Low Light Pistol SIG Academy

MaverickNH

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Next up for review is the SIG Academy Low Light Pistol Operator course. Participants are expected to have Intermediate skills gained from 101, 102, 103, 104 courses - 5 days in total. My class had 8 participants - 1 active LEO training instructor for a smaller MA town, 2 paramedics - 1 being on a MA SWAT team, and 8 average Joes. Students were certainly more capable than Pistol 104 graduates as a whole with more than just 5 days experience shooting. The instructor Christian was a long-time LEO police/SWAT trainer in NH/MA. He was top-notch in every way and had the expected great sense of humor one finds among SIG Academy instructors.

The class used flashlights and your own weapons-mounted light, with progressive light exercises done first in dim light then blackness. Harries, Rogers, FBI and weapons-mounted light techniques were practiced at 3, 5, 10, 15, 25yd. Afternoon drills were mostly blackout work on failure drills with dummy rounds and empty brass (to set up likely double feeds), forward movement 15yr-3yd while shooting and work from behind barricades. Some exercises done with lights and others night-sights only. An interesting drill where the instructor shines a bright light in your eyes and you shoot when you can see using night-sights or your flashlight, to show use of your bright light can overcome the challenge from flashed eyes.

A final drill with a series of barricades set up requiring you to shoot to the left/right, high/low and move forwards and backwards to ring steel at 10-20yd was “illuminating” to say the least. How to light from cover without illuminating yourself, how to scan for next cover without telegraphing your moves, and other “operating” lessons. Just shy of 350rd frangible ammo (at $18.50/50rd box) was shot.

The stress of handling a flashlight, pistol, tactical reloads, stepping Off-the-X” as needed and working barricades in blackness was progressive and challenging for me. Two had taken the course before with other having LEO-related low light shooting training. My COM hits from 15yd+ degraded to 80% toro hits towards the end. One doesn’t become an expert in a day but only learns what to practice to gain new skills.

[Edit] I forgot to mention, the most unsettling thing about the course was being in pitch black with strangers and hoping they wouldn’t shoot me by accident. As it turns out the Instructor was using handheld night vision to keep an eye (just one) on us. He shouted at me in the dark “Move when you reload” and I had to ask how he could tell I hadn’t moved. Then we all got to play with the nice Gen3 monocular. Gotta get one some day...
 
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