Don’t Cast Needless Shadows with Weapon-mounted Lights: new on AllOutdoor

1 Response to Don’t Cast Needless Shadows with Weapon-mounted Lights: new on AllOutdoor

1. Lyle says:

   July 15, 2015 at 1:57 am

   I have noticed however that when the light is back behind the front sight, you know, in the dark and all, that the sight is actually visible, which could be advantageous.

   Since I started hunting some years ago, I’ve also began to to notice something else, something that I seem to keep noticing more and more, the more I hunt. That is; range shooting is very, very different from real shooting. So different in fact that the former, if it is all you’ve done, does not prepare you for the latter.

   It would take pages and pages to explain exactly why, because it involves scenario after scenario, but here are a few shorties;

   In poor light, you can’t see stuff you need to see, unless you’ve prepared for it.

   You don’t get to pick the time or place you’re going to take the one shot that matters.

   Your target moves. It senses. It responds and tries not to get shot.

   Your target may never appear, but when it does appear it’s always a surprise, and it’s almost never convenient, either in timing or in location.

   You have extreme time and field of fire constraints, but you must not err. The same could be said of range competition, but the constraints there are known and in fact made very clear in advance. In the field the constraints are always changing and are unknown until the very moment that counts. You don’t get a do over. You cannot throw out your worst score.

   If you wait until you have the “right” shooting position for the shot, your target has likely moved.

   You may need to shoot from a position you never thought of, or you may need to avoid shooting altogether and go home to wait for another day.

   If everything seemingly comes together and you take your shot, you may have killed your target, and you may not have killed it. You may be pretty sure you nailed it clean, but maybe you missed, and you won’t find out for sure until you can track it and locate it, which you can never practice doing at a shooting range. In fact you can’t practice most of those things at a shooting range. If you try, you may be reprimanded, kicked out, and possibly banned.

   A mediocre range shooter could be a fairly good field shooter, and an excellent range shooter could in theory be a terrible field shooter, i.e. marksmanship is only a part of overall field craft.

   Same goes for defensive shooting, I suppose, though it’s even more different. In hunting, you know you’re going out looking to make a shot. In defensive shooting, you go out hoping to avoid making a shot. In hunting you pick the time to go out. In defensive shooting the BG picks the time and the place. The target may be capable of shooting back. The target may even get the first shot… I wouldn’t know about such things though.

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