Muzzle Flash at night, any combat veterans insight?

TXAZ

New member
I'm watching "The Great Raid", where there's a serious amount of night time combat. The muzzle flashes appear to be massive with each shot.

For those of you who have been in combat, how bright is a muzzle flash in reality? Do modern weapons do a pretty good job of hiding the flash, or is your first shot the last shot with any decent vision?
 
You do get a good bit of muzzle flash at night using the M16. The M-60 looks like a trip flair, we didn't use them at night unless it was absolutely necessary

The M14 how ever is a different matter. With the M-21 (NM M14 with ART Scope and M118 ammo, there is ZERO detectable muzzle flash,...... NONE.

I never shot a M4 at night but I would assume they would be like our shorty CARs. They produced more muzzle flash then the normal 20" baller of the M16s.
 
Keep in mind that the flash in the films is primarily due to the use of black powder blanks that are actually designed to create spectacular muzzle flash.
 
Haven't seen the film in question, but most movie firearm flashes I've seen are very obviously added-in after the film is shot and usually look obviously faked.

Will
 
When I was in Vietnam, at night there were no targets. Our perimeter was rigged with flares and trip wires -- if a flare lit up, we lit up the area around it. "Spray and pray," but not on full auto. Just suppressive area fire, not aimed fire.

The flash hider helped. I had a post-ban AR-15 with a bare barrel and there was more flash visible to the shooter than I remember from Vietnam.
 
Not sure how to quantify nightime muzzle flash for you but for mysel it never seemed to be much of a problem. Shoot, roll right or left and shoot again...

Flash supressor seems to work well overall.. 50 cal is pretty impressive at night..
 
Last edited:
Not sure on how one shot out of the M4 would distort the night vision as there was usually many more flashes and bangs going on as well. I can definately agree that the M2 is impressive at night.
 
SOP was blow the Claymore Mines first, throw hand grenades next, hoping you did'nt hit a tree or brush in front of you, and use rifles last as not only the muzzle flash but the sound of the shots gave your position away. Did a lot of work on dark nights with mostly your ears.

Saw Spooky or Puff work out one night from a basecamp, talk about not the muzzle flash but the tracers probably one every six or eight rounds sent a solid red laser light beam all the way from the plane to the ground and the sound of the gun and the bullets impacting the earth was incredible.

Never saw an Arc Light but I imagine one at night would create the ultimate muzzle flash.
 
I have one of Ayoob's books ,"Stress Fire" ,where IIRC he's firing a 357 at night .The only lighting was the muzzle flash ! Looks like a flame thrower ! :eek:

That was before modern additives in the powder reduced muzzle flash and blast.

When the S&W M66 first came out I knew a cop who had his ported . He fired it one night and immediately sold it !! :D
 
Back
Top