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I had two dear friends (both amazing shooters) ask me an identical question last weekend, “How do you practice with dry fire?� That is a tough question to answer other than, safe and perfect!

I am posting this first as a conversation starter! I plan to be a student of the handgun for the rest of my life and would love to know what you folks have to say about it. The people responsible for helping me grow as a competitive shooter are all members of this board and I just could not think of a better way to squeeze you guys and gals to share some of that knowledge!

I wanted to try to post an idea of how I do my dry fire routines. Life has me at home quite a bit these days and I am not going to let some of you sneak up and whoop me at the matches…..so I have to practice when and how I can. Momma can’t run the baby out to a course of fire for a diaper change….so I am here doing my duty!

I pick up the gun I use competitively every day with very few exceptions. It might be for only three minutes and a couple of dry magazine changes, but I pick it up. This helps me remain familiar with the feel of my trigger and where my front sight goes when I extend my arms. Forcing yourself to know where the front sight is going to be when your gun comes from the holster is pretty important in my opinion and has helped me a great deal.

In my extended sessions I use my imagination in combination with targets set up around the house, garage, and back yard. I do this in combination with a shot timer and everything I will be wearing on the day of a match. I force myself to imagine and focus on what I am doing.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a shot timer yet…..there is a free one available online at Matt Burkett’s website for your home practice needs. Just looking under tips/news and select the dry fire drills. Matt has just about everything you need to make your laptop a traveling match! Swingers, regular targets, and moving targets are all there. You will have to register to use these tools. Just pick the distance and set a par time you want to reach.

http://www.mattburkett.com/

I constantly practice focusing on my front sight!

I practice smooth draws, smooth reloads, and smooth pulls of my trigger, and practice transitions to the next target with my eyes first instead of leading with my gun. I do not rush my dry practice and try to never get in a hurry. I make mistakes and recognize what feels “jerky� in my dry fire and try to work it out before putting a live round in the gun. I get out in the back yard and practice how to get from A to B the fastest….how I should be standing, or how I should be sitting.

I focus on whatever I am having difficulty with. Last weekend I learned my support hand on-the-move shooting left something to be desired. I have dry fired several times over the last few days and feel that I have worked out a few of the bugs! I was gripping the gun much too tight and that would be very difficult for me to diagnose with live fire.

Here are a few pictures of how I dry fire at home…..long transitions in the back yard with targets turned in different ways to force me to think about what I am doing. My dog enjoys rearranging the targets so each time I draw it is a new surprise!

What is on the other side of that fence? How far?

About six miles of thick woods.

I did mention in my original post that my dry fire is safe. One of the things that I do to maintain a safe environment is to use special magazines for dry practice that I do not use with live ammo. The magazines that I use for dry fire have an orange and blue base plate.

I am also a believer in announcing to myself exactly what I am doing. I also announce my intentions to my wife and have her check the gun for safety.

maybe just me, but I don't think I would do that without something behind the target that I knew would capture a round. Murphy is alive and well.

One thing I've done is pick a character on a TV show that has a lot of cuts, and shoot that character as long as he's on the screen. It's tricky to avoid shooting when he's suddenly cut out of view.

- Jim

txinvestigator wrote: Murphy is alive and well.

That's because he hangs out in my backyard where no live rounds are flying!

seamusTX wrote:One thing I've done is pick a character on a TV show that has a lot of cuts, and shoot that character as long as he's on the screen. It's tricky to avoid shooting when he's suddenly cut out of view.

- Jim

Eventually you will shoot your TV. Is that how you are going to get OKed for that new HD unit?

txinvestigator wrote:Eventually you will shoot your TV.

I've wanted to shoot my TV more times than I can say.

In addition to maintaining a sterile environment, I don't use magazines when dry-firing in the house.

The first time I pull the trigger, I aim at the floor. I might hit a possum in the crawl space that way.

After that, a cartridge would have to miraculously appear in the chamber between dry-firings.

- Jim

Living in an apartment, I lack the outdoor area to practice at distance. I make doubly sure that my gun is unloaded and remove any ammo or mags from immediate reach. Most of what I practice at home is drawing/firing and quick instinct shots. I will run the gun with an empty practice mag (again, doubly verifying empty - once before insertion and again afterwards) and proceed with my drills. In my case, the empty mag is required because of the magazine disconnect integral to the Hi-Power.

