Dry Fire Practice: what do you do?

[obsessiveshooter]

Okay, I do know what dry firing a gun is. But I'm not sure how to maximize dry fire practicing. Right now I just practice my draw and changing through all the mags on my belt, lining up my sights after the draw and each mag change on some spot on the wall. Also, I'm shooting a glock so pulling the trigger can only be done one time in this routine.

This will certainly help me speed up my mag changes and time to my first shot, but for some reason I feel like I'm missing out on something.

[Jman]

Welcome.

Here's a good primer...

[Not-So-Mad Matt]

The canonical answer is: buy Steve Anderson's book.

Edited June 13, 2014 by Not-So-Mad Matt

[motosapiens]

The canonical answer is: buy Steve Anderson's book.

That's not a bad way to start, but I would have saved some time and bad habits by going a little deeper at the start. I really like the way ben stoeger illustrates the relationship between dry-fire and live-fire.

I personally do a few minutes of white-wall trigger control, some stock 3-target drills at various distances, and with partial hardcover, and some movement/mini stages, and I made some half-scale cardboard poppers that I have been using lately to mix up paper and steel targets.

I think the movement drills have been extremely helpful to all facets of my shooting. trying to see the sights when you are moving really increases your awareness of them.

[nitrohuck]

I've printed out a few reduced targets and have them pinned to a corkboard on my living room wall. I often run classifier stages, and I enjoy the El Prez since it covers so many different aspects of shooting.

Mix it up, do things one handed, both strong and weak, practice reloads, etc.

[Reshoot]

I started with Steve's Anderson's Refinement & Repetition . . . a pretty darn good dry fire routine. However, I do not agree with his empty mag well policy. I use loaded magazines, loaded with dummy rounds, of course.

I do follow Steve's practice of no trigger work during dry fire. I have found live fire practice, using the different triggers pulls outlined in Ben Stoeger's book, to be the most beneficial to me.

[glockified]

Either Steve Anderson or Ben Stoeger would be a good place to start. I think Steve Anderson's Refinement and Repetition is better for beginners, and Stoeger's books are better once you've been doing it for a while. Compared to trying to dry fire without structure, either one will work well for you. If I try to make up my own routine, it's too easy to get lazy. You may hate some of the drills in the books, but they are good for you and will make you a better shooter.

[obsessiveshooter]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Looks like I'm going to be getting a book. Steve Anderson's seems to be the consensus.

[mrpredictable]

What's the best way to practice live fire?

I have Ben Stoegers new book and am wondering if I should just take some of those drills or use something else.

Also is anyone using any apps for dry fire? I found Make Ready lite would pick up dry fire shots but the surefire app will not.

[Jayohee]

Okay, I do know what dry firing a gun is. But I'm not sure how to maximize dry fire practicing. Right now I just practice my draw and changing through all the mags on my belt, lining up my sights after the draw and each mag change on some spot on the wall. Also, I'm shooting a glock so pulling the trigger can only be done one time in this routine.

This will certainly help me speed up my mag changes and time to my first shot, but for some reason I feel like I'm missing out on something.

Stick a Q-Tip in the breach before closing the slide. This will let you press the trigger without having to constantly rack the slide. You won't get the striker to fire but it will allow you to practice your trigger control

[DeputyDog25]

What I try to do is just repetition after repetition of drawing and getting the correct grip and sight picture sometimes without even pulling the trigger. I will do trigger pull every other day, but right now the most important thing to me is just to make sure that my draw, grip and sight picture become nothing but habit every time the gun leaves the holster. I also have a couple of different holsters that I use on regular basis, rotating them as my clothing dictates, so I have to make sure that my draw from each holster is also perfected. I am retired LEO, but I still need to practice everyday so that my muscle memory stays the way it should.

[sidnal]

We

[LHshooter]

Okay, I do know what dry firing a gun is. But I'm not sure how to maximize dry fire practicing. Right now I just practice my draw and changing through all the mags on my belt, lining up my sights after the draw and each mag change on some spot on the wall. Also, I'm shooting a glock so pulling the trigger can only be done one time in this routine.

This will certainly help me speed up my mag changes and time to my first shot, but for some reason I feel like I'm missing out on something.

Stick a Q-Tip in the breach before closing the slide. This will let you press the trigger without having to constantly rack the slide. You won't get the striker to fire but it will allow you to practice your trigger control

Thanks for passing along that great idea about the Q-tip. Dry firing my Glock with "simulated" trigger pulls was not doing it for me. Did as you said and what a difference! At least for me dry firing will be more realistic.

[jayjay1]

I´ve bought both books, but would recommend Steve Anderson´s book higher for beginners.

His second book is for the intermediate and tells a lot about how to prevent mistakes and includes a lot of match tips.

There was a red yarn for me which brought me all the way from the very first basic drill to the very last match sequence.

Honestly I still do a lot of those basic drills before matches.

I always felt like getting faster or making progress comes through dry fire training, and life fire is just to prove it for true.

Just my 2cents.

DVC,

Jay