Dry fire practice

[pjsig]

Practice makes perfect.

[elsupermanny14]

Why do you have to practice reholstering?

I think saying to "reholster correctly" during practice is a better way to put it, as opposed to practicing reholstering independently.

I remember in my class the instructor spent a lot of time on reholstering. Apparently thats where people end up shooting themselves a lot.

Elsupermanny14 said we should "practice reholstering".

Yes, reholster correctly after your shot. I don't mean just sit there and insert your pistol in your holster over and over. I'm referring to draw, line your sights, pull the trigger without moving the the sight through the trigger break, and then reholster your weapon cleanly.

Many people have accidental discharges while reholstering. It's just as important to practice when you dry fire.

And like I said, you need to practice your magazine reloads as well. It is actually rather difficult to cleanly and accurately insert a new magazine into your pistol while moving fast.

[SocomM4]

How important is dry firing for you guys?

Easily 11X more important than live fire.

[Bansh88]

You don't need to practice reholstering separately from the entire shooting sequence of draw, shoot, reholster. I've taken weeks of firearms training, including with 2 GM's, and we didn't sit there and do 100 reholsters.

If you're practicing draw, may I assume there will be a re-holster in there somewhere?

[1911ShooterPhil]

Practice, practice, practice...

How important is dry firing for you guys?

It is just as important as practicing drawing your pistol from your holster. Serious pistol shooters need to learn how to smoothly draw their pistol from their holster, to quickly get proper sight alignment, to teach themselves to squeeze the trigger and not jerk the trigger, and to quickly reload their pistol. I have sets of A-ZOOM Snap Caps for each of my pistols, for those exact purposes.

For a competitive shooter, practicing like that is time well spent; especially in bullseye competitions or "race"-type shooting (EX: SCSA Steel Challenge) which are timed events. Even casual shooters and range plinkers can learn a lot from dry firing a pistol. But, definitely make sure to get a set of Snap Cap dummy cartridges to save wear and tear on the pistol's firing pin and internal mechanisms.

Most importantly though, when you practice; make sure the weapon is unloaded and safe, and there is no live ammunition present in the area where you are practicing. I know that sounds redundant, but, safety first. Cheers! --1911ShooterPhil

[L84CABO]

Personally, I think dry fire practice is the single best thing you can do, short of actual range time. Especially when you consider that most of us can't afford to be buying thousands of rounds of ammo each month. At least I can't.

A laser is also a wonderful tool for dry fire practice. Gives you great feedback on what your muzzle is doing at the point the trigger breaks.

[Eljay]

I dryfire regularly. Along with mastering your mind, it builds the required muscle memory to be consistent from shot to shot.

A simple orange target on the wall has been my main source of dryfire practice. It's gotten many, many thousands of imaginary bullet holes by now.

If you buy another one of those you can even practice your transitions...

[Black Majik]

If you buy another one of those you can even practice your transitions...

Funny you should mention that. At one point my wall was riddled with orange dots.

[teflondog]

I dry fire more than I shoot live ammo. Unless you have the time and money to shoot every day, I think everybody should dry fire their guns for practice.

[TomReloaded]

I shoot over 5k rounds per year. While this isnt TONS, its more than most people. I hear a lot of guys talking about how they've owned a pistol for 5 or 6 years and its got 1500 rounds through it.

You can dry fire every day, all day long... but if you own a pistol for 5 years and only put 1500 through it, you're not going to be good at shooting it. 1500 per year still isnt enough range time to get your shots dialed in.

Flinching is a big one you need to work on training out. Get that done, then work on getting back on target after a recoil impulse. If the guns not going boom, you're not training those two really important aspects.

I understand the guys who shoot 10k rounds a year AND dry fire. Thats extra practice on top of real practice. I understand how thats helpful. If you're not hitting the range often and just dry firing, I dont think you're helping yourself, you're just playing with guns.

9mm and 22 makes people flinch less, but if you're shooting a 40 or bigger you really need that recoil impulse to get used to handling the gun.

I dont get the opportunity to double tap very often, so that skill is pretty rusty for me. Im working on speeding up. Slow live fire AND dry fire has done nothing to help me there.

[Eljay]

I don't think anybody's advocating ONLY dry fire. But the real learning happens in dry fire. Live fire is just for confirmation that you're not just fooling yourself. (As an example, was that sight picture on the super fast draw good enough to hit anything or not.)

In terms of good split times if you shoot at a regular public range always, always get back on target as though you were going to shoot it again ASAP and just as the front sights get back on target make a mental note that you would have pulled the trigger at that point if you didn't care about getting in trouble. It's better than nothing.

Better yet start shooting USPSA or similar and it's pretty easy to get access to some kind of practice sessions in most areas where you can do all the stuff you can't do at a regular range. Even if you don't compete regularly it's really helpful to be in the system.

[tacticalcity]

I dryfire regularly. Along with mastering your mind, it builds the required muscle memory to be consistent from shot to shot.

A simple orange target on the wall has been my main source of dryfire practice. It's gotten many, many thousands of imaginary bullet holes by now.

The bear even jams for ya while you practice your draw.

[Black Majik]

The bear even jams for ya while you practice your draw.

Actually, a few Calgunners gave me that bear.

We call him "Les Bear."

[ToddtheTyrant]

I feel that dry fire is not only useful, but important. Taking the time to do and do it right will make you a better shooter. And as many have noted - it is all but free!

[mjmagee67]

Dry fire is less about muscle memory and more about eye training. I use dry fire to improve my vision, it's all about seeing the sights, seeing them on the draw seeing them on the transition, seeing them in odd positions. If you can't see your sights you are not going to get your hits. Those who think dry firing is a waste will NEVER be good shooters. They will never be able to run and gun.