Dry fire? How much? How often?

[Gutshot John]

I've kind of gotten out of the habit of pistol dry-fire and my marksmanship is beginning to suffer.

I find it to be a valid technique, especially in these days of high ammo costs.

So people that do it...how often do you do it? and how many pulls/presentations do you practice?

Any techniques or recommendations?

I have a thing for lasers like beamhit, but there doesn't seem to be a quality model of reasonable price (Bullite sucks and the company went under).

[Jay Cunningham]

I considered starting a similar thread. There is a related one here: https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=21649

I have found myself dry-firing more frequently. Ideally I dry fire 15 - 20 minutes a night. I need to incorporate more presentations from the holster into my dry fire routine.

[uscbigdawg]

Step 1: Commit to doing it for 5-10 minutes per day. EVERYONE has that amount of time.

Step 2: Go to www.brianenos.com and pick up the dry fir books from Steve Anderson. They are full of drills you can do at home and YOU WILL improve.

Rich

[Jay Cunningham]

http://www.personaldefensetraining.com/showpage.php?target=dryfire.php

These aren't bad as a resource.

[RogerinTPA]

Any techniques or recommendations?

Wall Drill : Makes you concentrate on the front sight and trigger control.

Case drill: Put a fired round/case on your front sight and dry fire until you can squeeze the trigger without the case falling off.

Trigger reset drill: Have someone actuate the slide while releasing the trigger to the point of reset only, then dry firing from that point.

These are the one's used during LAV's pistol and carbine course for trigger control techniques, which are the major cause of crappy shooting. They all worked extremely well for the class and get's rid of "El Snatcho" fast!

[ZDL]

click, click, click, click, click, click what was the question? click, click, click,click...........

As much as I can.

Agree with the katar about implementing the holster. I need to do this more as well.

[Savior 6]

Treat it like a reflexive fire drill. Work on each seperate part and then tie them together. You might start out with a few basics and then you may notice "gaps" that you can fill in.

[Failure2Stop]

I do different drills for different guns/reasons.

I will do some dedicated trigger control/sight alignment work- it's best on a light colored background- focus hard of sight alignment while gradually increasing pressure on the trigger until the gun fires. I am watching the front sight for any movement. I do not spend a lot of time on this one, though it is great practice if shooting bulls-eye. I will generally limit it at 10 back-to-back perfect presses. For rifle I will do it mainly in the kneeling and standing, with some work from the sitting and prone. It prevents shooters from "making" the gun fire and allows you to work on "allowing" the gun to fire. Once again- this is simply sight alignment/trigger control work most suited for basic fundamental training and practice.

I also like to work the draw and rifle presentaitions with dry-fire. Pretty simple- draw and dry-fire or present and dry-fire. Begins to bridge the gap between fundamental skill and real-world skill. I don't spend much time with rifle on this one, but lots of time with the pistol (when I can). I can tell a big difference when live-firing if I have not done this for a while, especially if coming from concealment (as it is my least common training).

I also work on moving into positions rapidly. Pretty much anything that requires you to shoot after some action deserves to be practiced with dry-fire. Some of the dry-fire we do is safety oriented- we need to make sure the shooters can perform the skills safely. There are some things that should not be dry-fired in my opinon as recoil and recoil management play a large role in developing those skills.

Dry-fire is, however, simply one of many necessary types of training. It will most improve a new or poor shooter that is unable to apply basic fundamentals. The primary benefit of dry training is that is is free and easy.

[Gutshot John]

This is actually one of my reasons for liking lasers and wishing they made a durable/functional practice laser. It allows you to diagnose problems. If you get a neat little circle-dot on the target, you know you're trigger control is good. If the laser dot makes a streak or line like a comet, you know you've jerked the trigger.

I was actually taught that dry-fire does a lot to minimizing trigger jerk, because people usually jerk in anticipation of the "bang". By dry-firing extensively you're fooling your brain to believe the gun won't actually go bang and can focus on conditioning a consistent trigger-pull.

Thank you for all the techniques and drills.

The only downside (with a Glock) is that you can't do double-taps. I'd prefer a dry-fire system that allowed for trigger reset. Does anyone have much experience with the drop-in dry-fire trigger kits? I bought one but haven't installed. How close is the pull to functional configuration? Does anyone know of any other system that allows for multiple pulls?

[Failure2Stop]

The only downside (with a Glock) is that you can't do double-taps. I'd prefer a dry-fire system that allowed for trigger reset. Does anyone have much experience with the drop-in dry-fire trigger kits? I bought one but haven't installed. How close is the pull to functional configuration? Does anyone know of any other system that allows for multiple pulls?

Preferred method to practice pairs-
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm174/Fail2Stop/9mm.jpg

Working multiple shots (pairs or more) is more about recoil control.
If you think you may be anticipating the second shot you can simply chamber a single round and remove the magazine. Fire the first shot and then dry-fire the second shot, watching/feeling for anticipation. However, while a pre-ignition push is bad for shooting, a post-ignition push (recoil management) is necessary to some degree.

Of course, an airgun is also a method, but since recoil management is one of the critical elements it really won't build your skill.

If you really want to see a laser, just buy a cheap one and tape it to the gun. It doesn't have to be fighting quality- all you are looking for is dot bounce. Then again, the iron sights do the same thing.