TNVC recently ran our first Nightfighter 101 class  of the year at our “home” range in Alliance, Ohio  on April 24-25.  This is a staple location in our training from the very beginning, and it really ends up being like old home week when we are there.  This was a sold-out class, and we really enjoyed having that many students again.  The class had a healthy mix of law enforcement and civilians in the class and the class went extremely well.



The weather was, well, Alliance weather.  Of course, we got wet, but not too bad and only on night one.  Otherwise, it was a little on the chilly side, but nothing unbearable.  We also had nearly 100% illumination for the weekend, which is both a good and bad thing for working in low and no light conditions.

We saw a wide spread of night vision devices in this class.  Everything from PVS14s to white phosphor DTNVSs.  No student complained of being under-equipped; we had one interesting DTNVG made by another company (student didn’t know who made it and I won’t speculate) that had a really bad tube in the left pod.  The student did not know much about that goggle, and we had collectively never seen the issue before—the pod seemed to have a permanent scope shadow and a real loss of viable image around the whole tube.  It was a weird occurrence, and we recommended sending it back for repair.



Gear wise, this was a “loud” class—more than half the class ran with our suppressors, which is not a big deal.  They are a nice tool for students to have, and it is fun to kinda see what students are running in the class.  Optics ran the spectrum of both type and height, with their associated results.  Again, high mounts rule the day for night vision passive shooting.  



We also saw a lot of handguns without both optics and light mounts/lights.  Our recommended and preferred setup for a handgun is a red dot on top and a light on the bottom; in a duty holster.



We encourage our students to bring what gear they have—learn to use what you have on hand, and then you can make informed purchases after the class.  The only gear we strongly encourage purchasing prior to a class is a high mount for your carbine optic and a red dot on your handgun.

Nightfighter 101 remains a fun and consistent class for us to teach.  We really enjoy our students in this class, and we saw everything from novice users to repeat students in this class.  



Our schedule remains busy and full this year.  There are still seats open in many of our classes for later this year.  We head to Montana in just under a month for an epic weekend that will have us teaching both Nightfighter 101 and Armed Professional.  It will be a blast!

We are proud to be associated with the Alliance Police training facility, and we cannot say enough good things about the work Joe Weyer does to help us have great classes.  If you have the chance to train there, you should really take advantage of it.  Great location, amazing training opportunities and some super trainers train there.



Additionally, several companies generously stepped up to offer students swag and such for their attendance.  We really appreciate their generosity and are proud to have them associated with our classes.

Rite in the Rain
Ops-Core
Unity Tactical
Thyrm
Geissele Automatics
Otte Gear
Phokus Research Group
Blue Force Gear

For NF101, we keep it within 75m or so.  Conditions dependent.

You can zero at your preferred distance.  50 yards will be just fine.

As for mounting the optic, you can put it in your "normal" spot and it should be okay.  Slightly forward on the upper receiver will help for sure.