Gearing Up For The Day-Night-Day Match: Luke’s Gear

I’ve been shooting competitively in this area for 4ish years, and finally the stars have aligned, and I’m going to be able to shoot the Day-Night-Day match at The Range in Oxford, NC.

This match consists of 3 IDPA matches: the first match shot Saturday afternoon, the second after dark Saturday night, and the third Sunday morning. Info at The-Range.com

Flashlight:

The night portion of the match is the reason that I’m so excited about shooting it, so I’ve been going through my gear to make sure I’m setup. I figured this was a good time to shoot with a handheld light instead of a weapon mounted light since I don’t carry concealed with a WML. I went looking for my bright handheld flashlight, and quickly realized that I don’t currently own one.

I carry a 5.11 ATAC PLx flashlight every day, but at only 60ish lumens, it’s not as bright as I would like for the match.

After doing some research I decided to pick up a Streamlight ProTac HL which is a 600 lumen flashlight. The feature that made me want to try out the ProTac HL is the system Streamlight has developed for changing, and storing the different output modes in the light. It’s called the “ten-tap” system, and basically you hit the tailcap button 9 times, and them hold the button in the mode that you want to set, and the flashlight will remember the mode until you change it. I like single mode lights, because the thought of pulling the light from my pocket and having it not be in the mode I wanted it to be in scares me, and would really suck in a competitive or real life situation.

Because I’m a procrastinator, I didn’t start gearing up for this match until late last week, and ordering a light online would be questionable on it arriving in time for the match on the 14th. No fear, Casey at Carolina Gunrunners assured me he could get one in time, and I went ahead and placed the order with them. It arrived today, and holy crap is it bright! It programmed easily, and I’m pretty happy with it. Stay tuned for a full review later on.

Warmth:

The weather report for this weekend is looking like it will be cold and wet (highs in the mid 40’s, and 100% chance of rain). I’m packing some waterproof boots, wool socks, and long underwear in case it gets really cold.

Wool socks are awesome, and if you don’t own any, get some. Wool retains something like 80% of it’s insulating properties even when it’s soaking wet which makes them awesome for this kind of event, especially if your shoes aren’t totally waterproof.

Gun and Gun Gear:

After going through my safe, I realized that I don’t currently own a pistol with night sights. Hard to believe, but that’s the current state of things. My M&P Pro 9mm is wearing a fiber optic front sight that probably has the best chance of picking up some ambient light at the match on stages where I can’t use my flashlight.

I’ll be running my standard Comp-tac magazine pouches, and a slightly modified G-Code OWB holster for my M&P.

Other Junk:

I’m thinking I’ll bring my rusty trusty Coleman Peak1 stove that’s been all over the country with me for the past 15+ years, a pot, some water, and some instant coffee, because, why not? Hot drinks are a great way to warm up, and I’m a huge coffee fan…

Prep Work:

I’m a little late to the game with my dry-fire, but I spent some time practicing with the pistol and light today, and I feel like I have that pretty much figured out, but Thursday and Friday I need to figure out how I’m going to work reloads with a pistol in my hand, and what my draws are going to look like. I definitely have some dry-fire work to do. More on that later.

Stay tuned for the rest of the week with some more thoughts on this…