Welcome back to another Friday Night Lights. Last week I posted about some hidden night vision related gems at SHOT Show 2023. TFB in the Dark returns with full auto M16s, night vision and other machine gun night vision shoots during SHOT Show. There were four night shoots last week including the TFB staff shoot. Let’s see what people played with in the dark.
Shooting Small Targets Far Away
TFB in the dark started with my friend Jayden bringing out his .300 Norma Magnum PRS rifle. It had his Lahar-30 prototype on it. He designed Aero’s Lahar-30 suppressor. I had him shoot a 9″x12″ pistol target over 1200 yards away in the dark using a PVS-30 to aim and I helped spot him with my LRTV.
I placed this corrugated plastic sheet behind the target to help us find it later on. It would have been nearly impossible to find this in the dark.
Earlier in the day time his friend hit a 1lbs binary target 812 yards away in about 4 shots.
See that bright yellow spark? That is the binary target being hit.
Jayden had something rather rare mounted on his diving board. The FN Elite laser range finder. Here it is next to my Wilcox Raptar S.
The remote pressure pad is rather big compared to the Wilcox tape switch.
Jayden used my Paladin Pinocchio rifle case/shooting mat
Nocturn Industries & Noctum Outdoors NV MG Shoot
The first TFB in the dark event really started with Noctum Outdoors and Nocturn Industries. Night vision and machine guns. Prerequisites for TFB in the dark.
Chase from Noctum enjoying the GPNVGs on a Nocturn Chimera Bridge
GPNVG pods articulated out of the way on the Chimera bridge. The integrally suppressed Scorpion was shot with white light.
Nocturn Industries brought out their night vision and Noctum Outdoors brought their machine guns. They are an FFL07/SOT and they have post samples. One particularly popular post sample was the G36 below. I filmed it with my full spectrum Sony A7S and was surprised by the amount of venting out the handguard.
Jeff of Nocturn using my 416 upper on Noctum’s post-sample lower.
Screenshot of full auto UMP filmed in night vision slow motion.
Night Vision Network Machine Gun Shoot
The second TFB in the dark moment was hosted by Night Vision Network. It was another Noctum/Nocturn event with night vision and machine guns. This event was more for people who are new to night vision so there was a lot of white lite and a fire blazing at Pro Gun Vegas.
Steve, above, got to shoot a seared Glock 17 for the first time. I got to shoot the seared Glock while running my PP-NVGs. Bucket list events for all.
Jeff of Nocturn running his powered Tanto bridge, the Daisho.
Noctum Outdoors was at this MG shoot as well. Here are some videos clips from last week.
TFB In The Dark
Austin shooting my OA-93
It is not often TFB staff gets to hang out all together. We live in different states, some of us in different countries. So it was a great time going out to the desert during SHOT Show 2023 to shoot some machine guns and some other wacky guns like my OA-93 and modified Altor pistol.
Austin brought out a post-sample M-16. If you recall, this is the same M-16 from SHOT Show 2020.
Managing Editor Matt M. showing us how the SAS does it. LOL JK.
Austin also brought out his SPC9 PDW SD. With only two baffles it turns 115gr to subsonic. It was a lot of fun to shoot.
While the M-16 and SPC9 PDW were undoubtedly fun as well as my OA-93, the most fun was having my co-workers shoot the comped modified Altor pistol. The grip was a collaboration between John aka Mr. Snow Makes on Instagram. He printed one in carbon fiber filament for me and I swapped the Altor into it. Then had the TFB crew shoot it. Everyone was disgusted but at the same time wanted to shoot it again.
Here is the video from that night.
When the TFB crew was shooting my OA-93 they experienced a malfunction. Luke was the last to shoot it and the bolt was not closing properly. He handed it back to me and as I was putting it away I checked to see what the problem was. The entire recoil spring was missing. The tube above the barrel is not a gas system. It is the recoil/buffer spring. It is held in place with a small threaded nut. It had launched itself out into the desert! We immediately started looking for it. We used my SureFire M6 with LED upgrade and what other handheld flashlights the TFB crew had on them. I managed to find the spring. But the threaded nut would be impossible.
One of the TFB crew: “What does it look like?
Me: “small and gray like the rocks on the ground.”
Then it was Aidan (Hop) who realized we have thermal with us. So I grabbed my iRay RH25 Rico Micro and started scanning the ground about 20-30 feet from where we were shooting. I noticed a small white hot spot on the ground and proceeded to walk toward it. I had to pull focus to see what it was. When I was directly over it. I used the light and sure enough, it was the missing recoil spring nut! We found it with technology! I am so glad we found that part. Olympic Arms is long since out of business and I do not know if anyone makes replacement parts for the OA-93. I want to use Loctite on the nut but you need to remove it to take apart the OA-93. I will just make sure I bring a thermal device anytime I shoot the OA-93.
We all had a blast and look forward to next year even if it was freezing temperatures and non-stop fun as long as the ammo lasts. If any manufacturers want to torture test their products, TFB In The Dark is one grueling test.
TFB and TFBTV’s coverage of SHOT Show 2023 is proudly sponsored by 5.11 Tactical. Click here to check out their new products.