I have been quietly doing a little experiment the last year or so.
I have been varying my training with pistols to determine what is the best type of training to maintain a high level of proficiency. (FOR ME )
Style one: HIGH ROUND COUNT intense weekly or by weekly shooting. I am talking 1000 round sessions. With little or no gun handling between shooting sessions. All practice done with live rounds.
Style two: Low round count. But daily 5 min dry fire sessions at home. I would clear the weapon choose a safe back stop and do five perfect drawing strokes. Some times I would have to do it 50 times to get 5 perfect ones in a row. 5 perfect front sight, press, follow through, trigger pulls. Then just do a few malfunction drills. I would try to hold this to five mins max. I would only shoot a few live rounds in month just to validate the dry fire practice. They key here is a little bit EVERY DAY.
Results:
The high round count shooting did in fact improve my skill level. But it was a constant battle to keep the practice useful. I would lapse into sloppy less than perfect practice the Instant I would begin to loose focus. I would develop a flinch or some other bad tendency on a regular basis. This is an expensive and tiring way to acquire and keep your shooting skills. I noticed that I would always start shooting COLD. In other words I had to warm up get used to shooting in order to shoot well. My first shots out of the holster were always a bit slow and disappointing. By the end of the sessions I was always shooting well. This amazing aspect of shooting skills( the fact that the skill is almost instantly perishable to one degree or another) was a eye opener to me. It made me hope if I ever needed my gun for defense it would happen on the way home from the range.
The low round count daily dry fire practice yielded better results. The unfortunate tendency to loose proficiency between shooting sessions was reduced. (not eliminated)
My speed at the draw from a cold start was MUCH improved. This style of practice is much cheaper, ammo costs, range fees, and wear and tear on guns are all reduced. I think once a person achieves a base level of skill with their pistol doing just a few repetitions of quality practice each day in dry fire mode may in fact be better for skill maintenance than lots of shooting infrequently.
It goes with out saying that DAILY HIGH round count quality practice would be best but nobody can afford that. It also becomes a problem with finding balance in your life. I like to do other things besides shooting.
I think for me I will gravitate towards super short daily dry fire sessions and validate my practice at matches of various types a few time a month. How do you guys do handle this issue?
I have been varying my training with pistols to determine what is the best type of training to maintain a high level of proficiency. (FOR ME )
Style one: HIGH ROUND COUNT intense weekly or by weekly shooting. I am talking 1000 round sessions. With little or no gun handling between shooting sessions. All practice done with live rounds.
Style two: Low round count. But daily 5 min dry fire sessions at home. I would clear the weapon choose a safe back stop and do five perfect drawing strokes. Some times I would have to do it 50 times to get 5 perfect ones in a row. 5 perfect front sight, press, follow through, trigger pulls. Then just do a few malfunction drills. I would try to hold this to five mins max. I would only shoot a few live rounds in month just to validate the dry fire practice. They key here is a little bit EVERY DAY.
Results:
The high round count shooting did in fact improve my skill level. But it was a constant battle to keep the practice useful. I would lapse into sloppy less than perfect practice the Instant I would begin to loose focus. I would develop a flinch or some other bad tendency on a regular basis. This is an expensive and tiring way to acquire and keep your shooting skills. I noticed that I would always start shooting COLD. In other words I had to warm up get used to shooting in order to shoot well. My first shots out of the holster were always a bit slow and disappointing. By the end of the sessions I was always shooting well. This amazing aspect of shooting skills( the fact that the skill is almost instantly perishable to one degree or another) was a eye opener to me. It made me hope if I ever needed my gun for defense it would happen on the way home from the range.
The low round count daily dry fire practice yielded better results. The unfortunate tendency to loose proficiency between shooting sessions was reduced. (not eliminated)
My speed at the draw from a cold start was MUCH improved. This style of practice is much cheaper, ammo costs, range fees, and wear and tear on guns are all reduced. I think once a person achieves a base level of skill with their pistol doing just a few repetitions of quality practice each day in dry fire mode may in fact be better for skill maintenance than lots of shooting infrequently.
It goes with out saying that DAILY HIGH round count quality practice would be best but nobody can afford that. It also becomes a problem with finding balance in your life. I like to do other things besides shooting.
I think for me I will gravitate towards super short daily dry fire sessions and validate my practice at matches of various types a few time a month. How do you guys do handle this issue?
