Dry fire vs. Live Fire

[shooting for M]

I am in a pretty unique situation. I have the opportunity to live fire just about five days a week at a range, but my wife hates that "stupid clicking noise" in the house but wants me to spend time with the family. The question is if I have five 1-1 1/2 hour segments a week either dry or live fire, should I dry fire instead of live fire a couple days a week? If so how many? I have been doing all my drills dry a couple times before I LAMR, but should I add more, maybe as many dry or more as I do live?

One reason I am asking is that a lot of people are making Master in 2 years from D class. I was C class, well still am in SS, but I shot in the mid 70% at WSSS, and my goal was to try to make Master by May of '09. Maybe I am not practicing enough? I have a range Diary, but I use the time I would use to make entries as a little dry fire practice on the weekend, maybe 30 minutes one day a week.

Whats YHO?

Thanks in adavance for your help,

Jason

[spook]

If it's just the clicking that bothers her, you can do great deal of transition drills without pulling the trigger. Same goes for almost all exercises, but just transitions and hi-readies are great. You don't always have to pull the trigger.

Work on the rest in a place where she can't hear you.

I would shoot at the range for about 2 hours (2 or three times a week) and do 0.5 hours of dry fire every day.

[coldchar]

Concur with the last shooter. Dry firing is eseential to developing the muscle memory for pulling a trigger which allows you to just concentrate on the sights. It also is the only way to learn to "roll" the trigger and to not let the gun drop after the trigger is pulled.

Live firing is the only way to learn to deal with the noise and recoil to "minimize" that pesky flinch.

I don't have enough time to follow his training routine but I live fire at the range at least once a week for between 100-150 rounds and do five- one handed sets of dry firing with both the weak hand and strong hand every single evening. I am seeing steady progress- trust me I need progress.

[Stefano]

Having the opportunity of being at the range 3/4 (and more) times every week is a unique privilege:

USE IT !!

You can (much more better) have your daily dry-fire session at the range, instead of at home !

But remember: it's not the quantity but the quality !

Practice makes consistent, not (always) perfect: if you train poorly you'll have a poor result at the matches.

In your training-plan dry fire is very important !!

Don't concentrate only on live-fire: you can always start any live-fire session at the range with a brief time of dry-fire exercises, forcing your attention not to the "time" but to your body coordination and the quality of your tecnique.

After 20/30 minutes of "dry-fire warm-up" you are in the BEST condition to start your live-fire session, repeating live-fire what you've just done in dry-fire.

IMHO, dry-fire practice is worth as much as (and propably more) live fire-practice !

[Micah]

One reason I am asking is that a lot of people are making Master in 2 years from D class.

Whats YHO?

Jason, I don't think that alot of people are going from D-M in two years just from dryfire alone. The biggest factor for me was a strong desire to become the best shooter that I could be. I journaled, studied from the better shooters, analyzed video from my matches, and practiced as much as I could while still balancing work and college.

If I had the time, money, and resources to go to the range 5 days a week to practice, I certainly would...but life happens. As a result, I dryfire like a madman and get to the range whenever I can (pretty rare right now).

The greatest benefit of dryfire is that you have no excuses not to do it. You don't have to drive far away, load bullets, or buy gas. All you need are some targets and 10-90 minutes a day. My wife also was not a fan of me running around the apartment, so when we bought a house I set up the garage as my dryfiring haven. Clicks, beeps, and all of the other noises are out of her earshot, and I can practice without interruption.

If you really want to get it done, you will find the time (and the space) to practice at home...and the range.

[bkeeler]

Having the opportunity of being at the range 3/4 (and more) times every week is a unique privilege:

USE IT !!

You can (much more better) have your daily dry-fire session at the range, instead of at home !

But remember: it's not the quantity but the quality !

Practice makes consistent, not (always) perfect: if you train poorly you'll have a poor result at the matches.

In your training-plan dry fire is very important !!

Don't concentrate only on live-fire: you can always start any live-fire session at the range with a brief time of dry-fire exercises, forcing your attention not to the "time" but to your body coordination and the quality of your tecnique.

After 20/30 minutes of "dry-fire warm-up" you are in the BEST condition to start your live-fire session, repeating live-fire what you've just done in dry-fire.

IMHO, dry-fire practice is worth as much as (and propably more) live fire-practice !

+1

BK

[bigtex84]

Having the opportunity of being at the range 3/4 (and more) times every week is a unique privilege:

USE IT !!

You can (much more better) have your daily dry-fire session at the range, instead of at home !

But remember: it's not the quantity but the quality !

Practice makes consistent, not (always) perfect: if you train poorly you'll have a poor result at the matches.

In your training-plan dry fire is very important !!

Don't concentrate only on live-fire: you can always start any live-fire session at the range with a brief time of dry-fire exercises, forcing your attention not to the "time" but to your body coordination and the quality of your tecnique.

After 20/30 minutes of "dry-fire warm-up" you are in the BEST condition to start your live-fire session, repeating live-fire what you've just done in dry-fire.

IMHO, dry-fire practice is worth as much as (and propably more) live fire-practice !

+2