-Is your WML powerful enough for your weapon’s intended use? “Too bright” is better than “too dim”. Some students had a hard time seeing steel targets painted red, yellow, blue, and green at even 80 yards. Some could see the red and yellow steel, but the darker blue and green targets faded into the background. If you weapon is intended for home defense only, then you can get away with a lower lumens light. If it’s set up as a general purpose carbine for residential, urban, and all-around outdoor use, you’re going to need something with some power to it.
-LED vs incandescent. LED does not work as well during smoke, fog, etc., as incandescent does. This even includes the smoke from your muzzle on a cold, wet night. That light bit of smoke is enough to cause issues with target engagement when your LED light won’t cut through the fog/smoke and instead lights it up. It’s like trying to look through glare. LED has advantages of being more durable, brighter, and increased battery life.
-Muzzle devices: Flash suppressor/hider vs compensator/brake. Figure out what you want to use the rifle for. If it’s a competition piece or range toy, then by all means get a comp or brake. If it’s a serious use carbine that will be used without a can on it, get a flash suppressor/hide. The more effective the brake/comp is at reducing recoil/muzzle rise, the louder it is, and the brighter the flash at night. Unless you're shooting something like a .300WinMag or .338 Lapua Magnum, use a flash hider for real-use guns. In my opinion, over years of observation, the 3-prong types work best at defeating flash. Smith Enterprise Vortex, AAC Blackout, SiCo ASR, etc., all work very well.
-Choose the right ammo for the task. If you have ammo that you keep in your carbine for “real” use, pick something other than M193 or M855 ball. There are plenty of great 5.56 loads with bullets that have terminal ballistics that are great improvements over FMJ’s. Additionally, many of these loads have less muzzle flash than ball ammo. The Hornady TAP line is one. In front of the students, I fired several loads out of my 16” carbine with a SiCo ASR flash hider. The control load was Federal M193. Honestly, with the ASR, the flash from M193 was not very bad at all. If the load performed better terminally, the flash signature wouldn’t keep me from using it. However, the other three loads I shot have better terminal ballistics and less flash; Hornady TAP 70grn GMX 5.56, Georgia Arms 60grn VMAX (a copy of a Hornady TAP load), and MagTech 77grn (a copy of the Mk 262 load that I’ve found to be more accurate than the Black Hills load in my rifles and carbine.....and much cheaper and easier to find).
-Can you work your carbine by feel only? Load, unload, clear a malfunction, assess weapon status? At night you may not be able to see what you or your weapon are doing. If I’m not under fire, and I’m reloading or performing an initial load, I’ll feel the top of the magazine and see which side the top round is on. After chambering a round, I can remove the mag and see if the top round has switched sides.......if it has, then I’ve got a round chambered. With a fingertip, do you know how to check at the front of the ejection port to see if your bolt is in battery in an AR? If you have a malfunction, can you clear it by feel?
Can you find and access all your gear by feel, especially your mags? Is your belt/vest/carrier set up in such a way that it is easy to access what you need by feel? Do you have too much excess kit, or too many things that feel similar? Items like magazines need to be your more important items and need to be positioned for ease and quickness of access.
-When you’re engaging at close to medium distances, and you have a solid RDS and a good, bright light, accept no loss of accuracy over your daytime results. There is no reason that you shouldn’t be able to make equally accurate hits under those conditions. If it’s kicking your ass, you’re probably not comfortable with it, so plenty of practice should be in your future.
-There were numerous techniques that students mentioned they were not comfortable with. Engaging from the support shoulder, in order to better use support-side cover, was one of the common issues. Good thing about techniques like this is that they can be worked on at home during dry-fire training. The more you shoulder it on the support shoulder, the more comfortable it will become. I don’t expect anyone to feel as good from the support shoulder as they do from the strong shoulder, but they should feel good enough to be competent.
-LED vs incandescent. LED does not work as well during smoke, fog, etc., as incandescent does. This even includes the smoke from your muzzle on a cold, wet night. That light bit of smoke is enough to cause issues with target engagement when your LED light won’t cut through the fog/smoke and instead lights it up. It’s like trying to look through glare. LED has advantages of being more durable, brighter, and increased battery life.
-Muzzle devices: Flash suppressor/hider vs compensator/brake. Figure out what you want to use the rifle for. If it’s a competition piece or range toy, then by all means get a comp or brake. If it’s a serious use carbine that will be used without a can on it, get a flash suppressor/hide. The more effective the brake/comp is at reducing recoil/muzzle rise, the louder it is, and the brighter the flash at night. Unless you're shooting something like a .300WinMag or .338 Lapua Magnum, use a flash hider for real-use guns. In my opinion, over years of observation, the 3-prong types work best at defeating flash. Smith Enterprise Vortex, AAC Blackout, SiCo ASR, etc., all work very well.
-Choose the right ammo for the task. If you have ammo that you keep in your carbine for “real” use, pick something other than M193 or M855 ball. There are plenty of great 5.56 loads with bullets that have terminal ballistics that are great improvements over FMJ’s. Additionally, many of these loads have less muzzle flash than ball ammo. The Hornady TAP line is one. In front of the students, I fired several loads out of my 16” carbine with a SiCo ASR flash hider. The control load was Federal M193. Honestly, with the ASR, the flash from M193 was not very bad at all. If the load performed better terminally, the flash signature wouldn’t keep me from using it. However, the other three loads I shot have better terminal ballistics and less flash; Hornady TAP 70grn GMX 5.56, Georgia Arms 60grn VMAX (a copy of a Hornady TAP load), and MagTech 77grn (a copy of the Mk 262 load that I’ve found to be more accurate than the Black Hills load in my rifles and carbine.....and much cheaper and easier to find).
-Can you work your carbine by feel only? Load, unload, clear a malfunction, assess weapon status? At night you may not be able to see what you or your weapon are doing. If I’m not under fire, and I’m reloading or performing an initial load, I’ll feel the top of the magazine and see which side the top round is on. After chambering a round, I can remove the mag and see if the top round has switched sides.......if it has, then I’ve got a round chambered. With a fingertip, do you know how to check at the front of the ejection port to see if your bolt is in battery in an AR? If you have a malfunction, can you clear it by feel?
Can you find and access all your gear by feel, especially your mags? Is your belt/vest/carrier set up in such a way that it is easy to access what you need by feel? Do you have too much excess kit, or too many things that feel similar? Items like magazines need to be your more important items and need to be positioned for ease and quickness of access.
-When you’re engaging at close to medium distances, and you have a solid RDS and a good, bright light, accept no loss of accuracy over your daytime results. There is no reason that you shouldn’t be able to make equally accurate hits under those conditions. If it’s kicking your ass, you’re probably not comfortable with it, so plenty of practice should be in your future.
-There were numerous techniques that students mentioned they were not comfortable with. Engaging from the support shoulder, in order to better use support-side cover, was one of the common issues. Good thing about techniques like this is that they can be worked on at home during dry-fire training. The more you shoulder it on the support shoulder, the more comfortable it will become. I don’t expect anyone to feel as good from the support shoulder as they do from the strong shoulder, but they should feel good enough to be competent.
