Dry Fire

[CouchOperator]

Curious about everyones dry fire work. What do you work on? What is your general time spent with dry fire? Times per week? Specific drills/manipulations/positions? My goal is to gather ideas to increase the effectiveness of what i already do.

[smak28]

Curious about everyones dry fire work. What do you work on? What is your general time spent with dry fire? Times per week? Specific drills/manipulations/positions? My goal is to gather ideas to increase the effectiveness of what i already do.

Dry fire is too easy. I have my friend load 3 mags at the range for me. He throws in 10 snap caps anywhere he wants. It could be the second, fourth, or tenth, but not the first. It can also be two in a row. This helps me keep focus on my trigger control with each shot. When it reaches the snap cap, my pistol should not jerk because I'm still concentrating on my trigger pull and i tap, rack, & shoot. There may be 2 or 3 in a row but eventually, it becomes a habit to have good trigger discipline with each shot, without much concentration, minimizes jerking of the trigger, and practice my tap, rack, shoot drills at the same time. Same if I shoot revolvers. My friend places the snap caps anywhere he wants. Without actual recoil of shooting live fire, I find dry firing not very helpful after learning how to shoot. It just gets easier and easier to not jerk the pistol and trigger discipline becomes natural.

[xxINKxx]

I dont believe in dry fire methods being that effective.

Ive dry fired my glock a thousand times, doing it with coins on the slide to help stay steady ect. No matter what the gun is solid, doesn't move a hair. Never felt like it gave me any better results with live fire doing the same thing with real bullets at the range.

like smak28 said. Do random snap caps in a loaded mag at the range. I dont waste my time with dry fire.

[wpod]

I use these:

https://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Preparedness-Solutions-David-Morris/dp/B00EPPWK7M

along with the LaserLyte cartrige. No reactive targets yet.
I probably dry-fire 50 times for every 1 live fire shot.
This applies to pistol, revolver, shotgun, and rifle.
Drawing concealed, open.
Single, multiple targets,
Transition to/from long guns.
Tactics with wife and/or kids (youngest is 15).
Scenarios for at home and away from home (store, restaurants, etc).

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

[meno377]

Trigger control is one of the most important factors for accuracy. I have loaded my handgun at the range NOT LOOKING AT A SMALL PILE OF AMMO MIXED WITH DUDS in the magazine at the range. Then I shoot. I do it slowly and have been able to control flinching.

Certainly haven't perfected it yet, but it's good practice. No matter what kind of stance, grip, locked elbows or not, trigger control is valuable. I don't watch Hickok45 anymore because I believe he sold out for revenue, but his video on trigger control is outstanding. Practicing by dry firing at home can give you muscle memory and you can refine your grip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xa5JPLGIsU

[dwalker]

Dry fire is extremely effective, Ben Stoeger book (get it on amazon) had great dry fire drills

[robledo]

Deliberate, smooth draw from holster, trigger press.
Draw from holster, trigger press, speed reload, rack slide, trigger press.
Repeat as above, but kneeling.
Repeat again but standing or kneeling and using a doorway or corner in your house to simulate shooting from cover/concealment.
Drawing and firing/reloading while moving laterally.

I usually do at least a dozen reptitions of each. And it doesn't take too long so I usually wind up working it in at least a couple times a week. You can do these same exercises with as much or as little gear as you desire, with a rifle or handgun, and with your ccw stuff if you so choose.

[Shadowhawk012]

Deliberate, smooth draw from holster, trigger press.
Draw from holster, trigger press, speed reload, rack slide, trigger press.
Repeat as above, but kneeling.
Repeat again but standing or kneeling and using a doorway or corner in your house to simulate shooting from cover/concealment.
Drawing and firing/reloading while moving laterally.

I usually do at least a dozen reptitions of each. And it doesn't take too long so I usually wind up working it in at least a couple times a week. You can do these same exercises with as much or as little gear as you desire, with a rifle or handgun, and with your ccw stuff if you so choose.

^^^
THIS.

dry fire practice can include more things than just improve your trigger cnotrol. Drawing from retention/concealment and reloads are practiced nearly enough when compared to how much time most people shoot at paper at static ranges.

