Tried my first outdoor 2gun night shoot last night over in Alabama, just north of Huntsville. I just got back to the house this morning at about 2am. Needed some time to think everything through and decided to write about it to collect all my thoughts and welcome any advice.
First off, last night was a rough night. We were outside from 4:30 to 9:30 and it was 35 degrees for all 5 hours. My cold weather shooting gear is fairly squared away but there were still issues. Solomon's have zero insulation and your feet will get cold in them. Mechanix will keep your hands warm for all of 5 minutes. I had extra large gloves to put over them, but it made doing almost anything impossible. Pasting targets in the dark with a hand held light tucked in your underarm, gloves on, and your entire body shaking, is some BS!
First stage included 2 eight inch steel plates at 100 yards. 2 hits each. Normally not a problem. I currently use a 400 lumen Inforce and when I lit up the targets at 100 yards I could see them just fine. 200 would have been a different story. Then I fired the first round. Instant white-out! The white light was bouncing off my powder and my optics just went white! It wasn't muzzle flash, it was the smoke. I moved laterally a bit but every time I fired it just got worse . Stage went in the toilet, and I still haven't come up with a reasonable solution. Any ideas are welcome!
Second stage. Mandatory Old School hand held with pistol. I've done this before but it's been years. I hated it. Had to tuck handheld in my underarm to do a reload. Main lesson learned, weapon mounted lights are 1000x better, even for your EDC. Several times I caught myself letting my light wonder off at some dumb angle while I was focusing on my RMR dot.
Overall it was a wickedly punishing match. It was a really cool shoot in retrospect once I stopped shaking. Tons of geared up roughnecks with chemlights on front and back. Lots of cool lights and lasers and total darkness. Everyone worked together even though I still have no idea who anyone was in my squad. Too dark. Some guys did great with high powered civilian green laser/illuminator. It was very cool.
I think I'm hooked now, but I can't drop a ton of cash on all this night vision stuff. If anyone knows how to jump into this game on the cheap, please let me know.
First off, last night was a rough night. We were outside from 4:30 to 9:30 and it was 35 degrees for all 5 hours. My cold weather shooting gear is fairly squared away but there were still issues. Solomon's have zero insulation and your feet will get cold in them. Mechanix will keep your hands warm for all of 5 minutes. I had extra large gloves to put over them, but it made doing almost anything impossible. Pasting targets in the dark with a hand held light tucked in your underarm, gloves on, and your entire body shaking, is some BS!
First stage included 2 eight inch steel plates at 100 yards. 2 hits each. Normally not a problem. I currently use a 400 lumen Inforce and when I lit up the targets at 100 yards I could see them just fine. 200 would have been a different story. Then I fired the first round. Instant white-out! The white light was bouncing off my powder and my optics just went white! It wasn't muzzle flash, it was the smoke. I moved laterally a bit but every time I fired it just got worse . Stage went in the toilet, and I still haven't come up with a reasonable solution. Any ideas are welcome!
Second stage. Mandatory Old School hand held with pistol. I've done this before but it's been years. I hated it. Had to tuck handheld in my underarm to do a reload. Main lesson learned, weapon mounted lights are 1000x better, even for your EDC. Several times I caught myself letting my light wonder off at some dumb angle while I was focusing on my RMR dot.
Overall it was a wickedly punishing match. It was a really cool shoot in retrospect once I stopped shaking. Tons of geared up roughnecks with chemlights on front and back. Lots of cool lights and lasers and total darkness. Everyone worked together even though I still have no idea who anyone was in my squad. Too dark. Some guys did great with high powered civilian green laser/illuminator. It was very cool.
I think I'm hooked now, but I can't drop a ton of cash on all this night vision stuff. If anyone knows how to jump into this game on the cheap, please let me know.
