The main thing to establish when using a flashlight in conjunction with a firearm is rough coaxiality between the axis of the weapon's bore and the light beam. You don't need exactness in the axis between the light beam and the bore, since the target will even be illuminated with residual light. This in turn will allow you to see your sights superimposed on the adversary. If your light beam is adjustable, set it on a focused beam (not a wide-angle-spread, diffused beam). Once you've set the proper hold on the light and have the light and weapon roughly aligned, you may begin moving and searching.
Initially your light will be off. You will only turn it on to scan an area that you simply cannot see clearly enough with the ambient light. Do not stroll through the combat zone with your light beam on as you search. Remember that a beam of light tells anyone who is interested where you are. All your adversary needs to do is to shoot toward the light. Move tactically, just as you would normally move during standard light conditions. Use stealth as much as possible. When you reach an obstacle that you cannot clearly see, bring your weapon up, light the area, look for hostiles, shoot them if necessary, turn the light off, and move carefully to another spot. Do not track the light along the deck from your position to the danger area and back. Wait until your weapon is oriented on the danger area before turning the light on.
The Harries flashlight ready and firing position is the best method for integrating pistol and light. It is both stress- and recoil-resistant.
If you are illuminating the apex of a corner as you clear it, you must light from the bottom corner of the apex wall upward. If you keep your weapon up all the time, you might miss an important target indicator near the floor, such as the toe of a shoe or even an adversary lying prone.
If you are scanning a large room or a room from a doorway before entering the room, you have the option of scanning with the light along a horizontal axis-in essence, sweeping the room with light. Once one sweep is executed, move carefully to another position and repeat the process. The main difference between the corner and the doorway (and even the T-intersection) is that with a single corner you have one potential danger area, whereas with a room or hallway intersection you have many. That is why you must sweep the area instead of focusing the beam on a specific danger area. The same goes for stairways.
If you encounter a hostile, keep the light on him-preferably on his eyes so that his vision and reactions will be impaired. Obviously, if he is armed and you are out in the open without cover, you'd shoot him. If you do not need to shoot him, then you must place him in a situation that gives you reasonable control over his movements. Order him to keep his hands up, get flat on his stomach on the floor, etc. At such times, keep the light directly on him. If you allow your light to go off, and he decides to attack you at that moment, you will not see him do ii until it is too late.
If the hostile turns out to be an innocent party, shining your light in his eyes will conceal your gun pointed at him. If neees sary, you can even keep the light pointed toward his face while you reholster. He will never know you had him "covered."
Realize that the instant your light goes on two things will happen. One is that your "night vision" will diminish. If you "light-scan-turn off-and-move," your eyesight will not have adjusted to the change in light enough to be able to see very well in the dark environment. One technique that I've tried with varying degrees of success is to close my shooting eye whenever I turn the light on. You are scanning for hostiles, not shooting. You can scan just as easily with your other eye as you can with your master shooting eye. This way, when the light goes off, your shooting eye will still have some degree of night-vision capabilities. If you encounter a threat while scanning, it is a simple matter to open the other eye as the pistol intercedes the line of sight and you reflexively look for the front sight. In any case, at that point, shooting your adversary will supersede the preservation of night vision.
The second thing that will happen when you illuminate an area is that anyone hidden within that search area will be instantly advised of your presence, thus eliminating the element of surprise! That man hiding in the room or around that corner may choose that very time to attack. You must be ready to shoot whenever your light is on. Remember the issues of cover and concealment. If you can scan an area from behind cover, then do so. If your adversary thrusts his weapon blindly around the corner or around whatever he is hiding behind to shoot you, beat him to the punch and shoot right through his cover.
Searching alone in the dark is more dangerous than searching alone in a lighted environment. Darkness really demands reinforcements. If you are fortunate enough to have your partner (or partners) with you, the problem is eased considerably. Your partner may light up an area from cover and keep his light on. A hostile hidden in the danger area will either attack immediately or hold his position in hopes of going undetected. If he attacks, you and your partner will shoot him. If he holds his position, he will probably do so as long as the light is on him. While the light is on him, he will be unable to see anything except the light. In this situation, you may approach under and outside the light beam and clear that position without being seen.
What about gun-handling problems? Do they change at all when the lights go out? Reactive gun-handling manipulations, such as emergency reloads and malfunction clearances, depend on the operator's ability to diagnose the specific problem with his weapon. There has been some discussion in tactical training circles that you should simply execute a tap-rack-flip as a conditioned reflex anytime your pistol fails to function. One well-published trainer suggests simply reloading the pistol anytime you experience a malfunction. Such simplistic approaches are certainly attractive to disciples of the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) school. The only problem, however, is that weapon stoppages (empty-pistol slide locked back included) must be cleared by specific means. You cannot "fix" an empty pistol with a tap-rackflip. Neither can you clear a feedway stoppage with a reloading procedure. To do so often exacerbates the problem, creating a worse stoppage than you had initially.
This is why the symptom-solution approach to malfunction clearances works best, regardless of lighting conditions. The problem of low light, however, may complicate the determina tion of what condition your weapon is in if it does not fire. If there is enough ambient light for you to determine the need to fire (without artificial means such as a flashlight), then you will also be able to visually determine the status of your weapon. If it is so dark that you cannot see your weapon in front of your face, then your adversary will not be able to see you either. You can use the darkness to your advantage… and concealment. The need to fire in a low-light environment will probably be determined because you have illuminated a "threat." Your illumination will also reveal the condition of your weapon. If you experience a malfunction under such circumstances, the best course of action is to extinguish the light, move to an alternative position immediately, and clear the malfunction in the darkness. If you cannot see the adversary, he cannot see you. You can use the darkness as concealment while you determine the status of your pistol by feel and get it back into action.
To clear a malfunction in low light, secure the light under your firing-side arm (lens to the rear), fix the problem, and then retrieve the light.