What Is Dry Fire Good For?

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Good Ol' Boy

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Here me out. This is for everyone in general but more for folks that may be wondering why they should spend time pulling the trigger on an empty gun.

My personal opinion is that dry fire mainly gets you intimately familiar with your trigger. Along with proper grip it can "prepare" one for live fire but it is NOT a replacement.

To me this seems obvious but it may not be for some folks. Dry fire is well spent time but it's all in vain if you don't get out and regularly test it with live fire.

And by "regularly" I dont mean dry firing year round and live firing once every month or more.

This is my opinion. I'm anxious to hear what more experienced folks have to say.
 
Dunno. Most of the really fast shooters I know and have read about spend far more time dry firing than live firing. I don't do near enough dry fire apparently. You can practice useful skills like draw/first shot hundreds of times and for that one shot it hardly seems that the ammo would make any difference in practice. Just as an example.
 
Dry fire is well spent time but it's all in vain if you don't get out and regularly test it with live fire.
In my experience, trigger control is one of the most difficult aspects of shooting a pistol. Lining up the sights is trivial and people can do it perfectly on their first attempt without any special training or practice. But pulling the trigger without moving the gun off target is a skill which seems to elude even some very experienced shooters.

There have been times when it has been very difficult for me to get to the range and yet I have been able to not just maintain, but actually improve my shooting performance with extensive dryfire practice.

It is true that at some point, the progression will stop--you will get about as good as you can possibly be at pulling the trigger properly and at that point you will need to do live fire to get faster. But even then, dryfire can help maintain trigger technique proficiency.

I'd say that dryfire with very minimal live fire can get a determined person who practices productively, to the point of being able to shoot two accurately aimed centerfire shots a second. Going beyond that point is where you really need a lot of live fire.
 
IMHO Dryfire "augments" livefire.

Depending on how you do it, it works for more than just trigger control, although that probably is the most important aspect. Everything, but recoil control can be practiced dry fire. I have a routine I do every couple days:

Utilizing a laser cartridge, shot timer set on a "par" and from holster 5-8 reps each:

Strong hand, weak hand, freestyle

Presentations, no trigger
Presentations, on trigger no shot
Presentations, with trigger squeeze

Movement, reloads, and cover (I use door frames etc.).

Usually takes about 15minutes and I focus on what I had difficulty on in the last match. For reference I primarily shoot IDPA (Dabble in 3GUN), classified as SS and normally place within the to 5 at our local matches. I've missed EX by a couple pts at my last 3 classifiers, which is why I'm doing the dryfire routine.

Before someone goes off on the whole, you can't shoot if you don't shoot routine...I own my own range out back, reload and normally go through about 2K in handgun ammo a month when the weather's decent. IMHO, Dryfire supplements and gives me a chance to rehearse some things prior to going live. Last match I hadn't live-fired (pistol) in close to two months due to prepping for a precision rifle match combined with hunting season. I did dry-fire during that time and still placed 2nd overall.
 
Myc little personal "rule of thumb" that has worked well for me:

5 minutes of fry fire for every minute of live fire. Dry fire at least 3 times per week.Llive fire at least once per month. (more often is better)
 
I have a rifle I've owned for over 40 years. I conservatively estimate 100,000 dry fires with that rifle alone. Not counting the amount of time I spend with other firearms. I can sit at my desk, spin around in my chair and point the rifle out the window into the woods behind my house and get in dozens of dry fires at squirrel, birds, knot holes or leaves. When the firing pin drops I know if the crosshairs are still on the target just as sure as I'd know if I were live firing. When I don't do do it for a few weeks I can certainly tell a drop off in skill, and when I get back to doing it can see steady improvement. This is an almost daily routine during hunting season. I spend my time in the woods hunting rather than at the range shooting. I can keep the skills honed in my office at home.

It would have cost me $50,000-$100,000 in ammo to get that much trigger time in with live ammo alone. Live fire may be better. But no one can afford the ammo required to get really good unless they spend lots of time dry firing.
 
As far as I'm concerned an individual may dry fire till hell freezes over if they feel that practice to be of benefit, I'd rather be shooting thus utilizing the elements of hold, sight picture, trigger press and recoil management.
 
