen at night,under ambient light, for the average citizen anyway.

Instinctive shooting is every much as important as proper sighting techniques. Under stress most fine motor skills simply vanish with many forced to quickly point and return fire. Often one will find themselves firing off several rounds without even having time to use the sights much less worry about lighting. Smaller weapons are easier to conceal and thus most carry very small models. Smaller weapons are also harder to shoot accurately for most average people thus practice should be the highest priority as well as low light training in general.

Good thread by the way and nice to see someone actually not asking for the brightest weapon light for a change. Sometimes less light is all one has(unless they are one of us) and honestly I would guess most armed conflicts have no flashlight involved at all.

So basically just cover myself in body armor and use a HID spotlight w/ attached machine gun -- ok :nana:

Since most people do not have "shoot or don't shoot" training, IMHO the best options for a can't wait for the law scenario might be:

-- high intensity glow stick tossed inside -- non-lethal & no fire hazard, disorients who/what is inside, lasts for about 5 minutes, and cannot be turned off (BTW, glow sticks usually have about a 1 year shelf life and are then pretty useless, even the high intensity ones). This option might work only for those who have training in combat situations and can maintain a cool head. Trust me, that "can maintain a cool head" part lets out 98% or more of the population.

-- call the law, sit tight & quiet, observe if possible but more importantly only if safe to do so, and keep your finger OFF the trigger. Keep in continuous contact with the dispatcher so they know and you know what's going on and who's in what location.

Lives get lost by not doing this on a very, very regular basis. Police and citizens get shot accidentally a whole lot more than you'd like to believe in these situations. Anyone who has not been in that sort of situation before doesn't know how many things can and do go wrong.

This is never a job for those without training. Why? It's too darned hard to unshoot somebody who wasn't who you thought they were. Anybody seen something like "homeowner shoots family member," "police shoot homeowner by accident," and/or the ever popular "homeowner shot after gun is taken away" in the news? Even if someone is inside the house, you usually can hole up and call the law and still be safe.

Just got back from agency training today--unusually good this time around. We had a very common assault-on-officer problem and Simunition guns to engage actors (range officers) and a real officer "down."

One of our guys recently had a close encounter with an armed bad guy in the dark. Neither wanted a gunfight, so both moved out of the kill zone and by the time SWAT showed up, the bad guy was gone.

In the book, The Best Defense, a vending machine owner was carjacked at gunpoint. He fired his revolver at the gunman who ran into the dark, but the robber turned to shoot every few seconds. Each time, the citizen fired a shot at the robber's muzzle blast--the only thing he could see. They traded shot for shot. The citizen was standing under a streetlight and the robber was in a dark field. Fortunately, the robber was so coked out he never hit anything, but was himself shot six times (out of six rounds fired) and died at the scene.

I mentioned that people could buy Gen II night vision for a few hundred which was a mistake. Gen II costs well over a grand. Gen I is the cheap stuff, but I've compared it to Gen III at night and it probably works fine with some ambient light at close range.

I don't take a position on whether anybody--LEOs, security, or citizens--should take a particular action in regards to investigating or apprehending a person breaking the law. That's a personal decision based on way too many factors to list.

As far as safety goes, one prominent instructor who has trained all the elite and has been in three night shootings, says "Safety IS tactical." One doesn't go from "Safe mode" to "Tactical mode." No matter what is going on, the same basic safety rules apply. My gun and flashlight operate completely independently--I don't have to point a gun at someone just because I point my flashlight at them, flashlight techniques be damned. Most citizens would probably be best served by leaving their gun holstered or at least pointed at the ground until they have visually identified a threat in adequate light. Too many people shoot at noises and shapes in the dark (Mr. Vice President), which is not safe and not tactical.

What he said.

I recently purchased an Olight T20 as a belt carry option. One of the biggest selling points was the strobe function. This is a new tactical option for me. The strobe will disorient someone in a darkened room while providing more than enough light to see the bad guys. We need to do more training in that area for me to become proficient with it however.

Another tactic is to light an area for just a split second and then move. DONT stay where your light was just a second ago. You can also keep your light at arms length when doing this. Someone may shoot at the light they just observed. The above description of shooting at the muzzle blast is a perfect example.

I am a HUGE proponent of instinctive shooting, especially at close range. Muscle memory folks. It works.

Training is great but...never mind.

Within the past month here in Massachusetts, there was a short piece on the local news about a cpl of former LEOs who had started up some sort of flashlight defense program sales pitch. I really got a bad feeling while watching it. First off they were selling a flashlight to go along with the "defense program". It appeared to be a small single cell light with a crenallated bezel. All I could think being a life long resident here in the Commonwealth was "great , how many state legislators are watching this right now, salivating at the opportunity to start pushing some new restrictive laws on flashlights as weapons?".
These small lights had a "strobing" feature which was supposed to disorient an attacker thus enabling the victim to perform some type of disarming technique. You know the type of move that is always done in slow motion to demonstrate but have you ever seen anyone other than Steven Segal succesfully perform this stuff? Can you imagine a woman of small stature doing a disarm technique to a 200 pound guy on crack? Come on really!!
Well the "journalist" doing the piece took one of the lights to a local restaurant or something and asked some of the patrons what they thought and gave them the light and told them to "test" it out and enable the strobing feature. Well, most couldnt figure it out even after being shown how to enable it and when they did get the strobe turned on they flashed it in someones face and amazingly the people did not turn away or drop to the ground writhing in pain . They simply shrugged and kinda said "what's the big deal?"
So in effect what the sellers of this light/defense program had probably thought was going to be free advertising for their product/program actually shed light onto what I think is another misleading potentially dangerous practice in the world of public self defense. Though they may be giving some people a false sense of security by filling their heads with this garbage, a small EDC flashlight with a strobe option and a cpl crneallations is not an effective defense for the average person. Wow, the media actually got something right for once although completely unintentional. this is very similar to those "stun guns" with the metal prongs that have to be touched to the attackers skin and then a swich pressed to activate it. Good luck with that while you are being assaulted.
My strobing lights are great while walking at night to aid in alerting drivers to my presence and also for really annoying the hell out of my girlfriend when she is stumbling back to bed in the middle of the nite after going to the bathroom ( Only I found humour in it and it was the LAST time it will happen believe me!!)