The Tactical Advantage: A Definitive Study Of Personal Small-Arms Tactics

NINE REDUCED-LIGHT OPERATIONS

A great percentage of conflicts in urban settings occur after the sun goes down. Although most urban areas in the United States are always lighted to one degree or another, learning to manage low-light tactics should be on everyone's must-do list.

The problem in reduced-light environments is identifying targets. If you can see well enough to recognize an attack, you do not need any sight enhancements to solve the problem. In such cases, you simply shoot as you do in the daytime. When the daylight or ambient light begins to dissipate enough that your weapon's sights begin to blend into the background, as well as on the target, you must rely on the inherent reflexive muscle memory of your Weaver stance. This is the level of reduced light where the popular radioactive tritium sights are at their best.

Almost everyone these days has some form of tritium sight affixed to his weapon, whether it is a pistol or a submachine gun. These sights are useful to a certain degree, particularly during that brief time between last light and full-blown night. This is when there is still enough light to see an adversary, but there is also enough darkness that distinguishing your sights from the target mass is virtually impossible. Of these sights, I have found that the three-dot variety serves best for rapid alignment on targets. Some operatives do not have the option of tritium sights because of budgetary or political reasons. Don't laugh. Once when I was training a group of California police officers in the techniques of low-light shooting, two officers from a reasonably progressive department told me, in complete seriousness, that they were not authorized to install "radioactive night sights" on their weapons because their city had been declared a nuclear-free zone! One disadvantage with tritium sights is that they stand out very brightly in the dark and may give away your position.

^{Operating in extreme low-light environments requires the use of artificial light All weapons that are expected to see low-light action (such as this Smith 8 Wesson pistol) can be equipped with dedicated-light mounts.}

^{Low-light operations primarily require target identification. If there is enougl ambient light to see a target you may do without artificial light.}

^{Colt 1911 pistol with Sure-Fire dedicated-light mount. (Photo courtesy of Laser Products.)}

^{Shotgun dedicated-light mount on a Benelli Super 90.}

^{New-generation pistol dedicated-light mount on a Smith & Wesson Sigma pistol. (Photo Courtesy of Laser Products.)}

^{New mount for Heckler & Koch's USP series pistol. Laser Product's mount is substantially more robust than the factory-issued unit. (Photo courtesy of Laser Products.)}

^{Even rifles can benefit from the addition of a white light unit if they are intended for close-quarters use. (Photo courtesy of Laser Products.)}

Beyond this light level, a flashlight of some sort is essential to locate and identity your target. There are many types of lights on the market these days that are as bright as anyone will ever need for an interior or exterior search. Keep them simple. You do not need a light with colored lenses, multiple buttons and switches, or bells and whistles. A simple bright, pressure-switchoperated, focused-beam light is all that's required. A good rule of thumb is to get a light as small and as bright as you can find. (For a source guide on lights, check the appendix of this book.)

There are many methods for incorporating a flashlight and a firearm. The ones I've found to work best arc the highly specialized integral weapon mounts most often found on SWAT weapons. However, although an entry team can cart these lights around on their weapons, the street cop or private citizen will generally not want to do so. Their option is to use one of the bright compact flashlights in conjunction with a modified shooting grip on the weapon.

When using a pistol, the flashlight technique (conceived by Mike Harries) works best. For those using long guns, the compact flashlight can be adjusted for sensitivity and held alongside grip the weapon's fore-end. Held in this way, it is activated by pressure. (For a more detailed discussion on this subject, study the appropriate chapters in my previous books, Tactical Pistol and Tactical Shotgun.)

The main thing to establish when using a flashlight in conjunction with a firearm is rough coaxiality between the axis of the weapon's bore and the light beam. You don't need exactness in the axis between the light beam and the bore, since the target will even be illuminated with residual light. This in turn will allow you to see your sights superimposed on the adversary. If your light beam is adjustable, set it on a focused beam (not a wide-angle-spread, diffused beam). Once you've set the proper hold on the light and have the light and weapon roughly aligned, you may begin moving and searching.

Initially your light will be off. You will only turn it on to scan an area that you simply cannot see clearly enough with the ambient light. Do not stroll through the combat zone with your light beam on as you search. Remember that a beam of light tells anyone who is interested where you are. All your adversary needs to do is to shoot toward the light. Move tactically, just as you would normally move during standard light conditions. Use stealth as much as possible. When you reach an obstacle that you cannot clearly see, bring your weapon up, light the area, look for hostiles, shoot them if necessary, turn the light off, and move carefully to another spot. Do not track the light along the deck from your position to the danger area and back. Wait until your weapon is oriented on the danger area before turning the light on.

^{The Harries flashlight ready and firing position is the best method for integrating pistol and light. It is both stress- and recoil-resistant.}

If you are illuminating the apex of a corner as you clear it, you must light from the bottom corner of the apex wall upward. If you keep your weapon up all the time, you might miss an important target indicator near the floor, such as the toe of a shoe or even an adversary lying prone.

If you are scanning a large room or a room from a doorway before entering the room, you have the option of scanning with the light along a horizontal axis-in essence, sweeping the room with light. Once one sweep is executed, move carefully to another position and repeat the process. The main difference between the corner and the doorway (and even the T-intersection) is that with a single corner you have one potential danger area, whereas with a room or hallway intersection you have many. That is why you must sweep the area instead of focusing the beam on a specific danger area. The same goes for stairways.

If you encounter a hostile, keep the light on him-preferably on his eyes so that his vision and reactions will be impaired. Obviously, if he is armed and you are out in the open without cover, you'd shoot him. If you do not need to shoot him, then you must place him in a situation that gives you reasonable control over his movements. Order him to keep his hands up, get flat on his stomach on the floor, etc. At such times, keep the light directly on him. If you allow your light to go off, and he decides to attack you at that moment, you will not see him do ii until it is too late.

