Shooting At Night: Crimson Trace Midnight 3 Gun

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I've just arrived in Bend, Oregon after driving 1200km from Calgary.

Starting in 2012, the light & laser masters at Crimson Trace have hosted a 3 Gun match in Bend, Oregon. The entire event runs from sun-set to 3 am, which certainly ups the challenge.

This looks like a really cool shoot, and I’m really excited to be participating. There are ten stages in all, done over the course of August 12th to 17th.

I’m really excited for this because it will be my first time shooting alongside world champions. Jerry Miculek, Chris Cheng, Caleb Giddings, and Mike Hughes will all be there, along with a whole host of very skilled guys.

One of the best things about the Crimson Trade Midnight 3-Gun is that it involves a lot of stage guns. Fabrique National makes sure that there are some wild cards there most guys don’t have hands on time with.

I'm talking about the belt-fed machine gun:


I'm talking about the 40mm grenade launcher: (skip to the 1:00 mark)


Plus fun things we don’t normally see in Canada like suppressed pistols, thermal night vision, etc.

I'm going to follow this first post with a rough rundown of what gear I'm bringing and why, and will hopefully have some photos and videos of neat stuff throughout the week. I'll try to keep it all in this thread here.

Most Importantly: Anyone else have some extended hands on time with lasers? Any advice, tips, or tricks? I just got my holster from CTCS supplies, so this will be my first time shooting with a laser outside of the CSC Pistol bays.
 
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The Pistol:

I was really happy with my Jericho 941 compact at the MGM Ironman. But shooting in the dark changes things, and my handgun game is already my weakest component. I’m not keen on hunting for a sight picture in the dark, so I’ve put an old TLR-4 light and laser on there. Sadly my local crimson trace dealer was a little under stocked, but the stream light doesn’t seem any worse for wear after a few months rattling around the gear box.

Since this is 3-Gun not a gun-fight: I can happily turn it on and leave it on for the duration of a stage. But it does substantially enlarge the profile of the Jericho. Suddenly none of my holsters fit: not the IWI, not the Fobus, not the Ghost-holster, even my Tasmanian Tiger soft-cloth unit isn’t quite right.

So I went to the guys at Canadian Tactical Cowboy Supplies and Soley Canadian to throw down a gauntlet. I owe them a huge thanks for being able to turn around a beautifully functional holster in a very short time window. The kydex system from Soley Canadian does exactly what it needs to: holds my weird-ass gun tight enough that I’m not going to DQ myself off the start signal. (knock on wood)

I’ll be drilling the rivets out of my 20 and 30 round stick mags as soon as we cross the border into the US, and my Jericho 941 will be up and running. I haven’t decided yet whether the compensator flash will be an issue, and I likely won’t decide until the night of the match whether to leave it on or swap it out for the standard thread-protector.

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The Shotgun:

Confession time. I’ve never cleaned my Akdal Mka 1919. I put it through the break in, tinkered with the mags to make them run reliably, and sprayed lube inside the beast. That’s it. This gun runs so well I am loathe to change anything. I shudder just at the thought of popping the Razor red dot off and losing my slug-zero. My initial instinct when I was thinking about the Crimson Trace match was “lasers on everything.” But as I look at the stages, and think about trying to put a laser on a clay target, I feel a light and a red dot is a better option for the “close-enough” shotgun.

I’ve busted out a piece of equipment from my very first gun: the barrel clamp light mount. It’s not pretty, but it lets me put a light on the end of the 1919 without needing any picatinny (which would require a firebird precision replacement fore-end) For lights I’m using a Klarus light that I won off ### back in April.

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The Rifle: As if you didn't already know...

Being my perpetual favourite, I opted to bring the Tavor with me rather than borrow a stage gun. I’ve done some big changes here to make it “more 3-Gun” and less combat rifle. I noticed everyone in my squad at the MGM Ironman used Seekins Precision rails on their AR-15s. The wide flat-bottom hand guards locked in tight when it came to stabilizing against barriers. There were definitely 9-hole walls where I was resting the barrel of the Tavor on the obstacle. Not ideal. So I dropped cash on a Midwest Industries XL hand guard, and added a single section of key mod rail to put a light on the fore-end.

The same debate as the pistol: I’m unsure whether to leave the Ares Armor compensator, or put a fancy Surefire 215 Flash Hider on there to keep the fire-balls down. Side by side comparisons of the two reveal a pretty substantial difference in flash, but I’m not certain how much it matters here. For a light on the Tavor I’m using an offset mount as close to the barrel as I can get, with a surefire defender in there to illuminate down-range.

This all sounds good, but of course there’s one major curve ball with the Midnight 3 Gun: Lots of stage guns.

I know I’ll be shooting an FN AR-15 with a thermal sight on top, a suppressed glock, and a PWS piston-gun with a suppressor as well. There’ll be a mossberg 500 and a few other surprises waiting. These aren’t hard guns to shoot, but they’re not my guns, and that’s one more unknown factor. Plus you know . . . the grenade launcher and the select-fire systems. That’s just part of the fun!
 
