I’ve been shooting matches where a weapon light would be handy, plus good experience.

I have a railed 1911 and a SureFire X300 but it’s hard to reach and activate the switch for me. I missed the PH Holster ARC switches that may have worked.

I think I’d prefer the switch that sticks to the front strap, but I’m option to options.

PS, I knew fiber optic front sights weren’t awesome in the low light but are even worse than expected. Basically a black post, if you can even see that. Haha. There was enough background lights to identify shoot/no shoot but needed auxiliary lighting to verify an empty chamber and score targets.

quote:

Originally posted by Riley:
I think I’d prefer the switch that sticks to the front strap

Understand that this style of activation switch fell out of favor quickly after it was introduced, and is often specifically banned by policy in law enforcement agencies in particular.

Mounting an activation button that has to be squeezed by clenching the middle finger of your firing hand leads to issues with "sympathetic gripping".

Sympathetic gripping is the phenomenon whereby when you clench/squeeze some of the fingers on a hand, the tendency is for your body to subconsciously clench all fingers on that hand the same. This is especially prone to happening when under stress.

And when this involves your firing hand, it leads to inadvertent clenching of your trigger finger when all you meant to do is activate your light with the next finger over, which is A Bad Thing.

Ah, good info! It didn’t occur to me.

To put the whole “clinch” things into proper prospective, a bunch of firearms illiterate baboons were given this. In true form being poorly trained, they blamed poor training on the DG switch. The baboons in charge all agreed that training (lack there of) wasn’t the problem, and it absolutely had to be this “phenomenon” and it couldn’t possible be that the troop was the problem. The baboons at Force Science Institute (probably) did a study where “highly trained” (in their opinion) baboons were given the DG switch and 91.753;799 percent of the time they shot other baboons with it.

When the actual problem the DG switch can drag on most holsters along the bottom side of the trigger guard leading to premature wear, and reliability issues.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
To put the whole “clinch” things into proper prospective, a bunch of firearms illiterate baboons were given this. In true form being poorly trained, they blamed poor training on the DG switch. The baboons in charge all agreed that training (lack there of) wasn’t the problem, and it absolutely had to be this “phenomenon” and it couldn’t possible be that the troop was the problem. The baboons at Force Science Institute (probably) did a study where “highly trained” (in their opinion) baboons were given the DG switch and 91.753;799 percent of the time they shot other baboons with it.

When the actual problem the DG switch can drag on most holsters along the bottom side of the trigger guard leading to premature wear, and reliability issues.

This. Great synopsis and explanation, being spot on. I trained with my DG switches, having carried them from the earliest days and never had an issue. I prefer them actually. The only downside, as mentioned, was wear thought the rubber coatings faster than most pressure pads, mostly due to holster rubbing. Occasionally you could catch it on something and bend it up proper as well. The fix was easy, just needing to buy one or two spares to keep in the drawer.

Have you considered just turning the light on either during the draw or while moving between positions and leaving it on?

Even the tactical establishment is pretty ok with constant on light these days.

^ This works as for my use, but I’m still looking for an easier way to activate it.

Much practicing is needed of course, but it’s a long reach for me.