Flashlight tatics

[Bowlcut]

How do you use your flashlight and gun when you hear a bump in the night? Are you a cross the wrists, weakhand with flashlight over strong arm with gun? Or up high and out to keep your center mass masked? Or just holster that gun and walk around like mr. rogers asking everyone to be your neighbor?


See how small my apartment is....im more of dont turn on light till you round the corner.......cause i can usualy see everything. now back at dad's I tended to keep my light way out to the side as the house was very open or the land wide open. guess too many years of late night stalking and capture the flag, try to mask where exactly you are....

 

[DrPsycho]

Strong hand with flashlight, traditional grip if Tigerlight, or reverse (tactical) grip if Surefire. Gun holstered.

Most "bump in the night" situations for me are not home invasions and do not IMHO require me to have a gun ready. However I do hope and pray that I would be able to draw in time to be useful if the situation were to ever arise.

 

[defense2]

I suppose it all goes back to what you, yourself, can use to the best effect. I'd be interested to hear what others with true, extensive low-light training have to say on this issue, however.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

You are investigating a bump in the night in your own abode, right? Why would you use a flashlight? Why not just turn on the regular ligths?

SWAT/Entry teams have made lights a popular accessory for investigating the interiors of structures, but their circumstances are completely different from your circumstances. First, they don't know where light switches are or if the lighting in the building necessarily works. So they bring their own sources of light.

Second, they are operating with team tactics where each man is responsible for a particular part of a given room. That means if lights are being used, then each officer is illuminating the particular area for which they are responsible. What this means is that they have multiple lights pointed in multiple directions with multiple people searching in those directions. That is something I would guess you don't have.

I have heard the argument several times about how it is so tactical to search one's home with a flashlight. It is said to be such a good idea because as the resident, you know all the hiding places and you can spot light a given location, turn light off, and move to another position and then spotlight somewhere else. The bad guys only have a chance to see you for a second and they you disappear and then reappear in another location. Cool, no?

No, not cool at all, but maybe suicidal. The limits of lights are they they provide illumination in a given direction and your attention get riveted to the primary illuminated area. If you do not illuminate in the correct direction, the bad guy off in another direction may not get seen. More over, without much lighting to the sides of you, your peripheral vision doesn't do you much good. This is critical. It may be that you don't see the only intruder to your side and he hits you with a claw hammer. Bummer. OR, say you spot an intruder and with your light and attention on him, you are completely unaware of intruders in other parts of the room who then then jump you. Basically, use of a handheld light can be a great way for you to handicap yourself and given your opposition a good opportunity to ambush you.

The third bad reason is that if there are places to hide, you are less likely to catch a glimpse of the bad guy if just using a handheld light.

Turning on overhead lighting makes for a fairly even playing field. Everyone can see everything. While this may not sound great because it can aid the bad guys, it won't aid them as much as darkness would work in their favor.

So if flashlights aren't good for clearing your own abode, what good are they? They are excellent for providing a supplement or replacement light. For example, say you have a cellar that is poorly lit. The flashlight will be useful. Or, say you investigation carries you outside to where there are no overhead lights, then the flashlight is great. And of course they are great when the overhead lights are broken or the power is out.

Unless you are part of a team doing an entry into a structure, there is little reason to be carrying a flashight as your primary light source to clear your own home. It really should be supplemental.

 

[PzGren]

Double Naught,
you have good reasoning there. If you use a personal light, you also give your position away clearly and might draw fire.
Most the time we are dealing with low-light situations, anyway, real darkness will not always be encountered by us civilians, unless we live out of town.

Where I am right now on business it is dark at night, due to black-outs, but then yesterday the moon was out. In less than two weeks it will be the Surefire again, with the Chapman technique for me. Yesterday I investigated rather with a 17 rd spare mag.

