{"id":1952,"date":"2012-11-09T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hammerheadcombatsystems.org\/?p=1952"},"modified":"2012-11-09T07:00:01","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T13:00:01","slug":"casting-shadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2012\/11\/09\/casting-shadows\/","title":{"rendered":"Casting Shadows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rifle Combat Lights \u2013 Shadowing Comparison of Mount Locations<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

by<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mark E.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I recently switched up a weapon light, for an AK-47 of mine. In the process, I observed\u00a0some issues with shadowing. In particular, I did not like the shadows cast by the\u00a0barrel\/muzzle or the front sight assembly. These observations should apply to any rifle\u00a0with a large or fixed front sight assembly. Let\u2019s keep it simple by assuming that this\u00a0would apply to an AR-15 or an AK variant.
\nI won\u2019t get us bogged down on the pros and cons of whether you should even have a\u00a0weapon light in the first place, but will state that a weapon light it is certainly worthy of\u00a0consideration. My position currently is that the civilian operator should have at least one\u00a0rifle with a decent light, for \u201csocial problems.\u201d\u00a0Many more experienced folks have studied what weapon lights can do in regards to\u00a0becoming \u201cbullet magnets\u201d, in the course of battle or any related engagement in a dark\u00a0environment. Note that I said “dark environment”, and not simply \u201cat night.\u201d If you\u2019re in\u00a0a large urban area where the power is out, or where abandon buildings exist, some\u00a0buildings can get really dark, even during daylight hours. I\u2019ve seen it first hand while\u00a0walking in new buildings before they are wired up for power\/lighting.\u00a0Now, back to the shadowing. The shadowing effect is most apparent in the close quarters\u00a0environment – urban or otherwise – when you are in or near buildings, fences, vehicles,\u00a0near semi\/tractor trailers and the like. Keep in mind, that the lighter colored the surface,\u00a0the more obvious the shadowing is.\u00a0My photos were taken up close inside a house with lighter colored paint. \u00a0Now on to the\u00a0BEFORE and AFTER.<\/p>\n

BEFORE: \u00a0 9 o’clock mount<\/em><\/p>\n

NOTES:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>\u2022 In the first graphic below, I used a typical 100+ lumen combat light (not the 250-\u00a0500 lumen monsters of current tac-light fame).
\n\u2022 My old light was attached to a Ultimak\u00a0Rail, by way of an offset KZ mount
\nwith a 1\u201d diameter clamp ring.
\n\u2022 I had the mount clamped on the forward-most slot available on the Ultimak rail; And the light itself was pushed as far forward in the 1\u201d ring as possible.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Observations:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Both the FLASH HIDER and the FRONT SIGHT shapes were cast in the\u00a0shadowing. I did NOT like this in the least. See bottom, right of photo.<\/p>\n

\u2022 There was the SIZE of darn shadow. It was ridiculous even at a short distance. It\u00a0was much worse further away from the wall.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The glare cast on my front sight was a distraction whether I was looking through\u00a0the iron sights, or using a red dot sight.<\/p>\n

\u2022 My son, who snapped the pictures, said \u201chey, that looks like some sort of the\u00a0tower on a castle!\u201d If only I HAD a castle\u2026then I would not care what shadows I\u00a0cast. I would be figuring out what to stock the moat with (insert long\u00a0\u201cMwuuuuhaaaaahahahaha\u201d sounds with evil grin here).<\/p>\n

AFTER: \u00a06 o’clock mount<\/em><\/p>\n

NOTES:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 I wanted to use an existing Streamlight TLR-1, which is smaller and lighter.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Also, not wanting to add a new quad-rail or other rail system, that would look or\u00a0fit oddly with the Ultimak already over the gas tube, I chose to try a clamp-on\u00a0mount.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Yes, I know UTG is not a top-quality choice, but I wanted to test it out before I\u00a0went with a higher-quality version. It fits perfectly just behind the gas block and\u00a0the front of the lower hand guard. One thing to watch out for is the UTG single\u00a0rail version will not allow the cleaning rod to be used at all. The tri-rail version I\u00a0used, caused some major interference with the cleaning rod. The tri-rail has to be\u00a0filed down a little otherwise the cleaning rod will fit, but required pliers to remove\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Observations:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 The shadow was smaller<\/p>\n

\u2022 It was located at 12 o\u2019clock<\/p>\n

\u2022 The glare on my front sight was gone<\/p>\n

\u2022 The shadow looked a bit like a pointer-finger from the heavens.<\/p>\n

I kind of like this.\u00a0If you want NO SHADOW: Mount the light as close to the muzzle as possible. But this\u00a0may create other issues of rifle balance, or if you use a breaching flash-hider, would\u00a0expose the light to impact force.\u00a0Why would you even care about the shadowing size or pattern?\u00a0If your front sight assembly casts a large shadow at 3 o-clock (or 9\u2019clock shadow, in the\u00a0case of a 3 o\u2019clock mount), might you be MISSING information about what is on front of\u00a0you? This could very well be, especially if you are flicking on your light for a short time.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an interesting possibility\u2026could a 12 o\u2019clock shadow actually help you in\u00a0targeting, before you get your eyes on the red dot or optic\u2019s reticle? If your subject\u00a0matter is in front of a fence or wall (i.e. not using cover or is injured or just plain stupid),\u00a0could you use the 12 o\u2019clock shadow as a pointer? Maybe, but this effect is negated out\u00a0in the open.\u00a0Let\u2019s not forget something that may be obvious: your eyes should be on the target or\u00a0area of importance, NOT on the shadows, whether you are looking through a rifle optic\u00a0or not. Just be AWARE of the dark spots in your field of view. When you train in the\u00a0dark, make some mental notes as to whether an adjustment is necessary for your set-up.\u00a0Go try out different mount locations while in your garage, long hallways, alley ways, and\u00a0other areas as your home\/apartment\/neighborhood dictates. Just don\u2019t scare the\u00a0neighbors and try this on the outside of your garage door, unless you want some red and\u00a0blue lights showing up casting shadows of a different sort.<\/p>\n

My closing thoughts are this:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1. Mounting a light at 6 o\u2019-clock will eliminate the left and right shadows found with\u00a0offset mount locations (i.e. 3 or 6 o\u2019clock mounts)<\/p>\n

2. Getting the light as far forward as possible may help you.<\/p>\n

3. If you had an astute adversary, what could they discern from seeing a flash-\u00a0hider\u00a0shadow pattern? If the adversary observed the AK front sight, what would that\u00a0tell them? Would it matter?\u00a0To me, the operative standard is to not broadcast what force you are bringing to the fight.\u00a0I.e. \u201ctoo much information\u201d (or \u201cTMI\u201d) is not helpful to most people. I encourage you to\u00a0take notice of your weapon light and what shadow is cast.<\/p>\n

Light up the Night and Stay Dangerous!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rifle Combat Lights \u2013 Shadowing Comparison of Mount Locations by Mark E. I recently switched up a weapon light, for an AK-47 of mine. In the process, I observed\u00a0some issues with shadowing. In particular, I did not like the shadows cast by the\u00a0barrel\/muzzle or the front sight assembly. These observations should apply to any rifle\u00a0with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[148,17,10],"tags":[427,428,429,430,431],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}