Weapon mounted light or not... something I never see being discussed...

B

Bachá

New member
Total newbie here ad most of you know...

I wonder why is it that in these discussions nobody touches the option of turning on the lights as you advance in your house.... I have had several "bump in the night" ocassions and what I have done is turn on the lights as I advance around the house... is that some kind of "tactical mistake" or am I missing something?

I guess the topic has been talked a million times here as I have read a lot of them but... What is your preference and why? ;):D
 
There is no right answer that covers all situations. And if you are worrying about thieves that have the capability to cut your wires, use emps, you probably have bigger problems.

At my house I am best off keeping all lights off. I know the layout of the house so I have the advantage. I also practice going through my house a lot and if I really thought someone was there I would call the police not go try and find them. I carry a flashlight and can use it to temporarily blind someone if need be but I wont turn on room lights.
 
The advantage of a light not mounted to your pistol is that you can shine the light on something without having to point a loaded weapon at the same point. Training will take care of coordinating your light and pistol but it's also nice to have the option to shine a light at an area without putting it in danger.
 
Idk the size of your house, but if you're turning on lights as you go through it's an indication of where you're coming from. So is turning on any light in general but this is a bit more obvious. Turning on large lights such as those will also likely trash your night vision. Short bursts of light are better in that regard. Lastly you might end up in a situation where you're in a completely illuminated room on the edge of a dark room. You'll stand out like a Christmas tree. The goal with light is to scan quickly but not leave it on.


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I'm sorry but you really don't NEED two hands on your handgun. That is unless you only have a giant caliber gun for home defense. One hand for your gun, the other for your flashlight.

You might even practice one handed shooting. I remember when that was how you shot handguns. Haha my Army training with the 1911 was one handed.
 
One thing I don't understand is why people don't put motion-sensing, night-sensing, LEDs throughout their house. It's impossible for me to walk through my house at night without illumination because they actively turn on.

Why are you all stumbling around in the dark in 2017?
 
Most people shoot better with two hands. It's a reality. You certainly can shoot one handed and having a handheld light has it's advantages such as not needing to point the pistol at what you want to illuminate (in those cases most weapon mounted lights are very powerful these days so practice using the spill from the light at either a low or high ready to illuminate a room and not muzzle anyone). That said if one hand or arm is occupied helping someone (carrying or leading a child) or injured it's not too easy to use a light and fire a pistol with one hand.

The great thing is you don't have to choose. You can have both a handheld and a weapon mounted light. I always recommend the handheld first tbh, but in the end having both gives you both options without much in the way of downsides.
 
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Idk the size of your house, but if you're turning on lights as you go through it's an indication of where you're coming from. So is turning on any light in general but this is a bit more obvious. Turning on large lights such as those will also likely trash your night vision. Short bursts of light are better in that regard. Lastly you might end up in a situation where you're in a completely illuminated room on the edge of a dark room. You'll stand out like a Christmas tree. The goal with light is to scan quickly but not leave it on.
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This is pretty solid.

An intruder will notice lights coming on in another room. He will then either flee or hide and wait for you. A quick flash of a light may or may not be noticed and may or may not be interpreted as important.

Weapon mounted lights are the norm these days. Back in the day of revolvers (very rare to find one with a rail) and autos without rails lights were a bit of a rarity.

Not any more.

Let's review:

Seeing is good. Seeing is world's better than not seeing. Being discrete when checking for an intruder is good. It is better than good. It is safer.


What is your preference and why?
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Suppressed AR pistol with weapon mounted TLR1 light and sling. Easy to use, easy to retain, very powerful, very quiet, lots of ammo, few downsides.
 
I do not mount lights on any of my weapons but that is personal preferance. Weapon mounted lights have there benifits. I am comfortable shooting with one hand. I like the freedom of moving the light without pointing my weapon or even the need to draw my weapon. Often things that bang in the night at home are not threats. The cat, sleep walking kids, drunk neighbor, wife coming home from a trip early and didnt want to wake me. Walking around the house with adrenaline pumping, weapon drawn using it as a flashlight is not my preferance.
 
I would rather error on the side of identifying my target by using a light mounted on my gun rather than worry about sweeping my target with my pistol.

I also agree with having a few motion lights in your home is a good idea. Having another light in your hand is a good idea but having a free hand to open a door or to move/grab things is nice.
 
Try it both ways...in a drill, with an empty gun...do what works best for you.

Personally, I don't want a light on the gun..../ I don't want to point a loaded weapon around a room using a light on the gun to illuminate it.....

Turning lights on as you go ...illuminates you as you enter...makes you easy to see by a hidden threat. I like lights on motion sensors outside....not inside my home ...
 
I agree with adamBomb. If there is an intruder in the house they are at a disadvantage since they do not know they layout of my house. I have no problems shooting anyone in the middle of the night without knowing who it is. In my house it is just me and the wife anybody else I will consider a home invader not a guest. But for those that have children or other family members living with them a flashlight mounted in the firearm is not ideal if you have to point the gun at your child just to make sure it is your child.

Make it a point to shoot one handed and with the weak hand at the range, I VERY SELDOM see shooters practice this way.
 
Having a light mounted on your gun breaks one of the commandments of gun safety. "Don't point your gun at anything you aren't willing to destroy"

I was once convinced that a weapon mounted light was a great idea. I even added a picatinny rail section to my Star BM. An incident convinced me otherwise. No, I didn't shoot anyone.

 
arquebus357 said:
Having a light mounted on your gun breaks one of the commandments of gun safety. "Don't point your gun at anything you aren't willing to destroy"
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Sorry, but that is an obnoxious view of weapon lights...

You don’t need to use a weapon light as a search tool. You don’t pull out your gun when carrying to use the light, correct? You pull it out because your life (or someone else’s life) is threatened. Just because you have a light on the gun doesn’t mean it is has to be used prior to employing the firearm.
 
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