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Excerpts from my article on The Firearm Blog

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I was lucky enough to attend the Crimson Trace Midnight 3 Gun Invitiational last week in Bend, Oregon. The match takes place over five days, with 10 unique stages that highlight the challenges of shooting at night.

This wasn’t my first 3 Gun match, but it was my first time shooting seriously in the dark, and my first time employing lights and lasers outside a static range.

Best Moments:

The first thing most people want to hear about is the grenade launcher. Their eyes swim while imagining massive fireballs illuminating the night sky. That’s a little over the top, but it is pretty cool for a 40mm virgin.

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No rusty M203 for the Crimson Trace: we were using an FN MK 13 EGLM ambidextrous launcher with chalk rounds to engage a vehicle. You’re barely at the 40 yard line, so this is more novelty than marksmanship, but still plenty of fun. The pull on the launcher is like nothing I’ve ever used before: more christmas cracker than trigger.

Another highlight was Stage 3, which involved an FN AR-15 outfitted with a FLIR Thermosight RS 64. Shooters targeted “heated steel” downrange that was almost invisible in the dark, but glowed hot through the optic. An on-target hit would spark nicely, and a bright green glowstick would swing into view. Its the sort of reactive system that feels good to hit: you get the crack of the rifle, the thwack of your round hitting steel, and a little glowing flag waving back at you.

Being Canadian, I’ve spent some time with night vision, but we don’t get much hands-on time with suppressors or full-auto guns. Stage six, a cooperative effort between Gemtech, PWS, and i2 Technologies was a great close quarters scenario where each shooter would be fitted with dual night vision goggles, then clear the house using a suppressed Glock 17, a suppressed select-fire PWS, and a semi-auto Mossberg.

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Full-auto is fun, but adding a vehicle to the mix really ramps up the excitement. The furthest stage on the range involved a Polaris MRZR 2 vehicle, a M249 SAW, a green laser, and 4 steel silhouettes. In daylight they were woefully close. But at night, with just the vehicle headlights and dazzle from the laser: they were a challenge.

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I’ve attended 3 Shot Shows now: and while I don’t mind media day at the range, there’s generally little more to do with a demo gun other than point it down-range and pull the trigger. The Midnight 3 Gun definitely steps outside the “try this” box and invites shooters to “use this.” You’re given a course of fire, and the clock is ticking.

Lessons Learned:

I came away from the M3GI with a new appreciation for shooting in the dark, and a few key lessons.

Bring lots of lights, but use them sparingly. You need to see what you’re shooting, but in the wee hours of the morning all the smoke, dust, and condensation can really catch that light: forming an obscurant between you and your target. A headlamp is crucial for resetting and getting from one stage to the next, preferably with red-light if you want to be polite and not blind your squad mates.

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Name brands exist for a reason. Immediately following the first stage, after struggling fruitlessly with a plate-rack, I removed my lightweight Chinese red-dot and multi-mode no-name flashlight. I replaced them with the equipment I should have been using from the start: a Vortex Optics Razor 1-6 and a Surefire Defender. I’ve always believed budget accessories can be fine for the range or “great for plinking” with the argument that they’re not being used in a military or survival context.

But when the lights literally went out, the limitations of my low-cost off-shore equipment became painfully apparent.

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In the same vein: a custom holster is worth the cash. My frankenstein’s pistol meant none of my conventional holsters fit, and no major manufacturers were likely to produce something specific to my Jericho 941 & TLR-4. I found Soley Canadian, (available from the awesome guys at CTCS) a kydex-blacksmith who was able build me something on short notice that was specific to my gun. The light & laser are a big part of this match, and having a proper holster meant one less thing to worry about.

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Over-all it was a great experience with some awesome company. Name dropping means different things to different people, but I was pretty excited to watch Daniel Horner and Jerry Miculek shoot, and pleased to meet good natured media folk like Caleb Giddings and Chris Cheng. The M3GI is not your usual 3 Gun event, and that’s part of its charm.

Note: The shooter you see in the animated night vision gif isn’t me. It’s Greg Fiddes, a sponsored shooter with MTG Firearms. He’s much, much faster than me.
 
wicked_police said:
Not going to post any results?
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Sorry, I didn't realize you were so interested. /sarcasm I was out of PC range all weekend.

On practiscore I placed 123 out of 185, which put me well behind the Miculek's of the shooting world. I was surprised to come out ahead of Shelley Rae and Matt from Outdoor Hub, but placed right where I expected behind Caleb Giddings.

The coolest score info for me personally was Stage 6, where Mike Hughes totaled 53.83 seconds. I was right behind him at 54.44 seconds, which feels pretty good.

Surveyor780 said:
This is awesome. I think it's only fair now that you shoot the Peace River team match blindfolded.
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I think that miiight be a little darker than this event was. Maybe tape cotton balls over the shooting glasses? That'd be familiar feeling!
 
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