General Dry Fire Stuff

[j1b]

So it's been cold here lately and I haven't hit the range much. I have however been dry firing pretty hard. Couple of cool things I'm working through that I thought was worth exploring or at least sharing.

First, I used to use benchmark beeps on the timer a lot but haven't over the past year or so. Recently I started implementing them in and I gotta tell ya they are fun! Hard, but fun. Interesting to "see what you see" when in one drill you give yourself 4 seconds to do a run, reload, drop it a second which is probably the "good" time, reload, drop it another second to see how fast you can go. I've had a ton of fun with it. It wears me out - but still fun.

Second is long strings of dry fire. I've started doing drills that involve 18-24 shots. While not revolutionary, it adds a complexity to dry fire that seems equivilant to a match type environment. Especially if you tie in tight benchmark times, or par times in general.

Another is I've been dry firing with a lot of no shoots. Nothing I've done in the past, but challenging and frankly, I see things that I've done wrong in the past.

I still have my standard "revision" of the baseball standards that I've integrated in (tonight I did it with no-shoots) but it's great to really push the edge. I've got three targets at 10 yards. One is open. To his left is a head shot with a no-shoot underneath, 7 yards to their right is a shooter with his right side (to the A) covered with a no-shoot. I did a drill tonight where I wanted to draw, hit all three twice, reload, do it again, reload, do it again. I gave myself 7 seconds. It was doable - but tough! Interesting having to rush but see what you needed to in order to hit the head shot. Also, hard not to push into that no-shoot on the right.

Anyhow - point is that I've really thrust a lot of demand into my dry firing routine. Consistent drills, things I want to work on, hard drill, ending with the consistent drills again.

JB

[XRe]

Jack, are you using full size targets, or some scaled down size??

[j1b]

A little of both actually. For the drill I mentioned above they were full size but I use a lot of scaled targets to mix up transitions and target acquisition too.

One other thing Sam said a while ago that I forgot was the quick load while moving. I set up a drill where I would be "in a box" with another box touching it to the left or right. The drill is to draw on a 10 yard target, reload while moving to the other box (basically one step) and hit the next target. 1.7 secs is very doable, but the one step makes it interesting and a little more dynamic.

JB

BTW I'm using a limited gun. Jake probably looks at my drills and laughs

BWWWAAAHHHAAAAHHHHHAAHHHHAAAA

[Jake Di Vita]

You crazy bro.

I like your routine, it got to the point where I was doing something very similar to that every day. Lately I've just been keeping it simple though with mainly draws and reloads and a few other miscellaneous things...I'll post a routine one of these days if anyone is remotely interested (probably not huh? )

Kinda strange that I have come nearly full circle now....I feel I get the vast majority of my improvement from live fire. The main thing I work on now is getting in and out of positions, and while you can do that a bit in dry fire, I've found live fire to be at least 10 times more effective for developing this skill.

[Matt Cheely]

You crazy bro.

I like your routine, it got to the point where I was doing something very similar to that every day. Lately I've just been keeping it simple though with mainly draws and reloads and a few other miscellaneous things...I'll post a routine one of these days if anyone is remotely interested (probably not huh? )

Kinda strange that I have come nearly full circle now....I feel I get the vast majority of my improvement from live fire. The main thing I work on now is getting in and out of positions, and while you can do that a bit in dry fire, I've found live fire to be at least 10 times more effective for developing this skill.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK Jake, post it up. We all want to see how to make it to GM

[j1b]

Dry fire routines go through ebs and flows for me. Sometimes long and tough like I mentioned above, sometimes basic.

The difference between Jake and Jack is that you've accelerated yourself into this GM position that now only needs maintenance and competitive finesse.

I'm a little different. I've got to get everything back that I've lost, and then add a little to get up to speed. Different challenge.

Once I feel like I'm close, my dry fire routine in general will slow down. Probably 3 days a week versus 6, and probably more basic unless I notice things in a match that I need to work on.

The good thing though is that I do know how to do all of this stuff. In dry firing today I am learning things I would have never learned had I stayed active. I wouldn't have thought to do some of these things because I was already "there" (wherever the hell "there" is) So it's cool to know what I knew, and to push myself into a zone where I am saying "I know this is true, but this other thing gets me better results" So it's all good.

Shitty day today, like many day's these past few months. Dry fire was a 20 minute session that was expedited so I could grab a beer. I know - I should work harder at this stuff. Reality is we all work hard enough - I need to take my time when I need it. Winning nationals isn't a reality for me, nor is it a priority apparently.

JB

[XRe]

I'm a little different. I've got to get everything back that I've lost, and then add a little to get up to speed. Different challenge.

I might start picking your brain on this one, Jack I'm in the same boat, and making the switch back using an iron sight gun - I haven't shot one much at all for the past 8 years!!! One goal I have is to *really* learn how to reload this time around - that was a weak point before, which I'd just started to figure out. Now I have no choice - the single stack gun ain't going to tolerate sloppiness, here....

Winning nationals isn't a reality for me, nor is it a priority apparently.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't count yourself out... I don't find "Win such and such" to be a good goal, anyhow (doesn't allow for the performance of others)... but you never know what you can do if you don't put limits on it, either... :)