Low light match

General Firearm Discussions
1

I had a chance to go and shoot a low light match this weekend. It was a chance to run my carry gun as I usually carry it with the exception that I used regular capacity mags as I was in PA.

My gun is a CZ P-01 with a Holosun EPS Carry 6 and a TLR-7a carried in a JM Custom Kydex IWB holster at 3 o’clock. My spare mag is in my left front pocket held in place with a Neomag.

The first mag in the gun was a flush fit 15 rounder and my reload was a 17 rounder.

A few things I learned…

My index is tied to my view of the back of the gun. Finding my dot on my first draw was slow because I couldn’t see my gun.

Smoke from the muzzle severely limits visibility when it is illuminated by your flashlight. Transitioning to the second target in stage 3 took much longer than it normally would because the throw of my light was not huge at that distance so the target was not very brightly lit, but the smoke from firing 3 shots at the first target was easy to see. I just wasn’t easy to see through. If the target had been moving, I would not have been able to follow it and hit it.

I need to practice more with switching my light on and off. The beginning of the 4th stage was a disaster and it didn’t get any better as my grip was wrong from the draw which meant my index was wrong when I got to the second firing position.

The match mostly used USPSA style rules, but with IDPA style time-plus scoring with a 0.5 second penalty for each point down scored on the targets. Hits on non-threats cost 5 seconds, but I didn’t have any of those.

Match video

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2

There was a low light match and I wasn’t invited??

Looks like a good match. Always good to get reps in the dark!

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Try shooting black clays at night. 2/3 of them get broken.

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I’m curious if you keep your head still when you draw or if you tend to tilt your head down slightly as the pistol comes up?

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My vision is fixed on my target and I bring the gun up into view.

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7

How does the process of finding the dot usually go for you in normal lighting?

The reason I’m wondering about this is, I’m thinking of index as something that happens apart from vision, based on feel. Like pointing your finger towards a target; it just happens without even looking at your hand.

I played with the idea of looking at a spot, closing my eyes, pistol at low or compressed ready, and raising my pistol towards the spot. At first my elevation was consistently off. The dot was low enough to not be seen in the window. (HS507C) I worked on refining my feel and got it to the point that the dot was at least in the window if not close to what I was looking at. (Clearly that isn’t an ability that stays with me!)

I noted that when the dot was aligned better on the target, it felt like I was holding the pistol lower than what felt natural. That makes sense since the dot sits higher than irons. Also, my grip angle was off, probably because I switch between Glocks and not-Glocks.

(I guess I’m partly thinking out loud and being annoying about making conversation. haha)

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BTW, I played with doing target transitions with my eyes closed and it worked! I pointed at one target, look at the next target, closed my eyes, then pointed at the 2nd target. I was surprised that the dot was there when I opened my eyes! That was without moving my feet though, and having time to set my initial grip the way I wanted it. Just kept everything locked in and rotated to the next target. Pretty cool! I’d love that to work for me in a real match! haha

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I have done this behind my shop at dusk to see how difficult it would be. I should try this in the dark, just moonlight and see how difficult it is. People go to a gun range, spend their time getting everything setup just right, then start shooting at stationary targets. Well, this is good initial training for muscle memory and learning your gun(s), but in real life, now that we can legally carry, this is just a start. When something serious goes-down it is usually not in our control.

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