TargetTalk

I have 2 places at home now to shoot but with different lighting situations. In my garage where I only have 28', there are windows behind me, a 3' florescent light directly overhead and in addition to bare bulb overhead in the middle and a 3 watt/30 watt equivalent clip on light aimed directly at the target. I have just gotten back to shooting after a long break but I have no issue keeping my shots "in the black".
Inside my home I have a hallway that allows the full ten meters but there is less illumination overhead of me (and less light falling on front sight, a fairly darkish hallway and the same led light clipped on above and pointed at the target. When I lower past the target and into my aiming area it seems like the led light that's pointed at the target is aimed directly into my eyes. My front sight is more of a silhouette rather than something I'm looking at. I can't really "focus" on it and my shots are going everywhere but into the black rings. Obviously a 3 watt led bulb aimed in the opposite direction is not that bright 33' away. Could it be the lower light overhead causing my iris to open up,...which makes the target too bright? The hallway lighting is probably not all that different than in my garage.
I'd appreciate some informed info on this.
Thanks,

Todd

Your pupil responds to the total ambient light, including peripheral light, not just how bright the target is. It's almost certain to be the lighting at your firing location, but the dark hallway could also be causing you problems. The ISSF specs only deal with target light levels & illumination the firing line, but the assumption is that you are in a large range, and there's lots of light around from adjacent targets & the like.

The students I coach have problems with the electronic targets we use for matches. The internal illumination is much brighter than we can achieve on our practice range with paper targets. The firing line illumination with the electronic targets is also a bit better. It used to be that the firing line illumination was really poor, and shooting at the bright targets was almost painful. Installing better lighting at the firing line made the targets much easier to deal with.

When I shoot at home, I keep on all the lights in the two rooms I shoot through. Gwhite is right about getting as much ambient right into your eyes. As for illuminating the target itself, I post a pair of these:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07 ... =UTF8&th=1
About a foot from the target face itself.

"Aziz! Light!"

Any rule against wearing a headlamp to provide more light?

I've shot at some ranges where I've definitely wondered about that option. I think you actually want two lights, a bright one to shine on your sights, and a dimmer one to shine on your eyes to control your pupil size. You can also use an adjustable aperture to get the same effect, so it's mostly about having enough light to see your sights.

Gwhite wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 8:56 pm I've shot at some ranges where I've definitely wondered about that option. I think you actually want two lights, a bright one to shine on your sights, and a dimmer one to shine on your eyes to control your pupil size. You can also use an adjustable aperture to get the same effect, so it's mostly about having enough light to see your sights.

I'm looking forward to some opinions on this. I shoot in my garage and have several fluorescent lights illuminated along with an LED work light mounted to provide direct light on the target. However, the fluorescent lights do not provide enough light to see the "gip" (small white spot) on my front sight. I've thought about a headlamp, but hesitate to practice with something I cannot use in a match.

Dennis, aka Dulcmrman

Your best bet is to try to match the ambient firing line lighting at your match locations. The ISSF has recommendations for light levels, but there's quite a bit of variation.

If you really want to get scientific about it, I use one of these to set up & check the lighting at our range:

https://www.amazon.com/URCERI-Illuminan ... B075DC6X25

I've checked it against a much more expensive model, and it's quite accurate.

The two things you are really interested in are the light levels at your eyes, and on your sights. The ISSF just gives the level at the firing line, assuming it's fairly even & uniform. It's a LOT of light to produce over a large area, but you can duplicate it in the critical areas with LED spot lights.