As far as I'm concerned an individual may dry fire till hell freezes over if they feel that practice to be of benefit, I'd rather be shooting thus utilizing the elements of hold, sight picture, trigger press and recoil management.

I'd rather be shooting too but I'd much rather be eating. No way I could afford to shoot as much as I should so I do the most I can while hunting regularly. Dry fire helps fill the gap a bit.
 
I'd rather be shooting too but I'd much rather be eating. No way I could afford to shoot as much as I should so I do the most I can while hunting regularly. Dry fire helps fill the gap a bit.
Each of us has our own way of accomplishing tasks thus goals. We just differ in methodology.
 
why they should spend time pulling the trigger on an empty gun.

This varies depending on the firearm (pistol or rifle), and the level of expertise of the shooter.

For new, or relatively inexperienced, shooters the dry firing allows them to see things that are often hidden by the recoil, eg moving the sights when operating the trigger, follow thru, stability of the overall position prior to trigger operation.

More experienced shooters use dry fire drills to perfect the position (rifle), or to attempt to increase trigger operating speed for pistol rapid fire games.

Your need will depend on your firearm, your experience, and your goals (you do have written goals don't you?).
 
Primarily trigger control. From the holster with a handgun, it is invaluable for the integrated act of the presentation shot.
 
My personal opinion is that dry fire mainly gets you intimately familiar with your trigger. Along with proper grip it can "prepare" one for live fire but it is NOT a replacement.

It's not a replacement, but, done correctly, it's a highly effective supplement.

Dry fire's also much more than trigger control and grip. Gun handling skills and movement can be greatly improved via dry fire.

And done correctly, dry fire is as much about visual acuity training as it is about trigger control and gun handling. You need to see what you need to see when you need to see it. And to "see" you need to "perceive", which is what's meant by visual acuity. When done effectively, you'll start to actually see all kinds of little (but important) things you never noticed.
 
I generally:
-draw
-dry fire a snap cap
-speed reload (fake the slide release, or over hand, whatever I feel like practicing)
-dry fire that magazines snap cap if I did the overhand
-complete another front sight picture
-press check
-tac reload (to get the other mag and snap cap in)
-reholster

find where my darn snap cap rolled to and load it into the empty mag and holster that. Or some variation of the above. Trying to get repetition and muscle memory going. It also is handy for fi
 
Hangingrock writes:

As far as I'm concerned an individual may dry fire till hell freezes over if they feel that practice to be of benefit, I'd rather be shooting thus utilizing the elements of hold, sight picture, trigger press and recoil management.

I think the idea was to consider both, not to replace live-fire with dry-fire.

If you're in an environment in which you can fire your weapon every time you put a hand on it, you're far better off than anyone I know. I actually have to leave home if I want to shoot. Spending any amount of time at home dry-firing doesn't cut into my range opportunities at all.
 
I can dry fire inside at home, live fire is 30 minute drive to either an indoor or outdoor range. I usually dry fire 3 nights a week, about 100-150 trigger pulls with a laser in the chamber. This lets me see how well I'm doing. I've doubled my accuracy after a few weeks of dry fire. Also has been very good helping me with my grip, stance, week hand, single hand practice.
 
I probably don't dry fire as much as I should. That said about a week before a match I will try to get two or three dry fire sessions in if I can. I try not to do it the night before so if I over do the dry fire and make my hands sore I don't hurt my performance the next day. Ideal I do my last session Thursday before the match and try to forget everything Friday night so I show up fresh Saturday morning.

I do my dry fire with my full rig on. When I dry fire I probably spend the first bit of of my time just pulling the trigger on my selected handgun to get that down. Focus on that good follow through with little to no sight movement etc.

Then I start working on my draw to the first shot dry firing. I do this dry fire with a shot timer using random start and a par time set to about ~1.5 second and then will lower that slowly till I can't make it cleanly. Focus on a clean draw and clearly seeing the sights on target (I have a target spot on the wall) as the trigger is pulled and to have that all happend before the par time goes off.

