Dry Fire FAQ

[Steve Anderson]

I get a lot of questions about the two books that seem to indicate that maybe people aren't reading them very carefully.

With that in mind, let's address the most common questions I get:

Question: How do a use a timer in dry fire? How does it "hear" the shots?

Answer: Every time you pull the trigger, yell BANG as loud as possible. Alternatively, load up a bunch of primers in empty cases and hand cycle the slide after every shot.

Sorry, couldn't help it.

Real Answer: My drills all utilize the "par time" feature found on most timers. The par time is a second tone that sounds after a programmed amount of time has passed.

So for each drill, you experiment until you find your current par time. You want to be done with the drill just before the par time sounds. That's your par time. Then you want to improve it.

Question: How do I do multiple shots in dry fire?

Answer: It varies per gun ("shots" will refer to dry fire sight picture trigger presses)

1911/2011: Drop the hammer on first shot, then continue to press the trigger with the hammer down for sunsequent shots.

Springfield XD: You could set the striker for the first shot, but I prefer to leave the striker unset. There's a roll pin in the slide that can break after a bunch of dry fire. It's easy to replace, but leaving the striker down avoids the problem. Just press the trigger for each shot.

Glock: The Glock has a "dead" trigger after the striker falls, but if you put a piece of paper or cardboard between the chamber and slide to hold it just out of battery, the trigger will move freely and this is excellent for dry fire.

Double Action Semi Auto: (Beretta, Sig, CZ) "Fire" the first shout double action, then release the just enough to move it back and forth without resetting the DA trigger. You could do every shot DA, but this is not ideal.

SW M&P: I don't know much about these, but it'll either be live trigger like an xd or dead trigger like a Glock. I'm sure someone can tell us.

Revolver: Pull the damn trigger!

(By the way, if anyone knows of a NEW revolver shooter that does not own either of my books, please let me know. I want to try an experiment.)

I want to leave ya'll with the most important principle of dry fire.

You MUST have an acceptable sight picture for each "shot" as required by each drill. This is YOUR responsibility. If you get sloppy and blaze through these drills blindly, you will do great damage to your shooting. Be honest with your self.

Now get to work.

[Garyg19]

Instead of yelling BANG I've always yelled "Pew, Pew", "Pew, Pew", and "Pew, pew, pew, pew pew,pew" (hoser stage).

In hindsight, I'm sure thats why I'm tanking the match classifiers.

[Steve Anderson]

That's a cowboy action shooting noise! THAT'S why you're tanking... Plus you're not making major!

Bang Bang Bang Bang is faster and more accurate.

[euxx]

What kind of experiment with revolver?

[kaiserb]

That's a cowboy action shooting noise! THAT'S why you're tanking... Plus you're not making major!

Bang Bang Bang Bang is faster and more accurate.

Steve,

You forgot to add the part about making sure you have the right movement with the revolver when yelling "Pew, pew, pew" as seen in the signature Lone Ranger style of swinging the gun down then firing

[Steve Anderson]

I'm pretty sure I can get his par time down on that.