[fritztkatt]

Dry fire is great until you reach the point of reflexive muscle memory.

Perfecting the draw is also important, and I consider that dry fire as you should be doing a self-check with a "click" after that presentation.

Simply dry firing with a single action or light-da like a glock gets old really quick. At least for me I pick up the trigger quickly. Now on a real DA pull like a sig/beretta, that makes much more difference.

Dry fire is very important for training a new shooter as well. As long as you have their attention and they care, it's priceless. Give them a very short "this is how it works", then let them play with it for a few minutes (no ammo) to appreciate the details and trigger. Then introduce them to body position, stance, grip, sight alignment, sight picture, breathing, hold, trigger pull and follow through. Now you can break down the trigger pull and analyze it.

[Kowan]

Deliberate, smooth draw from holster, trigger press.
Draw from holster, trigger press, speed reload, rack slide, trigger press.
Repeat as above, but kneeling.
Repeat again but standing or kneeling and using a doorway or corner in your house to simulate shooting from cover/concealment.
Drawing and firing/reloading while moving laterally.

I usually do at least a dozen reptitions of each. And it doesn't take too long so I usually wind up working it in at least a couple times a week. You can do these same exercises with as much or as little gear as you desire, with a rifle or handgun, and with your ccw stuff if you so choose.

Exactly. I also make a small, (about the size of a business card) target I tape to the mirror to watch for presentation from holster to firing position.

[bazineta]

For me, dry fire doesn't help much. What I do find to be very helpful is the DA pull on my P220; I find that doing DA/SA pairs is a short path to trigger control.

[dwalker]

I dry fire the pistol at least 20 minutes a day, usually an hour but sometimes I run short. I dry fire the rifle a bit less, probably a half hour a day, or 15 minutes if compressed. I really only do loading drills for the shotgun.

My pistol dry fire includes loaded and unloaded table start with reload from the belt,loaded and unloaded table start with reload from table, draw engage one target, draw engage two targets, draw engage one target, reload, re-engage target, draw, engage multiple targets, reload, engage multiple targets. I spend the most time honestly on the draw/engage/reload/engage drill moving my par time down. I do dry fire the transition drills a good bit but I find airsoft to be better practice for that.

For rifle I dry fire port arms start, engage target, low ready start, engage target, etc. also decreasing par time as I repeat the drills.

It has 100% helped my shooting. Between the airsoft and the dry fire all aspects of my shooting have improved.

[L84CABO]

Even 10-15 minutes once a week can have enormous benefit. I also have a Crimson Trace laser and they're excellent for dry fire training. Gives you very good visual feedback of what the muzzle is doing at the time the trigger breaks.

You can do everything from just sitting there on the sofa, practicing trigger pulls. Or step it up and do full draws from holster, presentation, sight acquisition, trigger press, return to holster, repeat. Throw in some mag reloads too if you like. And/or practice moving too. Draw and get off of your center line, acquire sights, fire, etc. In this manner you get lots of practice on several key fundamentals.

Also, the next time you plan to go to the range...practice dry firing for 10 minutes each day, three days before your range day. Then see how your range day goes. I'm betting it will be better than what you're typically use too. Particularly if you're relatively new to shooting.

Sorry: It should go without saying to make sure your gun is empty and you're firing in a safe direction. But you know that!

[dwinters14]

I dry fire once in a while, but it's great practice. For both trigger control, weapons manipulation and overall familiarity with each firearm. I have snap caps for every one of my firearms.

Sometimes I'll run a rifle and a pistol drill. Where i'll have my pistol in it's holster and a target on the wall. I'll have 1 snap cap in each mag and try to get a good shot off, with a good sight picture, then reload do it again, then switch the pistol and repeat.

I also time myself, especially using the BB, it's good to have practice manipulating it. Plus cycling the action, loading and unloading your weapon is great practice, that way you'll always be prepared when you're actually on the range.

An actual range thing you can do, is load 1 in the chamber then drop the mag. Shoot one round then dry fire the next shot, and see if you flinch. That way you can work on your trigger control.

So long as you're practicing proper fundamentals, and treating the rifle like you'd actually be taking a shot, I've found that it translates to the range. Trigger pull, sight picture, and proper posture.