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Low Light Pistol Course

Water Monkey

Water Monkey

The man, the myth, the monkey
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Took an 8 hour low/no light pistol course today.... wow. It was really epic and very tough.

I'd say taking a low/no light course is basically a must. Honestly you really dont know what you dont know until you take a course like this.

Some of the things taught:

use of light to search, engage
using different angles when utilizing the light
Moving constantly off line after each use of the light
manipulations with the gun/magazine while holding on to the light
clearing malfunctions while holding the light
manipulations/malfunctions w/light in complete darkness
neglegent light discharges on how they give away your position

Different light holds:

2 handed gun holds - Graham, Harries, Surefire syringe

One handed gun holds (primarily emphasized) - neck index, cross neck, off body, cross body

Shooting around barries in the dark
Entering a room
Parts of the light beam and how to use the beam and surrounding splash to your advantage to get your loved ones out of harms way while the bad guy is blinded and fixed in your direction

I've probably shot the most one handed that I have ever shot and surprisingly a lot more accurate than I thought I could have been after the lights were shut off.

I havent stopped playing with my light since I got home.... I think I'm gonna go blind :shock:

12281322254_5171e67f00.jpg
 
Sounds like a fantastic course! I'd sign up in a heartbeat and will look for local trainers offering something similar!

BTW - the going blind thing does not happen from playing with your 'light' - unless I have not kept up with current colloquialisms, and the way I hear it the saints cry as well!! :)
 
Honestly you really dont know what you dont know until you take a course like this.
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This really sums up a lot that I have said for years.

It sounds like you had a good time and learned a lot.

I'm interested in hearing about using the splash to get someone.

From the sound of what you are posting, it was a pretty extensive course. One that I would enjoy taking.
 
Yea it was really good. I almost had to cancel due to this lagging injury but my symptoms have become mild the past 6 days (have a nerve test this thurs).

Basically when you engage and use aggressive verbal commands. Your family member has the opportunity to go outside the the splash during this and the perp can't see them. He also showed us how to use it to have a partner engage to the side of the perp without him knowing. The partner stay outside the splash and the perp won't see your partner flanking him.
 
You had some good instructors.
 
It was an eye opening experience for me, no pun intended. Unless you try this you really do not know how hard it is. Shadows really mess with you (esp for targets behind innocents/other targets), depth perception is gone and target acquisition is really tough. Jam clearing and reloading are also made more difficult when you can't see what you are doing.

I was lucky enough to get to run a course a few times with my AR as well. I admit I blew holes in a few window frames. One must remember to aim high when using a gun with a high sight plane.

I need to take a few more courses. It's been a while since I had the last one.
 
Some additional notes that I wanted to bring up since I've had a day to reflect on the course:

Strobe lights will disorient both the attacker AND you. You can hit a large target using a strobe light but when you need to make a precision shot (say a family member close or behind the perp) the strobe feature made it impossible to focus on a small target area for the shot.

Look for a flashlight that has a silent momentary on feature preferably near the tail cap vs one that clicks on. Constant clicking on and off gives away your general position in the dark.

Look for a light that has a one feature momentary on button. Some lights had a different setting with each press and some of the lights went to strobe while in search mode for the perp which disoriented the user.

You dont need a light past 200-300 lumens for HD situation. Being that most walls are light colored the bounce back from the light can be significant and can blind you from those ultra high output LEDs. The high ouput LEDs 300+ lumens are best served outdoors.

Shining your light shouldnt last more than 1 second (preferably less) when searching. Small short blasts from the light varying your angle should be used (neck index, cross neck, off body, cross body). It gives the illusion that there is more than one person searching to the perp. You should also be moving away from each short burst laterally or at an angle just in case the perp is armed and will aim at the light burst.
 
Good info WM.
 
Great info and sounds like it was a lot of educational fun. Got one question tho about the pic. Was that a candid pic with what looks like 4 shooters all at once? Seems to me that would kind of defeat the purpose of the training, since in reality you'd likely be alone. Or were there other layouts for solo shoots, etc?
 
Due to time constraints and class size it was mainly 5-6 shooters at once during live fire drills. If we did one at a time the material covered wouldn't have been possible. Easy enough to train on your own in your own dark house with a laser training pistol from the information gathered at the session.
 
I agree water monkey.

While it's nice to train exactly how you would do it in the real world, sometimes you have to build on that yourself after the fact.

There isn't a training course I have ever been to that is all inclusive, or complete. That's why you take what you learned and practice it and incorporate it into action as needed.
 
Water Monkey said:
Due to time constraints and class size it was mainly 5-6 shooters at once during live fire drills. If we did one at a time the material covered wouldn't have been possible. Easy enough to train on your own in your own dark house with a laser training pistol from the information gathered at the session.
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Ok, thanks. Makes sense. :)
 
The trainers do have active shooting sessions with air soft pistols. But its few and far between as the class sizes are relatively low.

I'd do it in a heart beat. Coming from a full contact martial arts background there's nothing like doing it live or as live as you can be.... you really see all your faults come out the first few go arounds when adrenaline, fear, and fine motor skills decrease.
 
Water Monkey said:
Took an 8 hour low/no light pistol course today.... wow. It was really epic and very tough.

I'd say taking a low/no light course is basically a must. Honestly you really dont know what you dont know until you take a course like this.

Some of the things taught:

use of light to search, engage
using different angles when utilizing the light
Moving constantly off line after each use of the light
manipulations with the gun/magazine while holding on to the light
clearing malfunctions while holding the light
manipulations/malfunctions w/light in complete darkness
neglegent light discharges on how they give away your position

Different light holds:

2 handed gun holds - Graham, Harries, Surefire syringe

One handed gun holds (primarily emphasized) - neck index, cross neck, off body, cross body

Shooting around barries in the dark
Entering a room
Parts of the light beam and how to use the beam and surrounding splash to your advantage to get your loved ones out of harms way while the bad guy is blinded and fixed in your direction

I've probably shot the most one handed that I have ever shot and surprisingly a lot more accurate than I thought I could have been after the lights were shut off.

I havent stopped playing with my light since I got home.... I think I'm gonna go blind :shock:

12281322254_5171e67f00.jpg
Click to expand...

Looks like a great course, I have that on my bucket list of fun things to do.
 
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