The SIRT gun, hands down. It simply isn't a firearm. It can't be construed as one (I'm sure there are really stupid exceptions like pointing it at strangers), and should be fine to check in your luggage.
It's currently available as a G17. I carry a G19 and find it works fine, can't tell a difference, and uses same holsters. If you carry a DA/SA gun or a revolver I doubt you'll ever want a SIRT. But they are making training versions of other guns besides Glocks, soon or now. Even if I didn't carry a Glock, knowing what I know now I'd just tweak the SIRT trigger (it has 5-6 adjustable variables: literally everything is adjustable in other words) to resemble my carry gun and maybe do a home-job to change the grip angle.
Bring your SIRT, your holster, print some reduced-scale targets, and you can get practice that's almost as good as - actually in some ways better - than your usual live-fire.
The fact that the trigger resets, the gun has a realistic feel,
it's 100% safe to handle anywhere in any way, and it's fun, should take your shooting to the next level.
On vacation/downtime, it can make an enormous difference, and the absence of recoil and blast actually lets you zero in on fundamentals even more. You can set goals for each SIRT session, even using a par timer. It's easy to get sloppy dry-firing so I remember two fundamentals (which to me are fundamentals regardless but keep me honest in dry-fire): don't **** up the first shot, and always get an extra sight picture (both of which anyone who has trained with Tom Givens will know) - if you shoot 2 rounds, get that 3rd sight picture before you reholster. This prevents sloppiness and false confidence in dry-fire as well as preventing training scars (even in live fire) like shooting a string of 6 then speed-reholstering, a problem I see a lot with good shooters.
Claude Werner, a handgun trainer who is also a member here, talks about "unconscious competence." What can you do cold? Forget about your personal best or a good day shooting, or what you can do after 10 minutes of warming up, thinking through the shots.
The SIRT bridges the gap. It's also a safe daily warmup if you want it to be, before you go out the door.
I think people can shock themselves being consistent with this and having daily objectives for their dry-fire. To me, the "purposes" of live fire are now only as a skill audit and to prevent a flinch by being used to the muzzle blast (it also helps this objective to shoot your handgun in the rifle section of your range
).
