Weapponlights

[Beauregard Hooligan]

I have turned in a kinda high tech direction as of late. I have a friend who lived outside of Sacramento that had a terrible event happen in early January. His garage was not connected to his house and the power and phone lines ran from roof to roof. I will not say that this guy is of high moral character as he drinks far too much, and far too often. He had closed the bars at 2 AM and managed to get his truck on the garage and close the door. He found his bed and managed to take his boots off before falling into it. But, he was still inebriated, awakened to the sound of loud engines and someone pounding on his front door. He picked up the phone, but the land line was down. He tried turning on a light, but the power was out. He picked up a 1911 and a Maglight, but stopped short of the front door. It's the "let the intruder come to you" concept. Someone was attacking the door from outside with an axe. He took a defensive position, and was ready to shoot when the man with the axe finally chopped down the door. Luckily, he lit the intruder with the beam of the Maglight before using his pistol. The man in the door was a fire fighter. He was forcing entry to extract and protect any civilians inside the house. A fire had broken out in his garage, and it had taken out the power and phone lines. The garage and his truck were a complete loss, but he was insured. The really great thing is that he had the Maglight, used it first, instead of shooting the man with the ax. Since then I have spent quite a bit of money and embraced new (to me) technology. I have two Remington 870 combat shotguns that now wear weaponlights. My new SIG Sauer P220R .45 ACP also wears one, as does my 7.62x39mm Ruger Mini 30. I want to make sure that if I find myself in hostilities that I know who I am up against, and not find myself suffering for shooting a COP, Fireman or EMT, especially if I am awakened in the night and am not firing on all cylinders. I think this is a high value pursuit, and if I was still a peace officer, I'd like knowing that a civilian had put the time and money, and the training time, to prevent potential disasters from happening.
There is another side to this: if I do find myself facing serious bad guys, blinding them briefly with a 340 to 500 lumen LED light gives me a tactical advantage that just might save my life. And I know, when I switch on that monster light I will be letting every bad guy on the periphery as to where I am and that I am tech savvy. I'm willing to take that risk as the combination of identifying emergency personnel, as well as seriously affecting the vision of my real opponents is worth the risk. In training, I was required to face a person with a 500 lumen light on a shotgun, and it turned my vision into a big purple blur that didn't totally wear off for hours. I could have tried shooting at the instructor with the light, but I couldn't see the sights on my 1911; I would have had to try point shooting at someone using something that was actually painful to look at. And, lest we forget, it's dark roughly half the time, and, from my personal experience, most of the severe felonies I saw committed took place between sunset and sunrise.
So, that was a new realization for me, and it will affect my defensive tactical doctrine from here until I check out St. Peter's Precinct.

BTW, I have both SureFire and Streamlight products, and find the Streamlight products are powerful, reliable and easier to adapt to my particular weapons. You can't go wrong with either. I will suggest forgetting budget products from knock-off nations. The SureFire and Streamlight products are tough and reliable. These are not tinkered up gismos that will fail the first time out.

[jimbobborg]

Next thing you know, you'll be sporing kydex holsters and shooting USPSA matches    Although from a practice standpoint IDPA would be better for practicing defensing shooting since "practical" went out the window years ago in USPSA.  Make sure you practice with those shotguns, people have a tendency to short stroke them when dealing with these types of situations.  Which is why I don't use an 870, I have an 11-87P to back up my rifles.

[44wcf]

