Quote:
Originally Posted by Pote
in the real world...useless. For practice, shooting static paper where the shooter, the paper and everything else remains motionless...sure its cool and fun. good luck using a laser in any situation that requires you to move, take cover, has a moving target, a target moving behind and through obstacles, WHILE shooting...it will never be used.
Try running and aiming. do it on a white wall...watch that little red dot dance and vibrate and become useless. Now do the same through some foliage outdoors...that red dot gets dissected by branches, leaves, and continues to dance and vibrate while you move. I highly doubt there will be many SD shootings where the shooter is 100% motionless, and your target stands still so you can put a dot on his/her chest. just not going to happen. I think it slows down the natural shooting time due to the fact that your mind will want to seek out and find that dot before you pull the trigger. I say train more without, and become proficient without the gadgets. YMMV.
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My experience has been just the opposite. I've probably taken 15 Raccoons & 'Possums using laser sights and there wasn't one of them that just stood there. I would say that I would have been lucky to even get a shot on most of them, much less hit them, while we were both running or moving through the dark if not for the laser sight. Many of my shots were taken while the critter was moving through tall grass, bushes, trees, vehicles or heavy equipment.
We have a small pistol range in our backyard and prior to getting our first laser grip I did quite a bit of night time shooting. At a certain point I could hit whatever it was I was shooting at while I was on the move, which made me think I could use a revolver for critter control.
Since this post another thread started about back yard ranges, you can see ours here.
Let's see your backyard range
We have 14 wireless passive infra-red sensors around the property & buildings so nothing moves out there without us knowing about it. Being a night person I find myself checking out sensor trips multiple times a night during the warmer months, which is why I wanted the ease of using a revolver instead of toteing a shotgun around all of the time.
Within just a few nights of switching over to a revolver I was humbled, greatly humbled.
My first attempt was a dismal failure due to the dynamic enviroment I found myself in, which was mentioned in my previous post. Sure, I could spot my target using a flashlight easy enough but didn't have enough time to even think about lining up the sights in the short time frame I had available. I found that after I spotted my target, then went to do a final alignment of the sights the target had moved so it was back to finding it again before trying the sights once again. Essentially I couldn't keep track of both (target & sights) at the same time in the short time available.
On my first attempt I found my target and was working on sight alignment and during that short time span, maybe 1-2 seconds, my arms hit a small tree as I traversed my body following the target's movement. By the time I recovered from that it was all over.
Finding out that my skill at shooting stationary targets didn't transfer over to moving targets as well as I had thought, I figured what the heck, let's try a CT Grip and see what happens. At that point I had no opinion on them one way or the other, although I had heard them referred to as a "gimmick." Reading the "gagdet" comment quoted above reminded me of that.
After putting the CT Grips on my Ruger SP101 (.327 Fed Mag) my success rate flew off the charts, which made me a firm believer in their effectiveness. My "yard round" of choice in the Ruger was .32 S&W Longs but this year I'm relying on a S&W Governor, with CT Grips, as my yard gun. I'm switching to the Governor in spite of my previous, dismal results / experience with a Taurus Judge, which didn't have CT Grips on it. I'm thinking that the results I experienced with the Ruger & CT Grips may transfer over to the Governor.
I'm such a firm believer in the effectiveness of lasers that now even my shotgun has a Streamlight TLR2s mounted on it and I've made shots that I wouldn't have even been able to think about taking, all at critters on the move, prior to adding the TLR to my shotgun.
For range work I rarely have the CT Grips turned on, focusing on "regular" shooting methods and find that once the grips are on and I'm running around chasing something in the middle of the night it's almost like I'm cheating. The flashlight finds my target and the red dot takes care of the sighting aspect. Most times I don't even have to bring the gun up to eye level to take / make the shot.......
I've said my piece and nothing anybody can say will make me ignore the results I've experienced first hand. Especially not after getting my comeuppance the night I found out I wasn't as good as I thought I was, or that I was simply going to go out in the dark and effectively use iron sights in the time frame required to take / make the shot.
The bottom line is, some things may not be as we percieve them to be and hand's on experience usually sets the record straight. Been there, done that...
As always, your mileage may vary........
Below are my night time "gadgets" that have served me well many times, with the exception of the Governor. The jury is still out on that one.