If the hostile turns out to be an innocent party, shining your light in his eyes will conceal your gun pointed at him. If neees sary, you can even keep the light pointed toward his face while you reholster. He will never know you had him "covered."

Realize that the instant your light goes on two things will happen. One is that your "night vision" will diminish. If you "light-scan-turn off-and-move," your eyesight will not have adjusted to the change in light enough to be able to see very well in the dark environment. One technique that I've tried with varying degrees of success is to close my shooting eye whenever I turn the light on. You are scanning for hostiles, not shooting. You can scan just as easily with your other eye as you can with your master shooting eye. This way, when the light goes off, your shooting eye will still have some degree of night-vision capabilities. If you encounter a threat while scanning, it is a simple matter to open the other eye as the pistol intercedes the line of sight and you reflexively look for the front sight. In any case, at that point, shooting your adversary will supersede the preservation of night vision.

The second thing that will happen when you illuminate an area is that anyone hidden within that search area will be instantly advised of your presence, thus eliminating the element of surprise! That man hiding in the room or around that corner may choose that very time to attack. You must be ready to shoot whenever your light is on. Remember the issues of cover and concealment. If you can scan an area from behind cover, then do so. If your adversary thrusts his weapon blindly around the corner or around whatever he is hiding behind to shoot you, beat him to the punch and shoot right through his cover.

Searching alone in the dark is more dangerous than searching alone in a lighted environment. Darkness really demands reinforcements. If you are fortunate enough to have your partner (or partners) with you, the problem is eased considerably. Your partner may light up an area from cover and keep his light on. A hostile hidden in the danger area will either attack immediately or hold his position in hopes of going undetected. If he attacks, you and your partner will shoot him. If he holds his position, he will probably do so as long as the light is on him. While the light is on him, he will be unable to see anything except the light. In this situation, you may approach under and outside the light beam and clear that position without being seen.

What about gun-handling problems? Do they change at all when the lights go out? Reactive gun-handling manipulations, such as emergency reloads and malfunction clearances, depend on the operator's ability to diagnose the specific problem with his weapon. There has been some discussion in tactical training circles that you should simply execute a tap-rack-flip as a conditioned reflex anytime your pistol fails to function. One well-published trainer suggests simply reloading the pistol anytime you experience a malfunction. Such simplistic approaches are certainly attractive to disciples of the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) school. The only problem, however, is that weapon stoppages (empty-pistol slide locked back included) must be cleared by specific means. You cannot "fix" an empty pistol with a tap-rackflip. Neither can you clear a feedway stoppage with a reloading procedure. To do so often exacerbates the problem, creating a worse stoppage than you had initially.

This is why the symptom-solution approach to malfunction clearances works best, regardless of lighting conditions. The problem of low light, however, may complicate the determina tion of what condition your weapon is in if it does not fire. If there is enough ambient light for you to determine the need to fire (without artificial means such as a flashlight), then you will also be able to visually determine the status of your weapon. If it is so dark that you cannot see your weapon in front of your face, then your adversary will not be able to see you either. You can use the darkness to your advantage… and concealment. The need to fire in a low-light environment will probably be determined because you have illuminated a "threat." Your illumination will also reveal the condition of your weapon. If you experience a malfunction under such circumstances, the best course of action is to extinguish the light, move to an alternative position immediately, and clear the malfunction in the darkness. If you cannot see the adversary, he cannot see you. You can use the darkness as concealment while you determine the status of your pistol by feel and get it back into action.

^{To clear a malfunction in low light, secure the light under your firing-side arm (lens to the rear), fix the problem, and then retrieve the light.}

If you experience a failure to fire, you will know instantly by the sound and feel of the weapon, no matter what the lighting conditions. A tap-rack-flip maneuver will fix the problem posthaste. A failure to eject is solved with the same maneuver, but you must be certain that you actually have that particular stoppage and not the similar-looking feedway stoppage, or empty gun. You can determine what you have by visual examination using available light. In no-light conditions, you can use your support hand to feel for cartridges, empty cases in the ejection port area, or partially ejected magazines, for example, to determine what you have. I cannot stress enough that, in nolight conditions, your first reaction to a stoppage must be to extinguish the light and move. Then you can fix the problem.

If you must shoot an adversary, do not turn the light off immediately afterward. Remember that you must verify the result of your gunfire. If you experience a failure to stop or (perish the thought) you missed, you need to know that. The only way you will gain that information is to keep the light on him after shooting, as you lower your weapon to the ready position. I know that someone out there is screaming, "That will illuminate you as well, and other bad guys will know where you are!" That potential threat may be true, but the real threat is the one you've just fired on. Remember, tactics only minimize, not eliminate, danger. This situation calls for a balance of risk. Making sure that the real threat is neutralized takes precedence over possibly giving away your position.

^{A Laser Products dedicated-light fore-end for a Remington 870 shotgun.}

^{Special operations weapons, such as this suppressed MP5, can be enhanced with the addition of a white-light unit. (Photo courtesy of Laser Products.)}

^{An often forgotten aspect of low-light operations is muzzle flash. Excessive muzzle flash will destroy your night vision as well as signal to everyone where you are. Test your ammo for muzzle flash. If it is excessive, replace it.}

Solving any tactical problem in the low-light or no-light environment is very difficult. Study the preceding text and the following diagram and then practice the concepts. They will prove to be an illuminating experience when you go hunting at night.

The following diagram illustrates the proper way to search in reduced-light operations.

^{Operating as a team, your partner may light up an area while you move outside the beam of light and clear the area surreptitiously. For all purposes, you will be invisible while the light is on.}