Dry fire training has long been touted as the best way to improve your grip and trigger press. In reality, you can train everything with the exception of recoil management with dry fire. Read on for tips on how to get the most out of your dry fire training.
In it’s simplest form dry firing is holding an unloaded firearm, sighting and pressing the trigger. Coupled with close attention to proper grip and concentration on pressing the trigger straight to the rear, over a period of time, the shooter will develop the muscle memory that will improve shooting accuracy.
In the remainder of this article, I want to discuss a few drills and even some technology that will take your dry fire sessions to the next level.
Start slowly with the drills paying close attention to your technique. Remember Practice does not make perfect. Practice Makes Permanent. So be certain that you are not practicing bad habits.
Safety
In the process of dry firing your pistol, you are going through all of the steps necessary to fire it. It is absolutely a must that you check and recheck that the magazine is empty and the chamber is clear. Get into the habit of checking the condition of the gun every time you pick it up. Always apply the rules of safe gun handling.
Is Dry Fire Bad For My Gun?
If you are using a modern centerfire pistol dry firing it will not hurt it. Still not convinced purchase snap caps (these are plastic shells meant to cushion the firing pin) to load into your chamber. Do not dry fire any rimfire gun. Snap caps will help here. Antique guns, as a rule, should not be dry fired.
How Often should I practice dry firing?
Many serious shooters practice by dry fire every day. This may be as few as 15 – 20 shots. Some top instructors recommend as many as 20 dry fire shots to every 1 live-fire shot. Now, this is just a rule of thumb but it underlines the importance of dry fire practice. While dry firing you can concentrate on form and technique without being distracted by recoil or the loud bang of a live round. This is not to say that you have no need for live fire in your training you certainly need it too but live fire is where you see the fruits of all of those dry fire training sessions.
Drills
I am going to cover just a couple of basic drills to get you started but remember almost every element of shooting can be practiced without ammo. One of the best books on dryfire drills is Dryfire reloaded it was written by Ben Stoeger and I highly recommend it.
Ok, let’s get started. Check that the chamber and mag are empty.
The trigger press drill
Get a good grip on your pistol then balance a spent bullet casing on top of the slide. Now slowly press the trigger back until it breaks. The idea here is to practice your trigger press until it is smooth enough to complete it without disturbing the shell casing balanced on the slide. Once you can do that start ramping up the speed of the trigger press.
Eye line sight picture drill
This drill should be started from either a compressed ready or low ready position. Now focus your eyes on your target. Next without moving your eyes press the pistol out into your eye line and on target. The goal is to present the pistol without hunting for the target or taking your eyes off of your target. When you get this down you can follow up with that butter-smooth trigger press you have developed from the first drill.
Draw from concealment drill
This one is a must for anyone that plans to conceal carry. Start with your unloaded gun in the holster that you plan to carry with and in the position you plan on carrying it at. Place your cover garment over it. A quick note here your clothing should be of the type that you will wear when carrying concealed. Now lift your cover garment grasp the gun and lift it to compressed ready. This drill can be an eye-opener it may reveal shortcomings in your carry position or your choice of holster even the concealment garment. If you need more detail on the steps of drawing your firearm check out my article What is the Most Important Skill for Concealed Carry.
Dryfire and Technology
There are a few technological training aids that can truly amp up your dryfire training.
The first one that we are going to talk about is the S.I.R.T. pistol from Next Level Training. The name S.I.R.T. stands for shot indicating resetting trigger. The pistol is clearly a training aid as it is made of red and black plastic so as not to be confused with a real weapon. the company makes two models one emulates the Glock 22 or 17 in looks, size, weight and trigger pull. the second has the attributes of an S&W full-size M&P.
This practice pistol projects 2 lasers from the barrel one red and the other green. the red one comes on as you take up the slack in the trigger the green one comes on at the moment the trigger breaks.
This makes for a nifty visual when training you trigger reset. If you are unfamiliar with trigger reset this is how you get a second shot off with a minimum for wasted effort and sight movement.
The way this works is as you press the trigger the red laser is visible at trigger break the green comes on. Now you don’t want to release the trigger all of the way but just far enough to allow it to reset. That just happens to be when the green laser goes out. press again and the trigger immediately breaks for the next shot.
The lasers are also very useful in indicating barrel movement at trigger break. The S.I.R.T. also has a removable magazine that makes it useful for practicing reloads.
In my view, the S.I.R.T. is a valuable training aid but I would prefer to train with my actual gun.
The next one is my favorite bit of training tech the Mantis X. The Mantis X is a sensor that attaches to the rail of your pistol and through an app on your smartphone or tablet gives you real-time feedback on each shot. This will work with dryfire,live-fire and even CO2 pistols.
The menu of the app has a number of drills that you can select. It then has corresponding screens that map and graph the movement of the gun during your shot. It even has an animated graph that tracks this movement with an X that indicates the split second that the trigger breaks. A help screens then suggest possible causes and remedies for any flaws that it detects. I have found it to be very effective and beneficial. If you would like to know more about the matisX This link will take you to their web site. Discount code rollo2020
Last but not least is the LaserLyte laser cartridge and laser-activated targets. The core of this system is the laserlyte cartridge this is a training cartridge that is caliber specific. It is loaded into the chamber of your gun and it fires a brief laser pulse with each trigger pull.
You can use this on any target but the visible laser pulse is quite quick. the real beauty of this is when coupled with laserlyte laser reactive targets that show your hits. You could use multiple targets around the room and practice transitions to different targets. This is a pretty cool piece of kit.
So in conclusion wether, your using your unloaded gun in drills or any of the high tech aids Dryfire is a very effective and useful addition to your training.