First Night Match-Gearing Up

[Pirate]

So I signed up to shoot the Walking Dead Match in Cresson, Tx at the end of October.  This will be my first time shooting a match at night.  I decided to keep it simple and shoot the PCC division rather than go through setting up 3 guns with lights and getting a new holster, etc.  I could use some advise on selecting a rail mounted light for my PCC and any other lights or gadgets that may prove useful.  If anyone has any experience to share about this match from previous years, I'll take any advise I can get.  As always, Thanks in advance.

[AustinT]

Light laser combos are good. Apparently shooting a shotgun with a laser is the coolest thing ever. For PCC I’d just stick a tlr-1 or equivalent pistol light on if I didn’t have anything. I shot with a x300 on rifle once when it was 2 gun, and surefire handheld type weapon lights on both rifle and shotgun when it was 3 gun. You’ll be fine either way. Walking dead has typically been pretty easy for a night match as it caters to new shooters and the tactical crowd. You’ll want a headlamp and figure out how to illuminate your pistol sights and/or shotgun bead with it if you’re not shooting a dot/laser.

[jon49erfan]

Crimson Trace just released the CWL-200 (or -201 for direct keymod/mlok attachment). It's cheap ($40), 900 lumens, and not super bulky. Downside is that it can only use 123A batteries. 

[Steve133]

Shotgun and pistol can be a little trickier, but if you're just shooting PCC, I think all you really need is a light. I've only shot a couple of night matches, but one of them was last year's Walking Dead (and I'd be going this year, too, if I didn't have work conflicts). Literally the only thing that I did for my rifle was slap a light onto the handguard and make sure that I had a fresh battery in my optic, and I think that setup worked fairly well.

 

So, yeah, assuming that you're using an illuminated optic of some sort, I think all you need is a weapon-mounted light. Bonus points for having a tape switch or some other means of activating it quickly, since I'm pretty sure that Walking Dead requires you to start with all mounted lights turned off. You don't even really need a very good light, since the Walking Dead stages are all in pretty short bays, so you don't need a ton of brightness or throw distance. You won't need a headlamp while shooting (and it would probably actually hurt you by washing out your dot anyway), but it would be useful for seeing what you're doing between stages. Oh, and extra batteries. For EVERYTHING.

[stango424]

IF you are looking for a good light the Streamlight hlX protac rail mount is really good and at about $110 it doesn't kill the bank either. It also comes with a pressure swith that has a standard on/off button as well as the momentary switch. I haven't shot that particular night match but the ones I have shot with a PCC a good light like that was plenty.  I did run into issues when using a head lamp and red dot, the dot was washing out from behind as well as a reflection on the lens.

[Lpratt]

I think for a PCC a Streamlight TLR1 or a Surefire X300u mounted at the 12 o clock position would work well. Just dryfire in the dark and see what your sights looks like without daylight and see if using a headlamp will change anything. Also get used to the activation methods such as momentary and full on.