Most people don’t have good opportunities to shoot in low light conditions, but for anyone who might use a firearm for defensive purposes, there are important things about shooting in low light that may not be obvious without practical experience.

Last night I conducted a low light training session.
When we checked targets after the first stage that involved firing from a firm kneeling support at 50 yards, the first shooter had produced a pattern measuring 12 inches across and well above the proper point of aim. All the shots had completely missed the silhouette target. Between the low beam headlights of my car behind the firing line and the moonlight, the targets were dimly, but clearly visible by eye. The shooter also had a powerful weapon light that lit up the targets even more, so his problem wasn’t because he couldn’t see the target. Or so I believed.

Being familiar with the shooter’s equipment and abilities, my first thought was that the sight mount had loosened, causing the shots to be scattered all over. When I examined the gun, however, I discovered that the brightness setting of the red dot reticle was very high, more suited for daytime use than in the dark. Although the targets could be clearly seen with our dark-adapted eyes, when looking at them through the sight with its bright reticle, the target almost disappeared from view. It was obvious to me that because the shooter could not get a good, definitive sight picture, he wasn’t achieving a consistent point of aim.

At that point I told him to decrease the brightness of the red dot. His sight, a Vortex (Sparc?), has buttons on the back to adjust the brightness, and between the darkness and having been outside in 15° temperatures for an hour or so by then, he had trouble doing that, and even started to resist, saying he would make do. I of course insisted, and he agreed that the lower brightness level made a big difference. The second time he fired the stage, his group measured about 3 inches.

I was already familiar with the problem a too-bright illuminated reticle can cause, especially in low light, but it hadn’t occurred to me to make the point clear to my students. If you’re not familiar with how your reticle looks in low light, and you might ever have to shoot in such conditions, especially at longer ranges, you should check it.

As a final point, the shooter’s difficulty last night in adjusting the reticle brightness reminded me of my own experiences years ago when my duty rifle sight was an EOTech that had similar button-type brightness controls. The large rotary adjustment knobs that Aimpoint sights have are much easier and quicker to use in the dark, and especially with nearly-frozen fingers. (Love my Aimpoints. )

I think that I was pretty fortunate; the first illuminated 'dot' I ever used was housed in a Trijicon Accupoint (an older pre-tritium infused 1-4x24). The variable intensity level due to the fiber optic (and further enhanced by the adjustment shroud) taught me a lot about the effects of glare as well as the impact of my astigmatism on accurate sighting. As a result of those experiences, the first true red dot that I bought was an always-on RMR with the auto-adjust light sensor. It does a pretty good job of getting the dot intensity right for the ambient light conditions without having to fiddle fart with way-too-small controls. As much as I like my T-1s (yes, the big round knob is what it is for a reason), I still occasionally wish that they had the same auto-adjust functionality as that RMR does. Call it laziness, call it 'Contagious Millennium Disease', call it whatever; from my time with the RMR it's actually a nice feature to have.

quote:

Originally posted by soggy_spinout:
[F]rom my time with the RMR it's actually a nice feature to have.

Thanks for your observation.
I’m not sure how I would like it. My concern about an auto-adjusting brightness feature is that I set the brightness to different levels for different purposes under the same lighting conditions. I have a Docter with that feature and it’s fine for the use I put that sight to, but there would be times with a primary rifle sight that I’d prefer to have the flexibility to do my own thinking. Perhaps an auto adjust with manual override capability would be best (and much cheaper, I’m sure. )

Yep, the dot or other illumination should be just bright enough to see. Any brighter and it will wash out your target.

From my experience the auto adjust on the RMR is not up to serious use. Tested this a lot. In many low light matches and personal use. The manual ones are the way to go on the LED RMR sights (RMR 06 or 07 for a pistol). In simple conditions the RMR tracks what you need pretty well but it simply falls apart when you have big illumination differences between where you are and the target. Think target illuminated by a light ahead of the gun, or you in dark, target in natural light, etc.