 

[444]

I am certainly no expert on this, but I will give you my 2 cents. First of all, if I am searching a house, I don't have my gun in a firing position. This is a violation of Rule #2; Never let the muzzle cover (or point at) anything you are not willing to destroy. Therefore, I would have the light in my weak hand to do the searching. If I encountered a threat, then I would bring the gun/light up to a Harries position. I think this is what you called a crossed wrist position. The weak hand and the flashlight are in front of the strong hand. The back of the hands are pressing against each other.
Seaching with a flashlight: Let's not get into generalizations. In my house, when I leave the bed room and turn right I go into the living room. The only light switch in the living room in on the other side of the room. I can reach the kitchen from two directions, both would require me to go through another room to get to the lightswitch. So, JUST turning on the house lights isn't always a viable option. Also, if you are worried about giving away your position, what do you think happens when the lights come on and you are standing there with your hand on the light switch ?
Using light as a non-lethal tool is well documented and it is one that I buy into. If someone is standing in the dark and I hit them in the face with my three cell Surefire, it is going to blind them. My eyes will have to adjust somewhat, but nothing like theirs. If I turn on the lights in the house, we both have to adjust the same amount. With the flashlight, I have the advantage, with the lights in the house I lose the advantage.
My house is not very large; in fact it is small. If someone was in my house I would probably see them even in the dark and could then light them up with the flashlight. There wouldn't be much of a search.
Most of this is academic because what my light would illuminate would be the back of my Rottweiler as he savaged the intruder. He wouldn't have to do much of a search either.
Giving away your position: I think this is way overblown. First of all, I don't think you should be walking around with the light on all the time. In most cases, you can see to some degree even at night as long as you haven't ruined your night vision. This isn't always the case, but it would be true in my house. Most nights there is enough light coming in the windows for me to easily walk around my house without additional light. Therefore, I would only be turning my light on to illuminate a target. At that point, I would be in a firing postion. Not to mention that if I can see to some extent, anyone in else in my house could also see, so my position would already be given away.
The only training or experience I have with flashlight techniques is the Gunsite 250 class where we did a LITTLE firing on the square range with flashlights. Two days ago, I shot a night IDPA match; which was my first attempt at engaging multiple targets, shooting on the move, etc. with a flashlight. I quickly found out that my flashlight technique sucks eggs. I basically fell apart like a cheap suit. I understand how the flashlight techniqes are supposed to be done, now it is up to me to make it smooth with both dry and live fire practice. In particular, practice other than just standing in one place firing on one target.

 

[Sludge]

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...

 

[Erik]

Lights have their place - both room and hand held.

Learn the strengths and weaknesses inherant to both.

 

[Penforhire]

I have a few answers to "why not just turn on the house lights?"

First, my switch positions require me to move too far into some areas just to access them. I want to look in that area before I leap. You might say my house isn't properly hardened. Fine, I'll accept that criticism. I suppose I should have a radio-controlled panic button that lights up everything at once, sets off a siren, shoots a flare outside, and lights the bat-signal.

Second, not knowing where any bad guys are means I could just be lighting myself up in one room while a BG in an attached area, in darkness, takes a bead on me (or just laughs at me).

I realize a flashlight is visible but unless your home is filled with smoke there is no laser-trail back to you. So I consider the flashlight puts me in less danger (though possibly more than using no lights at all). I expect to blind any intruder who is looking for my light.

 

[PzGren]

Who of you has been THERE?

Before shots are fired, hearing is a good orientational help, too. A safe driver is like a safe shooter, be careful and slow down. Only one life to give...

 

[gulogulo1970]

I use a Glock weapon mounted light on a Glock 17. I like how it frees up your left hand to open doors and such. I only use the light with momentary switch. I use my trigger finger to turn off and on, its easy to manipulate this way. Plus, it keeps your finger away from the trigger guard thus helping reenforce keeping your finger off the trigger til you have a target. I do also think light the house up like a christmas tree, turn the lights on. But I live in a large old house. Rooms only have one switch per light, if it is across the room it is time for a flashlight.