Dry Fire Advice Needed

[Rockclimbg]

I've been very diligent with my dry fire practice this past winter (5+ days a week using Steve's book) but after getting outdoors again and re-reading Brians book for the 4th time. I think I may be missing the boat.

I've been working on efficiency of movement when drawing, reloading etc. Breaking everything down and seeing times improve. However, I feel like I'm too caught up in the mechanics and have lost sight of what is really important, that being; keeping my focus in the moment of every shot. Instead, when I'm on the range, my focus is on my trigger finger, my grip, my stance, my mag well etc. All kinds of "stuff" that Brian's book says to not focus on as your shooting.

So my question is where does everyone focus when dry firing. Do you work on mechanics? Do you treat it with the same mind set as live fire? What kind of focus are you using when dry firing?

I guess I expected better results coming out the gate after a winter of dry fire. Re-reading Brians book is really helping me get my mind together, it's amazing how you can find a new tid-bit every time you read it that brings about a personal revelation in your shooting.

thanks for any insight/advice.

Rockclimbg

[Pierruiggi]

The following text is a part of my second post in this forum, in november 2004. I'm talking about dryfiring at different speeds concentrating on different aspects. Basically, when slow I focus on the technical and physical aspects; at normal speeds I focus more on the visual plane; and at my speed limits I focus on relaxing to improve my "normal" speed.

1. Whenever I say I do something in slow motion, I focus (mentally) in the "feel" of what I am doing through the entire range of motion, I ask myself questions such as "does this feel natural or comfortable?" "why not?" "would I economize some movement by doing this or that?" "is my body (including my eyes) in tension?" "how can I alleviate that?"

As a second priority, I train the muscles in my eyes that control the distance focus, for example; as I start a draw, I am looking at a specific point in the target, seeing it in a crisp, sharp manner, like when you are reading something; when my arms move, I begin to change the focus more towards me, I think of my focus distance as if it were an object travelling towards or away from me in a straight line, not unlike a target in those indoor ranges where you mechanically bring the target to you to review it and away from you to shoot it; so, this way, when the gun enters my peripheral view, it is already in focus. All this while, I've continued to keep my aim, meaning the point where my pupils are nailed, in the spot I picked earlier in the target when it was in focus.

2. When I say I do things at normal speed, I'm talking about my comfort zone. The speed at which I can do the motions as technically correct (or precise) as in slow motion, but faster. This is the balance between correct motion and speed, without sloppyness. This is my smooth zone.

In this state, I concentrate more on the visual aspect, and keep in second place the "feeling" aspect.

3. At WARP speed (i recognize I blatantly stole this term from this very forum), I try to "extend" my comfort zone, to the point where I have trouble being smooth, and once in a while I become a little sloppy, gripping incorrectly, missing the magazine well, etc.

At this speed, my primary mental focus goes to properly coordinate my muscles to work in the right sequence to perform a given activity, like drawing, present the gun, etc. The "feeling" aspect gets reviewed once the activity has ended. For example, I draw and dryfire a called shot, only then I freeze in place and "feel" everithing from a tactile point of view. That means "Well, I drew and fire a shot, it hit the target where I wanted to. Fine. Now, how am I standing? Where are my hands on the gun? If I had to fire another shot, could I do it based on my stance and grip?"

Doing things at WARP speed allows me to later do the same things in my normal speed faster.

[Paladin]

nothing unusual with what has happened to you...it's all about where you are placing your focus and it was on mechanics!! That is the easy part ...

You now need to rise above this and place your focus on letting it happen!!

[Steve Anderson]

Rock,

What you're experiencing is very common. Dry fire is building mechanics, shooting is shooting.

I'll tell you this: I never think about grip, stance, reloads, or any shooting mechanics when I'm competing. I do think about where I want to be at a certain place in the stage, or any other stage "keys" that may exist.

If you have dry-fired all winter and are burning powder for the first time in awhile, your experience is even more normal. Guns are loud and jump around when they're fired...in dry fire they're completely under our control. It's possible that your dry fire/live fire balance has swung too far dry. I too have made that mistake, and document that in the book.

In re-reading your post, I have not given much conscious thought to my mechanics in dry fire in a while...I just draw...I just reload...I may see an area for improvement, but I don't really go looking to analyze the technique that much.

I wish I could be of more help...just even out the balance in your practice and shoot!

SA

[Ben Stoeger]

Rock,

When I am dry fireing, I do focus on mechanics. I get the "feel" for whatever technical things I am working on.

Dry fire is different than live fire, and I treat it differently.

Just relax, and focus on hitting your A's. Stick with your practice, you will get results.

[Rockclimbg]

Thanks for the advice guys, it helps to get things into perspective.

I made it to the range today and conciously changed my focus from where it has been all spring (ie: isolating the trigger finger, maintaining my grip etc) and just shot the targets as fast I could hit A's. My splits and transitions went down and everything seemed to be just happening....almost like it was too good to be true, (just for the record, I wasn't shooting that well, just well by my standards.) It actually felt uncomfortable to not be thinking about some of that other "body mechanics" stuff and to "trust" that my body/mind will do the right thing....I mean, I don't want to be milking the grip, moving my head when I draw, have my weight on the backs of my feet, etc, etc, etc. It's actaully hard to let all that stuff go even knowing it's not what I need to be focusing on when I shoot.

It's hard for me to grasp how we can spend so much time and energy working on things like our draw, or reloads, etc, but then in order to be really good at them, we can't really work on them while we are doing them, they have to just happen.

Steve,

You mentioned the "dryfire/livefire balance," is this to mean that there should be a balance to the point of cutting back on dry firing when you can not live fire? I imagine a lot of northeastern folks can't get to the range in the winter for one reason or another, what is the best way to cope with this and still improve your shooting?

