Lessons Learned in Training #1
Have a look at the picture below. Notice anything odd?
The battery tray on this Holosun optic ejected in the middle of a shooting drill
This is not my gun. It belongs to a student. We were nearing the end of a 3-hour class, and in the middle of the last drill, he stopped and complained that he couldn’t see his dot. He then attempted to turn the dot back on, to no avail. So, I took the gun from him and inspected it.
As you can see from the image, the battery tray is completely missing! Luckily, we were on a concrete range and were able to locate the battery tray, battery, and the tiny screw holding it in place. If we had been outdoors on gravel, grass, or dirt, he would’ve been screwed.
I then helped him reassemble the battery tray. Because we were on the last drill, we ended the class there.
Let’s talk about what we can learn from this.
Loctite. Loctite. Loctite. When dealing with optics, we often think about applying thread locker to the mounting plate screws and the screws that connect the optic to the plate. In this case, the side-mounted battery tray is also held in place by a tiny screw. My guess is that as the student continued shooting his gun, that screw slowly backed itself out due to recoil (something that would be easy to miss unless checked regularly) until it finally came all the way out and the battery tray with it. A small dab of blue Loctite on the battery tray screw could’ve prevented this.
On that note, when I was explaining this to the student, he asked, “Will I be able to get the screw back out?” Excellent question. Make sure to use the appropriate type of Loctite for the situation. In this case, Blue Loctite 242 works great and is not permanent. For screws that you plan to never remove, you can use Red Loctite 271. It’s more permanent than the blue stuff; however, it can be removed with a little heat.
Backup iron sights. When the student realized his dot was off, he froze. He simply stopped shooting the drill. This is problematic.
Look at the rear sights on his pistol. They are not tall enough to be usable with an optic. If he was using taller iron sights like these, as soon as he realized he had no dot, he could’ve simply switched to using those and finished the drill. Instead, he panicked and froze.
That freeze response. Thankfully this was just training. The student encountered a problem he didn’t expect or know how to handle and simply gave up.
Now imagine if this was a gunfight instead of training. That’s not going to end well. What’s your plan for when your optic goes down? Are you just going to give up? You can’t call a tactical timeout and rebuild your gun in the middle of the fight. Some knowledge of alternate sighting methods would be extremely valuable in this situation. Take that for what it’s worth.
Backup batteries. When I first reassembled and installed the optic’s battery tray, the optic wouldn’t turn on. A new battery solved that problem. You never know when that battery is going to go bad. Have a spare or two in your range bag, just in case.
Are you running an optic on your carry gun? Do you train with it? Are you familiar with some of the best practices for using a red/green dot sight on a pistol? If the answer is no, get out and take a class with a reputable instructor.
Not sure who to train with? Head over to the contact page and ask away! I’m happy to refer you to any of the various instructors I’ve trained with.