Flashlight With Laser For Pistol

Here were nearly five million new gun owners in 2020. This trend of increased firearms ownership shows no signs of slowing down. People are waking up and taking responsibility for their own safety. Being a new gun owner can be overwhelming. So much to learn and so many choices of accessories, do-dads, gizmos, and shiny gimmicky things to Gucci out your new gat. Even long-time gun owners are uninformed on the proper application and tactical uses of many accessories they already own. For the purpose of this article, I will stick to weapons mounted lights (WML) and lasers. I will also touch on the benefits of a handheld light as well. To be clear, when talking about lasers, I am referring to visible lasers, usually red or green, and NOT IR lasers.

I am personally a huge proponent of using both WML and handheld lights for both concealed carry or everyday carry (EDC) and for home defense over lasers.  Lasers however do provide some tactical advantages if used properly. Before I get into what I use personally, let’s talk about what lights and lasers do and don’t do.

Having a laser and flashlight on your pistol may be the thing to have and it does look highly cool.

Lasers are probably the number one accessory I see used incorrectly. First and foremost, lasers have to be zeroed to a certain distance just like any optic. That means you must choose a set distance to zero the laser to since lasers are straight lines and bullets do not fly in straight lines. I generally recommend zeroing a handgun laser at 10-20 yards. As a general rule of thumb, I highly discourage new shooters from using lasers when learning how to shoot and when shooting on a static range. What I normally see with shooters, is they focus so much on the laser they forget all the 100 other things they are supposed to be doing to accurately fire a handgun. It is impossible to hold an object completely still. You will naturally move or shake when you are aiming, and this is even more evident with a laser.  More often than not people realize this and try to hold the laser exactly over the X on the bullseye, and when they happen to shake just right and the laser crosses over the X, they jerk the trigger trying to get the gun to fire while laser is over the X on the target. This is wrong wrong wrong.

Black Scout Survival is a collaboration of all things tactical and survival, goes over the practicality of mounting a laser or combined laser-flashlight on your pistol for home defense.
So basically what it comes down to is for EDC (Every Day Carry) is not a practical thing, for a home defense it may be an invaluable tool to have.

Before spending time getting a laser, be sure to work on your basic marksman shooting with iron sights. Slapping a laser on it, looks nice but will not make you a better shooter. The advantage with a laser is that it can get you on target quickly.

Home Defense
Having a tactical flashlight is an added convenience so you don’t have to use the “Chapman” method. Placing your finger on the mechanism is all it takes while holding your pistol on target. Lasers has a huge advantage of acquiring targets quickly. Flashlight can help you identify who is in front of you and prevent tragedies before making that choice to use deadly force.

If you keep a pistol handy in your home for emergency situations, consider mounting a tactical flashlight or laser combo.

Video Transcription
What’s up guys? This is BlackScoutSurvival and today we’re gonna talk about home defense lasers, and lasers on pistols for home defense. There’s a couple schools of thought on lasers. People say ‘learn how to shoot, learn how to use your iron sights’, I agree with that, you need to know how to use basic marksmanship if you have any type of firearm anyway. two, they’ll say if the badguy can see you, the guy breaking into your house can see you, You’re right, but you’re already in a firefight by this point in time, and there’s ways to employ this laser, and ways that you shouldn’t employ the laser.

Red dot or laser for ar 15

So if you’re already in a firefight, you’re already in a combative situation, they already know where you are, you know. So you’re already emptying your magazine into ’em. But you know, in the military, guys used those with night vision, you know, the different pec models, you know, it just gives you quick point and shoot-type capabilities. I think in the middle of the night you’re groggy, you just wake up, your dog wakes you up, alarm goes off, your adrenaline spikes, you know someone’s in the house, and you put those well-placed shots coming from a deep REM sleep, you know, it could be problematic. So you’re gonna wanna have every kind of advantage you want.

Red dot sight for home defense

Alright, we’ll talk about flashlight use and that type of stuff later on, today we’re just going to talk about lasers, and we’ll talk a little bit about flashlights. Here we’ve got Glock 19, this is my favorite one, TLR-1, and it just has a light on it, it has on, and then momentary, and then a strobe. Now this is the TLR-4, Which is a– Jay, the man behind the camera, he wanted to get one for his wife, for home defense, and that’s why we went with this TLR-4 here.

So the deal with this one is, this has the light, so you have the light, you have momentary on, and constant on, you can go straight-laser, only laser, momentary on or constant on, or you can switch to those modes you can go constant on with a light and laser, and you can also do that momentary as well. So you’ve got a switch for all those modes, which is pretty cool. So you can employ whichever ones you want.

Low-light conditions, you may want to use the light and stuff like that, momentary on, quick, constant on, whatever. But, pretty cool. Hundred and twenty-five Lumens, which is pretty stout. Takes one CR23 batteries, and I like the capability of being able to switch through the different modes. So anyhow, me and Jay are about to go down to the range, we’re gonna shoot that, and then we’re gonna go down to the clubhouse.

Alright guys, we’re down here at the range, and we’re gonna show how bad this thing shoots. It’s pretty cool, it has constant on, momentary on, it has the red laser and the light, I think it’s gonna be a good option for you guys for home defense type stuff, so let’s go ahead and pop a few rounds off.

Do laser sights improve accuracy

Lights provide huge tactical advantages in a self-defense/home invasion situation. Lights have become extremely compact and ultra-bright. Long gone are the days of carrying a huge 4 D cell battery Mag-Lite. I tend to choose quality American made products over the cheaper “foreign” made ones. You can find decent quality lights that are fairly affordable, just don’t expect the discount products to perform like the premier brands. You cannot shoot what you cannot see. In low-light or no-light situations, a flashlight allows you to see the intended target. The light can also help you identify or confirm/deny there is even a threat. The light can also temporarily disorient or blind an assailant giving you the precious seconds needed to engage and get off the proverbial “X”. In any shooting there will be an investigation and possible criminal charges. Having a light can prove how you were able to positively identify a weapon or threat in the dark.

Now you’ve gotta be very light on the adjustments, because it will go all over the place, so go very light when you’re adjusting it. Eyeball it to a pretty good sight with your iron sights and pop a few rounds, then get it dialed in from there. So anyhow, it screws on, it screws off easy, you just press in that screw and it pops off, and you pop it back on and just screw it back on. So, easy on and off, no special tools required, and I dig it. Hundred twenty-five bucks, I say you’d be hard-pressed to beat that. Use your finger there, constant on it. Anyhow guys, check us out at the link below, you can find this at Optics Planet, the TLR-1, I’ll put links to both of those in the links below, if you like that FDE color, this one will have a laser option, but I like that FDE color, so. I’ll put links in the description for both of those, use BlackScout5 for 5% off your OpticsPlanet discount. Anyhow guys, thanks for watching BlackScout Survival.