Thanks for all the replies and exspecially thank you to Brian for a great book, I always think I should go through it with a highlighter each time I read it but then I realize, just about the whole dang thing would be bright yellow!

Thanks again.

Rockclimbg

[Harmon]

dry fire is only effective if you incorperate it in a complete training regiment.

I dry fire 3 days a week

live fire 2 days a week

take one day off

shoot one match each weekend.

i normally shoot 300 rounds in practice, 150 at the match and dryfire for 2 hours each night.

to me dryfire is the most boring aspect of training...and you MUST be honest for it to work.

to me alot of it is doing mag changes and reacting to the start signal.

static transitions only help on classifiers and speed shoots.

[Jake Di Vita]

I totally disagree.

Any handling of the gun is good...in fact I'm known for just picking up my fire stick while I'm on the phone or at the computer or anything, getting a sight picture or hitting the trigger once or twice then putting it down.

It is effective any way you do it....to get the most out of it you need to dry fire on what you need to work on as often as you can.

I also make sure to dry fire the night after a live fire session...I think that is something you cannot leave out of your training.

From what I've found....dry firing is only boring if you look at it that way. I look forward to dry firing every night because I know it is bringing me one step closer to my goals.

Dang...I wish I would have known static transitions don't help on field courses....

[Dalmas]

Rock! I got caught up in the same and my fix was switching my dry fire routine from technical drills to mainly shoot different kind of stages. I can turn my house into 32 different stages, each emphasising a different technique. It's the way forward for me.

Right now I'm building a swinger and drop turner to use in dryfire. I predict a lot of moving and cut targets at the WS, so i better be ready for em' ..

[Rockclimbg]

I also make sure to dry fire the night after a live fire session...I think that is something you cannot leave out of your training.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I too have found that I get more out of dry firing after a range session. For lack of a better phrase and explanation, "the feel" of the gun recoiling, timing, etc is more toward the front of my mind when I dryfire after a range session.

After some experimenting and a local match over the weekend, I've had a chance to really play with shifting my mindset from mechanics to "shooting in the moment." I shot best match ever and it didn't feel hard, just fun and rewarding.

Right now, I'm consciously working on mechanics when I want to work on mechanics/efficiency, etc and then trying to switch over the just shooting when doing live fire and even during dry practice, I'm surprised at how for me, it takes a conscious effort to switch my mindset.

I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing by working on mechanics, meaning, working on how I bring the gun back for the reload or how I clear the holster and bring the gun up.

Should I just focus on the task at hand and let the mechanics work themselves out over time or should there be conscious effort applied to working on efficiency?

Thanks for all the replies guys, it helps a lot.

Rockclimbg

[1911Shooter]

To all of you DRY FIRE GRUS, I need HELP.

1. What size targets do you use?

2. How do I DOUBLE TAP with a SA 1911 pistol?

(That’s all I own)

3. I can set up at 3 to 7 Yards in my garage, or

Almost 30 Yards outside, in the yard.

4. Want to set up 2 to 6 targets, all for

DRY FIRE PRACTICE ONLY.

I just ordered Steve Anderson’s book, I’m sure

it will answer some of these questions but,

I CAN’T WAIT must continue to practice

DAILY 30 to 60 MINUTES.

Thank you for all your inputs, 1911shooter

[Flexmoney]

What is a Double Tap ???

[Loves2Shoot]

A double tap is the devil's way of keeping shooter from learning how to shoot.

I use a variety of sizes of targets from full size IPSC targets to 1" square pieces of tape. You need to learn to which sight picture you need to use for different shots so mixing it up can be a good thing.

Trigger prep is a big key for dry fire, do a search

[Steve Anderson]

On the balance of live fire and dry...the answer is, of course: It depends

There is no perfect balance and it will differ from shooter to shooter and inside of that, it will differ depending on what your current strengths/weaknesses are.

For example, I am currently having some issues with surgical shot placement with my XD. So dry firing transitions is not appropriate for me to address that issue. I will shift my training a little to address the weakness, and very soon it will become a strength. Problem solved.

What my book seeks to do (successfully for me and many others )

is wire the subconscious to perform the functions that are conscious for most novice/intermediate shooters. This means you will never think or worry about your reload again. Turning draw? who cares, just do it.

Flyin40 (John F) is another great example. He has really been working on transitions, and it shows in his shooting. he went from bang bang.........bang bang to bangbangbangbang. He turned a nasty weakness into a formidable strength.

About the multiple shot question in dry fire...after the hammer falls on the first shot, continue to press the trigger with the hammer down. Most if not all 1911s have enough overtravel to provide a fairly realistic feel with the hammer down.

BTW, THE DOUBLE TAP IS THE WORST IDEA IN THE WORLD IN COMPETITION. I SEE MANY GOOD SHOOTERS APPROACH A TARGET THEY DOUBLE TAPPED AT 10 YARDS AND HONESTLY WONDER WHY THEY CAN'T FIND A SECOND HOLE. DO NOT DOUBLE TAP.........EVER.

Sorry for not using my indoor voice on that last bit,

SA

[alma]

the Glockfaq.com website has some scaled IPSC targets.

http://www.glockfaq.com/asp/targets.asp?go...tition/ipsc.pdf

They are 1/3rd size and I use to have them hanging all over my walls. I have seen other sites with more sizes.

[smokshwn]

To one up Alma's targets, I took the scaled targets off of glockfaq.com and taped them to cardboard. I then took a thumbtack and punched along all the scoring lines before cutting them out. So I now not only have targets the right color but I also have small scoring lines just like the real thing.

Craig