SharpsDressedMan
member
If you haven't shot in low light lately, or at all, my experiences may get you to do so. I am 59, have shot handguns for 45 years now, and have a fair amount of experience. This day at the range was a bit different, as I spent an hour or so, and due to the time change, went from normal light into dusk a little earlier than normal. The results were bit of a surprise. As it got to dusk, I was shooting a S&W 3913, and the little gun groups pretty nicely. As it got darker, my eyes had a harder time aiming; no surprise. It FELT like I had a good sight picture each time, but as darkness progressed, my groups got a little more erratic. There were still some centered, accurate shots, but the flyers increased. I was not tired, and I started to rest my hands on the bench to take out some of the human factor. But the flyers continued. I can only surmise that the fuzziness of dusk affected my defining of the target, even though it APPEARED distinguishable. Has anyone else done an extensive analysis of this phenonemon? I am concluding that it is not just my eyes, but that it maybe impossible to obtain target definition with iron sights even in mildly low light. I was shooting 25 yards, and my groups opened from about 3-4" to about 6-7" with the flyers. Anyone else have similar experience, or opinions on similar results? I have shot with night sights, night vision, lasers, red dots, etc, at night, but this plain iron sight thing was getting poorer results than I would have believe they should. I think it is an optical thing that we need to experience to know the limits to our shooting ability under those conditions.