preferred hand held light method?

[PALADIN-hgwt]

xxxxx

[MX5]

Get ready, you're going to get a multitude of answers and opinions. My first choice is my old, well worn Surefire 6Z Combat light (before they had lock-out tail caps) or my modified E2. Both of which are used in the Rogers Technique. This works for me. There are many ways of skinning this cat. Try them out, become familiar with their advantages/disadvantages, choose what works best in your situation and practice a lot. I've found most people practice, but seldom at night and not enough. Good luck.

[Luckystiff]

I went to the Surefire Low-Light Inst. School earlier this year. Before I went I taught the Rodgers as if it was handed down my the Lord above. After going to that school I have a whole new out look on this. Learn as many styles as you can because they all have a use depending on the situation. When we went into the dark house and started doing sims it became very clear that the old FBI style worked the best at keeping you from getting shot. Not great for accuracy but at CQB ranges it works.

Lights

Must be 60 lumens or more
Must have a tail push button (under stress guys will turn a barrel mounted button light around and shine the light on themselves. I did not think this could happen till I shaw it myself.)

For the carbine I like what Bill Jeans showed me years ago in a Carbine Inst. Class. Hold the light in your weak hand under the front hand guard of the rifle. Bring the light back until the tail mounted push button touches the face of the mag well. A little bit of reward pressure will turn the light on. Not as good as a weapon mounted light but it works better than anything elese I have seen.

This should get interesting and I hope to learn something myself.

[rhino]

I agree that you need more than one technique. The reason you're using the light is so that you can see what you need to see, but some situations favor some techniques over others.

For instance, my preferred method (since it works best for me) is to hold the light on my jaw with my support hand, so the light is essentially pointing where I am looking all the time. I then shoot strong hand only. One of the lessons I've learned during low-light instruction is that sometimes you need to move the light because of the way the threat is situated among objects and perhaps other people. Shadows in particular can be troublesome, so it was suggested that I try holding the light above my head (I think this is the FBI method?). In the given scenario, it worked great and I could see what I needed to see.

So knowing a few methods to help you adapt to the situation is a good thing.

As far as carbines and handhelds go ... bumping the tail switch against the front of the mag well works best for me (short arms).