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Silent Professional wrote:Laser won't help you I.D. the potential threat. Neither will those sexy, glow in the dark night sights. Only a white light flashlight or weapon mounted light will do that. Unless you like shooting things that you have not positively I.D.'ed.

I'm not a huge fan of lasers, not because they don't work for some people, but rather because I find the dot and my own hand tremors to be an aiming distraction. My hands don't shake any more than anybody else's, but everybody's shake a little bit. That shaking causes the dot to dance around a bit, and I find that this movement of the dot is a distraction which affects my shooting negatively.

I am, however, a proponent of the poorly named "night sights," which would be more more aptly called "low-light sights." I don't believe in shooting at that which you cannot see, and my pistol gets a tactical light with an available strobe setting mounted to it before I set it on the nightstand for the night. But it is not hard to imagine a scenario in light low enough in which a set of tritium sights would make it easier to pick up a good sight picture, even though you might still be able to clearly see your target: ie dimly-lit parking structure, dawn, dusk, transitioning from a brightly-lit room into low light, etc., etc.

I can think of a dozen restaurants near me whose outdoor parking lots are brightly enough illuminated at night to clearly see an assailant, but dim enough that these 60 year old eyeballs would benefit from having tritium sights. So yeah, you're absolutely correct that night sights won't help you identify a target, but they can absolutely help you to acquire a proper sight picture in less than ideal conditions, so you shouldn't be quite so dismissive of them.

I don't carry my weapon light with me when I'm out and about for the simple reasons that if won't fit in my holster,and it takes too long to mount to be useful in most SD scenarios outside the home. The small 360 lumen pocket flashlight with strobe that I carry would be far more useful. Also, the night sights on my EDC pistol have a large red phosphorescent ring around the front tritium insert, and the rear tritium inserts are mounted in a flat black serrated surface like a target sight so that you don't really see them in bright daylight. In sunlight, that red phosphorescent ring on the front sight glows almost as brightly as one of those fiber optic inserts, and as transition into lower light, it continues to glow for a while until it dims and the tritium takes over. Head and shoulders the best sights on any of my handguns.

With regard to equipping a HD shotgun with an aiming accessory, absolutely go with a weapon light over a laser aiming device. It will prove to be far more useful, not to mention providing you with a tactical advantage if it has a strobe included.

carlson1 wrote:Moby this is a little pricey, but I have been using the Surefire for at least 10 years on my 870. Works terrific and not at all hard to install.

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Roger that. Got one on each of my shotguns. And no, I do not shoot hogs with my shotguns.

If you smoke, the BG will see the laser beam. Otherwise, save your dough as the BG will NOT be able to see your laser beam unless the BG is smoking a cigarette as he is invading your home, which is unlikely.

P.S. if you want to save some young stupid kid's life, then buy the Kel-Tec dual toggled magazine shotgun and fill one mag with tazer shells (available to LEO, that's you). Fill the other side with lethal shot. I would get one if Tazer sells to civilians, too.

Moby wrote:?..
But the question is...can you really SEE the laser beam or just the dot?
Forgive me if the question seems stupid. I just don't know.

Yes, you can see the laser's beam on my Viridian C5L green laser, regardless of the nay-sayers who haven't tried it, apparently. There's enough particulate stuff floating in most homes to allow the laser to hit enough to illuminate (not like they show on Tv, but enough to see in a dim/darkened room) where the beam is aimed, at least in my house (and we've got the HEPA filters, etc) and a friend's house.

But, I also think that a white target light would be an advantage on a HD shotgun, as well, and the C5L provides me that as well. I've got one on my EDC/night box pistol, and will most likely put one on the HD shotgun after I decide to quit procrastinating and get one.

Added 9/16/2013 - Mossberg 500 combo outfit (with both a 16.5" and a 26.5" barrel added to the lineup . guess I need to add that white light, soon.