Classes with night shooting components are few and far-between, which is due to range restrictions more than anything else. Many ranges are not allowed to operate after a certain time due to local noise ordinances, or out of consideration for the neighbors if the range isn’t out in the middle of nowhere. The training group I work with can run about 2 courses with night components per summer without pissing off the neighbors. When it comes to night components we have to choose our training sparingly, so we run one in-house course, and host one national level instructor (in addition normal daytime-only courses). Training done on inside ranges is great because you can do lowlight in the middle of the day, but shooting rifles inside without suppressors is terrible in so many ways, which is why it’s uncommon to see rifle courses being held at indoor ranges.
If you’ve never shot in low light under professional guidance, going to a course by a quality training group will really give you a good experience. The thing to remember is that you are there to learn, and not to bring knowledge in to show how good you are or how you’re not a novice, or whatever. If you don’t know much about using a rifle in lowlight, a training course with lowlight component is a great thing to take. What you should be focused on most are equipment concerns. The advice right above this post is excellent and very sound. The thing I would stress above all else is the importance of having a good WML (weapon mounted light). Fighting with a rifle at night mandates a WML.
Here are a couple WML thoughts based on my experience:
Quality WMLs are mandatory. The WML needs to withstand recoil and abuse, adverse conditions, and have electronics that work reliably. The biggest enemy to electronics is heat, and the light you use must have a proper heat sink to allow the dissipation of the heat so the electronics don’t burn out. The higher the light output, the higher the heat and the greater the need for proper engineering. Cheap Chinese high-output lights are notorious for burning out.
SureFire, Modlight and Cloud Defensive are the best WML companies on the market, and by a WIDE margin. Nobody else comes close to their quality and design. A distant 4th is Streamlight, and then after that it’s whatever you want it to be. There are a ton of reasons for this, but it comes down to engineering and quality of design.
Quality mounts are key. Degrease all mounting screws and apply threadlocker (Vibratite VC-3, Loctite blue, Permatex blue). Use a waterproof paint pen to witness mark screw heads.
Pistol lights work much better than they used to at ranges out to 100yds, but this is because they’re now putting out 1000 lumens. Understand that pistol WMLs use a flood pattern, while rifle-mounted lights like the SureFire M600 or Cloud Defensive OWL have a spotlight reflector that is designed for better target illumination and PID at longer ranges. Equip accordingly.