Crimson Trace Midnight 3-Gun Invitational: The Stage is Set

In about 13 days I’ll once again be hopping a plane, this time bound for Oregon. Crimson Trace is holding an invitational 3-gun competition out there, one with a rather big twist — the shooting starts after the sun goes down. The range will be completely pitch black, with the exception of whatever lights and lasers you bring with you. And for some reason, I’ve been handed an invite to participate. I’ve spent the last two months preparing for whatever they might throw at me since the stages had yet to be announced, but recently the site has been updated with the final round counts and stage descriptions. And let me just say that it blows the lid off the FNH Nationals from last year…

Let me just list the stage guns real quick — the ones they provide with free ammo:

• FN SCAR-L Full Auto
• Glock of some sort
• M4 with Night Vision and IR laser
• MG (looks like M249) with FLIR thermal sight

In short its shaping up to be pure awesome. I mean, what could possibly be better than machine guns and laser sights in the pitch black?

The reasons behind the competition are pretty obvious — Crimson Trace makes lasers and such and wants to show off their gear, and there’s no better way to do that than to have a bunch of people field test the gear under some pretty demanding circumstances. There’s even an incentive to use CT’s gear: The purse is significantly larger for the champion if they use at least one CT item on each firearm.

Since I received the invite (from Iain Harrison himself, no less) I’ve been practicing up. I’ve switched from my standard competition AR-15 to my .300 BLK AR-15 with silencer, hoping the more flash suppression I can get the less my night vision will be affected. I’ve even had a midnight shooting session over at the Kee ranch, killing steel from 100 yards away with nothing but the stars and my flashlight leading the way. And while I still haven’t figured out a proper flashlight solution for my shotgun, I’m hopeful that I’ll come up with something shortly.

Naturally I’ll be taking pictures and video of the whole thing for your enjoyment. Rumor has it we’ll also be visiting some kick-ass firearms factories in the area. And if you wanted to check out the stage descriptions, they’re online here. Stay tuned.