TDC There is just no pleasing you is there, lets try again
870p max,Tritium sights and a drunk midget ninja with a dildo and a bottle of lube hell if that does not scare a perp I give up. A little while ago you swore your batterie powered toys are the only way to go. You almost had me convinced but your flip flopping makes me nervous.
There is no flip flopping. Target identification is an absolute necessity. In low light/no light conditions a modern electric light is required, there is no getting around it. This is where quality gear comes into play. Surefire and streamlight are the names to trust when it comes to weapon mounted lights. They have great track records and quality products. The light Marstar offers for example, is crap. A mag light taped to the end is crap. Would I choose either if I had no choice? You bet! If I had the choice(and I do) I wouldn't touch either one. Any light is better than no light and all lights can and do fail. Some just fail a lot less often. An electronic sight for extreme short range work is overkill that is unnecessary. It also forces one to rely on yet another uncontrolled variable. Your EoTech may last thousands of rounds on the shotgun, it may even have fresh batteries the night you hear a bump. The risk of the system turning off, you not turning it on, the electronics failing, the batteries leaking or being dead, the mount coming loose from either the shotgun itself or the optic's integral mount, are all potentials for failure. There are far to many negatives in running a reddot on an HD shotgun to warrant its necessity. A tritium bead sight or factory tritium ghost rings are more than capable of doing the job and don't have all the negatives to go with. The other upside to running irons. You can take all that money you saved on the reddot and put it into TRAINING!!
As far as using your weapon mounted light and covering everyone and everything you investigate. It is the safest(for YOU) and most effective way of clearing an area. Searching with a handheld while holding the shotgun is a disaster waiting to happen. Opening doors with both hands full is a tough task. What do you do with the light once you've identified an unknown person in your home and noticed he has a gun/knife/baseball bat in his hand? Do you drop the light and attempt to mount the shotgun only to realize you are now searching for the target in the dark? The risk of getting killed or assaulted before deploying your HD gun is very high. The use of a handheld light is much better suited to those who deploy a HD handgun. If that's the route you choose than go with it. From a tactics side, a long gun is superior and preferably a rifle. There are situations where a handgun is the better choice. I say run both and a partner like your wife/spouse with both.
The continued belief that one "could shoot uncle Ed" is nothing more than an excuse for becoming a victim or the response from the untrained. The potential to shoot someone whether it be friend or foe when using a firearm for HD is very high, regardless of whether or not you use a weapon mounted light. This risk is something you must consider PRIOR to deciding on having a HD firearm.
Identifying uncle Ed and deciding not to shoot requires my brain to process who is in the kitchen and determine the individual is not a threat, thus I do not need to do anything(I could effectively keep the shotgun trained on uncle Ed and my finger remains indexed along the receiver). If the person I identify is unknown and armed posing a threat to my life. The time it takes to process that portion of the situation remains the same as with uncle Ed. The difference comes when I decide to act. If I use a weapon mounted light I push the safety off and apply pressure to the trigger while focusing on my front sight. If I'm running a handheld light I must ditch the light(which requires its own set of thoughts) mount the shotgun, safety off, sight align(if you run rifle type or ghost ring sights), sight picture and press the trigger.
Telling my brain "NO!" when I see uncle Ed takes zero physical movement and a very short period of time to execute the command regardless of whether I use a handheld or weapon mounted light. Telling my brain "yes" when running the handheld and then orienting myself and my gear for the shot, consumes precious seconds which you may not have. Not to mention it induces errors in handling thanks to the adrenal dump you just received and the overload of information you are trying to process.
Go about it any way you want folks. Logic tells me one way is far superior to the other. My goal in any encounter is to survive, the rest is gravy.
TDC
