What's your FAVORITE semi-auto "dry fire" drill?

I've been doing smooth draw/engage/make it safe dry-fire drills damn near every day for 19 years.

Iso, strong hand, off hand, mag change, strong hand mag change, off hand mag change, forward/left/right movement.

I alternate with a Government model, 442, and now an SR9.

Takes about 30 minutes.

Before ammo went up, I shot dummy drills and IDPA or USPSA matches on alternating Mondays. Now I just shoot dummy drills outdoors and dry fire.

Couple times a year I shoot from the kneeling and prone positions.

I shoot at Vickers and Bad Guy targets.
 
Before ammo went up, I shot dummy drills and IDPA or USPSA matches on alternating Mondays. Now I just shoot dummy drills outdoors and dry fire.
Dusty, what exactly do you do for your dummy drills? (drawstroke, fire, re-holster? clear malfunction, etc?)

And, this also reminded me...does anyone remember the little red practice ammo that had a black plastic reusable "bullet" inserted into a red plastic casing, that was simply "primer" operated? You could shoot them in your garage/basement without making too much noise. WTF ever happened to those (or something like them)?
:uhh:
 
Dusty, what exactly do you do for your dummy drills? (drawstroke, fire, re-holster? clear malfunction, etc?)

And, this also reminded me...does anyone remember the little red practice ammo that had a black plastic reusable "bullet" inserted into a red plastic casing, that was simply "primer" operated? You could shoot them in your garage/basement without making too much noise. WTF ever happened to those (or something like them)?
:uhh:

Sounds like you're talking about Snap Caps
 
This isn't a "dry fire" technique, but another technique I've used to help new/ trouble shooters, and/ or experts alike, is to stagger their magazines with dummy rounds and live rounds. I've had some good success working with this technique just to identify the problem to the shooter. Some of us are thick headed, and this is a no brainer explanation once you see it in action.

This is done on a live/hot range, of course.

It's a good way to highlight problems with your trigger control. Really shows the shooter what you are talking about when you tell them to stop anticipating/slapping/jerking the trigger.
 
The dummy drill I do is I have my wife pass the handgun over my right shoulder after she either loads it or doesn't.

When I press the trigger for the first round, the muzzle shouldn't move one fucking iota if there's no bullet.

It doesn't work with the SR9, though.
 
The dummy drill I do is I have my wife pass the handgun over my right shoulder after she either loads it or doesn't.

When I press the trigger for the first round, the muzzle shouldn't move one fucking iota if there's no bullet.

It doesn't work with the SR9, though.

Good for determining recoil anticipation, or jerk.

One of the old methods with a wheel gun, is for a friend to load it with less than full load. The watch the sight alignment/barrel, it fires or it doesn't, there should be no movement. Good way to remove the flinch from recoil anticipation.

On a auto, use dummies. Say load 8 rounds, X amount of dummies. In some random order so the shooter can not figure what is next.


Dry firing is good for building the muscle movement to work the trigger with out moving the sight alignment. Often in moving the finger, the hand would move too. Learning to move the finger straight inline with the trigger w/o any hand movement.

A good read, is Zen Archery, similar mental exercises that is used for using a bow will work with a firearm.

Also, learning to snap shoot helps. There are pros and cons to squeezing and snapping a trigger. Squeezing is great for static target and shooting from a rest position. Snapping works great for a dynamic environment.

BTW< snapping is not jerking.
 
Sounds like you're talking about Snap Caps
No, this was a round that actually fired a plastic bullet, but only had a normal primer, and no powder. The casing was plastic, with a normal primer in it, and a black plastic (reusable) "bullet" was fired from it.

I can't remember WTF they were called, but they were great garage/basement practice, and would also be good for starting shooters.
Almost ZERO recoil, so NOT 100% realistic...but better than a BB gun.
 
HERE THEY ARE!
Looks like USAC was the original manufacturer, and it looks like SPEER may still produce them:
plasticbullets2.jpg


USAC (United States Ammunition Company) was around in the mid 1980's. They had a line of ammo that was plastic cased and made to reload by hand. Meaning, you deprimed and reprimed with their special tool and pushed the bullet in with your fingers. I know this sounds wild, but I tried few boxes when it came out. I still have a few of the cases with the bullets and a factory info sheet around here.
 
I've been doing smooth draw/engage/make it safe dry-fire drills damn near every day for 19 years.

Iso, strong hand, off hand, mag change, strong hand mag change, off hand mag change, forward/left/right movement.

I alternate with a Government model, 442, and now an SR9.

Takes about 30 minutes.

Before ammo went up, I shot dummy drills and IDPA or USPSA matches on alternating Mondays. Now I just shoot dummy drills outdoors and dry fire.

Couple times a year I shoot from the kneeling and prone positions.

I shoot at Vickers and Bad Guy targets.


I couldn't agree with you more brother. I remember one school I went to, the first day was 14 hours of dry fire and then every day after training it was a couple hours of dry fire. I know it helps, but so does all the other things you have mentioned while dry firing. Even if the guy is a civilian, he still needs to know how to change mags, shoot off hand, weak hand, prone, kneeling ans so on. Good advice, but I am sure we have been to some of the same courses.
 
I couldn't agree with you more brother. I remember one school I went to, the first day was 14 hours of dry fire and then every day after training it was a couple hours of dry fire. I know it helps, but so does all the other things you have mentioned while dry firing. Even if the guy is a civilian, he still needs to know how to change mags, shoot off hand, weak hand, prone, kneeling ans so on. Good advice, but I am sure we have been to some of the same courses.


I've only been to one, but it was a long one. :D
 
Yup, I used to use them in the garage, and they were great to work on trigger/sight allignment "slow fire" (hunting style) at the time.

But I'm beginning to think they'd be good to intro the wife to the .38, instead of buying a complete .22 to start her on.
And WTF, I could play a bit of 5-7yd (garage distance)draw/present/fire practice with them also.

I called Speer and they still make them. So, I'm working on contacting my "local vender" for a couple boxes. Of course, that's assuming ANYONE can find pistol primers to use with them these days! Wish I would have saved the ones I had! :cool:
 
Hard to get primers now, anyway. :uhh:


This may be worth looking into because THEN you're not just focusing on the laser.
I think it only turns on for a moment, to give you feedback about your shot placement, correct?
Looks pretty cool! :cool:

Link here: http://www.beamhit.com/ttg/m/_general/catalog2005.html


I wonder if they would be hard to make? Let say sleeve some brass so it can take a plastic plug that is sightly undersize (Lands dimension minus a few 1/1000s) Cut some plastic rod to say 3/4 inch long.

Sleeving may not be necessary, a slight roll crimp to give a better fit between case and plastic pellet.
 
Speaking of drawing from cover and such, one of the clubs I shoot at put these up of yours truly during a few IDPA stages. Yanking out mags for example from cover slows things down quite a bit. I'll take a slow hit over a fast miss any day, but I was slower then I would like here:

[YOUTUBE]RD4xKKqY_mA[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]18w6-Nbo6gg[/YOUTUBE]

PS, if you don't shoot IDPA some of that might not make sense.
 
Good stuff Will! :cool: Will be looking into local IDPA the next couple weeks...not sure if it's popular here during the hot part of the summer. But, it's time.
 
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