I spend the majority of my time working on reloads. Usually from the draw; draw, dry fire, reload, dry fire, rinse and repeat. This is easier with a double action revolver as there is no fire control to reset. This is also done with a random start timer and I keep turning down the par time to push my speed.

 
Dry firing teachs sight alignment and trigger control with the noise, recoil, and expense of live fire removed. It is a precursor to live fire and valuable training you can do just abut anywhere.

I heard somewhere that it takes 300-500 repetitions to learn a manual dexterity skill and I pretty much agree with that. A new shooter needs as many distractions removed to learn a skill and dry fire does that. Dry fire helps an experienced shooter maintain their skill.
 
Hangingrock writes:

I think the idea was to consider both, not to replace live-fire with dry-fire.

If you're in an environment in which you can fire your weapon every time you put a hand on it, you're far better off than anyone I know. I actually have to leave home if I want to shoot. Spending any amount of time at home dry-firing doesn't cut into my range opportunities at all.

Actually I have a handgun range on my property. So yes, I do have to step out the door, but its a short walk to the range. You may dry fire all you want, I on the other hand have a place and the means to live-fire thus dry-fire I am not preoccupied with.
 
Actually I have a handgun range on my property. So yes, I do have to step out the door, but its a short walk to the range. You may dry fire all you want, I on the other hand have a place and the means to live-fire thus dry-fire I am not preoccupied with.

And yet a large portion of the best competitive amateur and profession shooters still do a fairly healthy regime of dry fire practice. Even those that have similar easy access to ranges and even free or reduced cost ammunition still use dry fire as part of their training program. There are some skills that can be practice more effectively in dry fire than live fire. ie There would be no point in doing all my revolver reload practice in live fire, dry fire reload practice was just as effective, and a lot cheaper and easier. A lot of draw and reload work can be done in dry fire. The best fix for a flinch or learning proper follow through is dry fire. Dry fire is part of a complete training package.
 
Here me out. This is for everyone in general but more for folks that may be wondering why they should spend time pulling the trigger on an empty gun.

My personal opinion is that dry fire mainly gets you intimately familiar with your trigger. Along with proper grip it can "prepare" one for live fire but it is NOT a replacement.

To me this seems obvious but it may not be for some folks. Dry fire is well spent time but it's all in vain if you don't get out and regularly test it with live fire.

And by "regularly" I dont mean dry firing year round and live firing once every month or more.

This is my opinion. I'm anxious to hear what more experienced folks have to say.

Couldn't have said it better, myself?
 
And yet a large portion of the best competitive amateur and profession shooters still do a fairly healthy regime of dry fire practice. Even those that have similar easy access to ranges and even free or reduced cost ammunition still use dry fire as part of their training program. There are some skills that can be practice more effectively in dry fire than live fire. ie There would be no point in doing all my revolver reload practice in live fire, dry fire reload practice was just as effective, and a lot cheaper and easier. A lot of draw and reload work can be done in dry fire. The best fix for a flinch or learning proper follow through is dry fire. Dry fire is part of a complete training package.

Will maybe there should be a shooting school set up for Dry Fire only since it is just as effective. The training center would be known as Whisper with the loudest sound being click-click.:) Thus there would be no environmental concerns. Like I've previously wrote Dry Fire all you want till Hell freezes over if that what you wish to do. That's your choice!
 
I shoot two to three times a week, sometimes more. I dry fire multiple guns, every day, and have done so since I was a kid.

Theres a lot more to dry fire than some seem to think. Its not just "holding and squeezing". Its muscle memory, muscle building, tone management, hand-eye coordination, etc, etc, basically the whole gamut of shooting.
 
Great responses so far, let's not get into quibbling.

Another way to phrase what I was trying to convey in my OP, is that recoil management affects all of the aspects we use dry fire for. Trigger control, grip, sights, all that.

It seems as though a few folks here aren't much inhibited by not practicing with recoil, and I can say I'm envious, but also that it doesn't work like that for a lot of others.

I can't do my regular dry fire for a month, with no live fire, and shoot as good as I do when I do my normal weekly live fire was well.

I suspect I'm not the only one like this.
 
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