For instinct shooting I will pick something small out in the room and point from different positions/orientation. I then level my eyes to where to sights are pointed to see if I am at intended POA. This is practiced two-handed and one-handed, both strong and weak side. I usually do the POA check before pulling the trigger, but will occasionally check afterwards to make sure I am being consistent and not pulling in any direction when operating the trigger. Most of this is done while seated on the couch or standing in the kitchen or in the bathroom for practice in the event of a surprise home invasion. In conjunction with these drills, I note the path of fire and adjust my movement/aim from these various areas of the apartment to take into consideration the position of the apartments around me and where stray bullets would end up. I can adjust my path of reaction to take these factors into account and minimize the possibility of unintended injury to a neighbor in the event that I have to use a gun for defense inside my home.

Drawing and firing drills are mostly done in front of a large mirror with the same precautions taken. This way I can observe my movements and check for problems in my technique. I also sometimes use snap caps to practice clearing drills here.

Great topic idea jbirds.

I have several IDPA targets and some smaller ones cut from pizza boxes setup around the house. But, I find I get the most benefit from just looking at the front sight and pulling the trigger over and over and over. I'll bet a donut that I've pulled the trigger on my 686 over 100,000 times with no ammunition in it.

HighVelocity wrote:Great topic idea jbirds.

I have several IDPA targets and some smaller ones cut from pizza boxes setup around the house. But, I find I get the most benefit from just looking at the front sight and pulling the trigger over and over and over. I'll bet a donut that I've pulled the trigger on my 686 over 100,000 times with no ammunition in it.

And you were wondering how you wore it out.

I agree, this is a great topic. I am looking forward to hearing different ideas.

If I'm not mistaken doesn't someone make plastic, brightly colored magazines just for this purpose?

I was wondering when this subject would come up, and now I have an idea how the OP has become as good as he has over the past several months.

I have a dedicated dry-fire target, it is a standard cardboard IDPA target mounted on a piece of plywood with a pair of 1"x2" legs under it. A single index card is centered in the middle of the lower -0 zone. Directly behind the -0 zones are level IIIA plates produced by Composite Armor; two are behind the lower -0 zone and one is behind the upper zone. As I use a real gun, real magazines and snap caps for dry fire practice, I believe that using some sort of bullet resistant barrier is the responsible thing to do in case I mistakenly put a real cartridge in the chamber and pull the trigger.

The SO at Saturday's match mentioned a type of bullet resistant backing that could be used for the same purpose, and might be better than my setup. I think Safe Direction was the manufacturer he was referring to in our discussion, though I am not 100% sure.

One idea I would like to offer for consideration is using a blue or red gun simulator, or a training barrel (Blade-Tech makes these) for drills that do not necessarily entail pulling the trigger, such as negotiating cover or corners. The weight is different than a real gun, but you can still practice your body mechanics. The simulators can also be handy for practicing Neanderthal-style striking (ie, if your gun has a malfunction and you are within arms-reach of your opponent), gun grappling and handgun retention/disarming, without risking damage to your gun. I admit these hands-on items exist outside the scope of competitive shooting, but it is still helpful to practice them.

Now I need to be more consistent and perfect in my dry-fire practice, and speed up nearly everything I do in the matches . . .

HighVelocity wrote:Great topic idea jbirds.

I have several IDPA targets and some smaller ones cut from pizza boxes setup around the house. But, I find I get the most benefit from just looking at the front sight and pulling the trigger over and over and over. I'll bet a donut that I've pulled the trigger on my 686 over 100,000 times with no ammunition in it.

i like doing this as well but the only problem is on the glock you can only pull once then have rack the slide to re set the trigger. kinda annoying when your walking around the house on a dry fire mission.

9mmGuy has addressed a very real problem with dry-fire training: it's only realistic with DAO guns, unless you define "realism" to mean "draw and fire one round".

I do dry-fire, but I'm always aware that my DA/SA becomes DAO in dry-fire mode. That reduces the training value. I use dry-fire for training on a smooth draw and rapid acquisition of sights. Or, I use it for "retreat from contact" drills, transitioning from hip-shooting at contact distance, to two-hand aimed fire at 3+ yards.

I am using my G-23 air soft to practice, It is a blowback model and is identical to my Glock. Of course the blowback is not as dynamic as the real deal but your trigger is reset, the weight is about the same less some onces from a full mag

Why are my dogs and cats so afraid of me these days ?