I agree with most of what 444 just said. My first house clearing actions are to identify the positions of my family. At this point, the dark is my friend. I am on my home terf. I know my house, and the intruder doesn’t. My wife should be beside me in bed. I reach over and check that she is there. I then clear my bedroom. I have one night light and that is in my sons bedroom. It actually shines across the hall some to my bedroom giving very slight illumination. This helps me clear both rooms where my family is quickly. Yes, this could be bad for me, but in seconds I can ascertain their position in the house so I take that chance. After that is done, then I’m more comfortable going to investigate the rest of the house. Keeping in mind the positions of my son and wife, I use a low ready stance. The only place I drop the muzzle is when my muzzle sweeps back in the general direction of my family (all the bed rooms are on the same end of my house). I try to search in such a manner that if I were to miss or over penetrate a target my fire on the target would hopefully be in a safe direction (since the nearest neighbor is a mile away). I don’t view the use of a light as a continuous use. Yes, that would be a target indicator for the BG to use against me. I SLOWLY, QUIETLY navigate around the bed room/bathroom areas using the light to spot illuminate if needed. Once that end of the house is secure my tactic is to camp a "funnel". Look at your house. There are "funnels" in most houses that an intruder would have to cross if he intended to move around the house. In my house there is a hallway leading to the kitchen. The kitchen has access to my office, our living room, and utility room. Anyone trying to move from that end of the house must pass the view of the hallway/kitchen junction. Hunting deer from a stand is much more successful than stalking them. Hunting BGs IMHO is no different. Let him give you a target indicator. Let him tell you where he is. You need to let him be the one giving out target indicators if possible. I have the luxury of living in a remote area so on most nights, the crickets are the loudest sound, and there are no street lights etc. Its DARK. My muzzle is in a safe direction away from my family when camping this spot. I mean the guy is in the house for a reason. He isn’t going to just sit down and take a nap and be quiet. He may be quiet for a few minutes if he thinks he has aroused suspicion, but eventually he will either have to leave, or advance to complete his nefarious task. The intruder isn’t likely to be able to navigate through my house without bumping into furniture etc. and making sounds if he does it in the dark. If he uses a light to aid him, then he gives me a target indicator too. Smells can be target indicators too. I have actually heard of ppl smelling a BG. They tend not to have very good hygiene. Use your senses. If ya sit there for a while and you think perhaps there is no intruder or think that the intruder has left because you have no target indicators, then carefully clear the house. At this point I am more inclined to use the light switches since in my house from the kitchen I have a panel of switches that I can activate that will light the rest of the house from a point that isn’t readily visible to anything except the hall and kitchen. If I were to use a flashlight to clear the rest of the house from this point I would be open to multiple angles of attack at the same time. My light at this point becomes a burden to me. So, I light the place up from that panel of switches and I then pie my corners and try to be as silent as possible while searching. Up until this point my light was for spot checking or target illumination. Now it gets put away in the house search and I go back to my normal grip on the gun.
Like 444 said, if I detect a target in the dark my flashlight comes on and my muzzle is on target. I’m lighting up the target for ID so I can make that final choice and hopefully I’m blinding him too. I like the blinding effect of the surefire light. However, blinding as it may be. It doesn’t mean the BG isn’t going to pop rounds off in the general direction of the light. I don’t see it as a incapacitating thing. At best, my view of the light in this regard is to get a sensory overload thing going where the BG hesitates for just a moment when confronted with this new stimulus and I can get the upper hand. That second while he is enjoying the “What The F**k†syndrome is my window. The same thing works when your out at night on the street, parking lot, etc. The light, IF in hand. is an instant attack on the BGs senses that may give you time enough to draw your gun or bring force on him in some way.. fist, kubaton, cain, knife, ink pen, fingernails, etc.
If any of you reading this havent ever done any night shooting... ya should. It is very informative. There are lots of light techniques out there. I use a cross wrist thing. Try em out and find out what is comfortable for you. An IDPA night house clearing is an educational experience. Many shooters I have met have never even seen the muzzle blast of their weapons in the dark. Since most of the BGs like cockroaches tend to like to stick to the dark. Getting in some dark practice IMHO is a necessity.
my two cents...