I have turned in a kinda high tech direction as of late. I have a friend who lived outside of Sacramento that had a terrible event happen in early January. His garage was not connected to his house and the power and phone lines ran from roof to roof. I will not say that this guy is of high moral character as he drinks far too much, and far too often. He had closed the bars at 2 AM and managed to get his truck on the garage and close the door. He found his bed and managed to take his boots off before falling into it. But, he was still inebriated, awakened to the sound of loud engines and someone pounding on his front door. He picked up the phone, but the land line was down. He tried turning on a light, but the power was out. He picked up a 1911 and a Maglight, but stopped short of the front door. It's the "let the intruder come to you" concept. Someone was attacking the door from outside with an axe. He took a defensive position, and was ready to shoot when the man with the axe finally chopped down the door. Luckily, he lit the intruder with the beam of the Maglight before using his pistol. The man in the door was a fire fighter. He was forcing entry to extract and protect any civilians inside the house. A fire had broken out in his garage, and it had taken out the power and phone lines. The garage and his truck were a complete loss, but he was insured. The really great thing is that he had the Maglight, used it first, instead of shooting the man with the ax. Since then I have spent quite a bit of money and embraced new (to me) technology. I have two Remington 870 combat shotguns that now wear weaponlights. My new SIG Sauer P220R .45 ACP also wears one, as does my 7.62x39mm Ruger Mini 30. I want to make sure that if I find myself in hostilities that I know who I am up against, and not find myself suffering for shooting a COP, Fireman or EMT, especially if I am awakened in the night and am not firing on all cylinders. I think this is a high value pursuit, and if I was still a peace officer, I'd like knowing that a civilian had put the time and money, and the training time, to prevent potential disasters from happening.
There is another side to this: if I do find myself facing serious bad guys, blinding them briefly with a 340 to 500 lumen LED light gives me a tactical advantage that just might save my life. And I know, when I switch on that monster light I will be letting every bad guy on the periphery as to where I am and that I am tech savvy. I'm willing to take that risk as the combination of identifying emergency personnel, as well as seriously affecting the vision of my real opponents is worth the risk. In training, I was required to face a person with a 500 lumen light on a shotgun, and it turned my vision into a big purple blur that didn't totally wear off for hours. I could have tried shooting at the instructor with the light, but I couldn't see the sights on my 1911; I would have had to try point shooting at someone using something that was actually painful to look at. And, lest we forget, it's dark roughly half the time, and, from my personal experience, most of the severe felonies I saw committed took place between sunset and sunrise.
So, that was a new realization for me, and it will affect my defensive tactical doctrine from here until I check out St. Peter's Precinct.

BTW, I have both SureFire and Streamlight products, and find the Streamlight products are powerful, reliable and easier to adapt to my particular weapons. You can't go wrong with either. I will suggest forgetting budget products from knock-off nations. The SureFire and Streamlight products are tough and reliable. These are not tinkered up gismos that will fail the first time out.

I believe someone was looking out for him, keeping him  from pulling the trigger.
Just imagine the pain and suffering for everyone involved if he had pulled the trigger.
Don't know the gentleman but am glad it turned for the good.

[CPL Jayhawker Jake]

Weapon lights are extremely handy, and one reason why I made sure to pick up at Streamlight TLR-1 for my 1911 as soon as I could.  I can understand not wanting to try and carry a weapon equipped with one as your everyday carry gun, but, for a night stand weapon, a light is a must.

[Beauregard Hooligan]

Next thing you know, you'll be sporing kydex holsters and shooting USPSA matches    Although from a practice standpoint IDPA would be better for practicing defensing shooting since "practical" went out the window years ago in USPSA.  Make sure you practice with those shotguns, people have a tendency to short stroke them when dealing with these types of situations.  Which is why I don't use an 870, I have an 11-87P to back up my rifles.

The first and only holster I could find for the SIG is made of Kydex and works quite well. I did go on to find a really weird looking leather "halo" holster from Galco that looks quite Klingon and functions splendidly. When I have to carry the SIG in the day I do so in a conventional "summer special" holster, also from Galco, and carry the SureFire x300 in my pocket or bag. If I'm practicing situational awareness, I don't ever stick around a dangerous situation long enough to need a gun. But, day does turn into night, and if I need the SIG after dark it takes all of three seconds to slide it onto the rail. I really appreciate Galco products, so they are my default supplier. I can't say too much about the SIG; accurate, trouble free, over 500 rounds trough it and not one malfunction. I bought the full size version and will probably buy a compact when I have the money. I never thought anything modern would push my 1911's aside until now, though I have no intention of selling them. I am going to have our local gunsmith TIG a rail to my Springfield Armory GI .45; which he will do for $100. I'm still cowboy when I'm playing the game, but when my life is on the line, I tend towards .45 caliber semi-autos and .357, .44 and .45 caliber S&W revolvers.