Dry-fire drills?

[duece71]

I have done this on occaison. I use a chest rig, empty mags (sometimes with Magpul dummy rounds inserted) and go to town. It is all I have until I find the time for a class.

[J8127]

I also disagree.

How hard is it to not shove a loaded magazine into your weapon, I mean really? I'm all for being safe and everything but I think we go slightly overboard at times. Put your live magazines out of the way and train.

[SOWT]

Well whatya know. Not exactly cost effective but there it is.

Christmas wish list just established.

[Shawn.L]

I just wish somebody would invent a chambered laser bore sight that is engaged when the primer area is struck by the firing pin.

I have good news for you

https://nextleveltraining.com/content/sirt-ar-bolt

and the trigger even resets.

[silvery37]

Dry fire drills are the single biggest thing you can do to increases your speed and weapon handling skills. About the only thing that cant be practiced with dry fire is recoil. Draws, target transitions, reloads, malfunction drills can all be done with dry fire. Once on a real range you are basically confirming that can you do with live ammo what you practiced dry. As far as safety, do what you are comfortable with. If you feel you will get live ammo and dummy ammo mixed up, dont use them. The only way a bullet can get in a gun is if a person puts it there.


-A timer will dramatically increases the results you get from dry firing. There are some sites on line that will do this for you but the best it to just buy a timer. I use mine like this: I set a delay (typically 3 seconds) and then a par time. Here is a an example of a draw drill. I hit the start button and stand ready, 3 seconds later the buzzer sounds I then draw and try to acquire a sight picture and pull the trigger on a target stuck on the wall before the par time sounds.

Of course you can practice without the timer but when you start to push yourself you don't have anyway to gauge yourself. With the timer you can start knocking off .1 and .05 seconds. You will see improvement!

-On many weapons you can rig the action so that you can keep pulling the trigger and get a more realistic trigger pull. It wont have the break but the trigger resistance and length of pull will be more realistic. For example on an AR lock the bolt back. This allows you to work the safety on and off and the trigger pull is more realistic than if you let the hammer drop. On a glock you can put a piece of note card in between the barrel hood and breach face. This pulls the pistol out of battery just enough to have a full length trigger pull. On DA/SA pistols you are kind of stuck with the DA pull unless you cock the trigger. On pistols with a hammer DA/SA, 1911, etc cut up a piece of a foam style ear plug and put it on the back of the slide over the firing pin. This will save a little wear on the firing pin, but it really makes it a lot quieter. If anyone is in the house with you they will thank you for muffling the incessant clicking noise of dry firing.


- There may be others but Steve Anderson has a book "Refinement and Repetition, Dry fire drills for dramatic improvement" It is a great book that has dry fire drills and pages for logging your times.


-In the book mentioned above is one of my favorite drills. It is a reload drill. Start without a mag in the gun. On the buzzer draw a mag and just insert it into the magwell. This gives the most efficient practice for a reload. There doesn't need to be a mag in the gun to start as long as you are remembering to hit the mag release. You can put one in there occasionally to make sure you are fully depressing the mag release but this saves you from picking up mags. On reloads, especially with pistols I have found that dummy rounds make a big difference. I found as I would start to push my speed the mags would sometimes get hung up on the feed lips. With a dummy round in the mag it will insert easier. If you push the drill farther you just integrate it with a target or trigger pull. You can take it all the way to a full el presidente drill.


- A way I typically practice with timer, again from the book: I do a few warmups a few tenths of a second above my par time. Practice reps at par time. Then I push myself a tenth or possibly more below the par time. You will see that as you practice you start to get more and more of your reps at the below par time speed. This will then become your new par time.


-If you practice regularly and have a way to measure your performance you will see improvement.