Dry Fire Practice

Before hunting season I'll put photos of deer on the wall and dry fire at them from hunting positions. Otherwise not so much. I have an airsoft pistol that is better than dry firing and there is an indoor range only a few miles from home, so I get live fire fairly often.

I recently got a Caldwell Magnum Rifle Gong, that has made range firing a lot more fun. I set it up at various distances and shoot at it from hunting positions. The feedback is nice. It is even audible with the .22 at 100 yards.

Almost every day.

Almost every day for me too.

Speaking from a Bullseye Pistol perspective here: dry fire, especially with a red dot, is even better than live fire practice. If your grip and trigger control isn't perfect, you can see it (unlike live fire, where recoil inevitably disrupts things). When dry fire has perfected your muscle memory for pulling the trigger w/o moving your sight alignment, then you're ready for live fire.

I have one of these, a LaserLyte Light Trainer and it has been one of the best training items I've ever owned. I got the caliber-specific kind tha tfits in the chamber of my pistol and which shoots a laser downrange with every trigger press. With this, I use household items like light switches, electrical plugs and other small items as the target and am able to put a red dot downrange with every pin strike. It allows me to work on trigger control so I can hit the actual point of aim within ~1", and also lets me know how badly off-target I can be if I get sloppy. I like being able to use my actual SD/HD pistol with this.

Compared to range time, the ~$80 I spent is cheap and allows me to practice at home, where I can also plan defensive firing positions.

My son got one of those in .45. I tried it out and loved it, but never got around to buying one for my carry nine. Thanks for the reminder.

I do practice in front of a large mirror in my living room from about 3 - 1/2 yards, which gives a total "target" (my image) distance of about 7 yards. Sorta OK, but I wouldn't want to use the laser with a mirror.

Put me in the almost every day category.

And I need to get one of those lasers.

+1 for every day. I have a few sets of worn out snap caps. I watch for site wiggle/movement, one poster's idea with the red dot has appealed to me, I thought of buying a 19 dollar cheapy just for dry firing...I know it wouldnt survive long with live fire recoil. But just for dry firing you could really check the result of movement on trigger pull.

Russellc

Dry fire is valuable for things other than trigger control.

I use a shot timer, set to what I think I can do the skill in--say 1.4 seconds for a concealed draw. When the beep goes off I draw and I have to dry fire in the A zone before the par time beeps.

I do reloads too. Hold the pistol up, hit the beeper. When it goes off, reload and try to dry fire before the second beep.

This works on multi target drills, positional drills, just about anything you can do at the range except experience recoil. Yeah, I do it all the time and consistently. Just make sure you've triple checked the pistol, have no ammo in the room with you, have a bullet resistant backdrop, and set aside half an hour for "work". <g>

Just make sure you've triple checked the pistol, have no ammo in the room with you, have a bullet resistant backdrop, and set aside half an hour for "work". <g>

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Good advice. When done, I also say to myself, out loud, "OK, I'm done with practice. From now on the gun is actually loaded."

Sounds nonsensical, but I think it reinforces my safety-consciousness when I reload.

I also say something similar after I'm done practicing with my Airsofts inside the house.

Every couple days, I also have one of the LaserLyte cartridges. I set up a little dryfire range in my gun room using a standard silhouette and a laserlyte target. That way I can work on my 1st shot times while drawing. It also works really well when working on low-light flashlight techniques.





Chuck

Dry fire practice is especially great with a CZ-52 or a rimfire.

Never, but I hope it works for you!

I dry fire everyday.

Oh that's no kidding (say "I'm done"). Thank you for that. It is crucial to define a time for practice and a time for being loaded and to never, ever, on pain of death, violate it for any reason. Do it once and you have an AD.

Dan

I have an aisroft 1911 replica that fits pefectly into my "real" 1911 holster. I practice shoting at my hangung motorcyle jacket 7 yards away form drawing and shoo other objects. It's good practice. Easier to double tap

Wesson9 said:

I've not been able to get much real shooting in lately so I've been dry firing more than usual. I know it's not the same, but at least I'm working on trigger control. How often do y'all dry fire practice.

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Nowhere near as much as I should.

Irritates me to no end that I can't get a laser trainer for my .22s.

There was a LaserLyte LT-1, but it appears to have been discontinued.

I have a LaserAmmo trainer for my centerfire handguns, and it's great (unless you have a revolver, then it gets expensive). Made too big of a divot in the back of the button, filled it in with silicone, good to go again.