Winter Training Ideas

I do 90+% of my training outdoors, to include dry fire. I find my dry fire sessions to be much more productive with a target that's actually 25 or 50 yards away. But with this cold snap I'm beginning to wonder how I can enhance my indoor dry fire training through winter. Indoors I currently do holding drills, and some dry fire (mostly 45 deg raises to target to train for 22 EIC TF & RF). 

What do you do during the winter? 

I don't have an indoor range at my disposal. And I'd rather not drop $500+ on an air pistol that has a different grip angle than my trusty 1911.

You could try adding a Mantis-X to your dry-fire routine.  It has some nice capabilities that I find make dry-fire more enjoyable and productive at a fairly reasonable price.

Behind enemy lines, I would consider sabotage!

Obviously you’re a resident of either NYS or Mass. So training options; if you can get to a place where you CAN at least shoot legally, set up a target stand and shoot at least 50 shots.  A friendly farmer. An abandoned quarry.  Someplace like that.  The really rough weather is about 6 weeks from my memories of living in that part of the world.  Even every other week?

I’m a Marksman but did learned how to shoot a rifle pretty well. It’s getting cold here too. The following are some of my winter plans to be running in the spring. 
Dry fire indoors…. A lot
Live fire weather permitting. 
Talk with a coach or someone who can help you improve
Develop a Training Plan for the winter and for after nice weather returns
Develop/Review Goals 
Develop/Improve your shot process
Visualization and positive self talk
Develop your match schedule for next year, include budget, ammo, etc
Take a class or read a book or two on shooting
Improve your physical fitness and general health and diet
Improve shooting specific physical qualities (grip, arm strength, abs, cardio, balance)
Get an eye exam
Identify any issues that have hinder your shooting ability and try to find a solution
Keep a shooting journal and review it often

Rush

I agree there is a difference between 20 feet and 50 yards, but that doesn't mean you can't improve and learn things.

You can extend the distance to the target when dry firing by using a mirror on the wall in front of you, angled slightly, and the target on the wall behind you.

All of Rush' ideas are good. I would add visualization and working on the mental game. With Winning in Mind and Bullseye Mind are two of the best books on mental training.

Thanks guys. I'm already doing all of those things (except the Mantis-X, which I'm looking into), but I think I'm going to kick everything up a notch through winter. I feel as though my shooting has plateaued in 2023 and want to come into 2024 strong. 

I'm in the middle of Bullseye Mind (a book that has mixed reviews here) and I am loving it. It resonates with my engineer mind a lot more than Lanny Bassham. But I do find Lanny to be motivational.

Sabotage, haha, that's funny. I live in Maryland, and I shouldn't complain because I live on 16 acres in farm country and shoot in my backyard. And I have an outdoor league I attend that shoots 25 yards through winter.

Strength train, cardio, confirm your vision Rx, and air pistol. That’s my fall/winter routine (oh, and trying to load all my ammo for the season).

Grip angle is irrelevant between AP and your real guns. You won’t forget how to shoot your real gun; AP doesn’t mean you can’t dry fire. The value is (1) keeping your eyes in shape with sight focus and (2) getting practice shooting a gun that’s exponentially more punishing with respect to follow through and grip pressures.

Plus, it’s fun.

I shoot service pistol almost exclusively. I was told numerous times to train with a dot. So I got a combination rail for my Nelson conversion and shot a dot. Dry fire with a dot improves hold and shows grip and trigger errors much better than iron sights. Live fire has similar benefits. I haven’t mounted a dot on my service pistol but it’s an Accuracy X and I have the hardware to do so. 

Early spring I plan to work through the Marine Training Manual. 

Rush

You could spend all winter indoor on these articles.

https://starreloaders.com/edhall/articlesand.html

One thing Jon Eulette emphasized with me is learning to get the shot off immediately, in 1 second, 2 seconds and 3 seconds. Consistently.  You learn to shoot fast, so to speak, because that’s usually your best hold.  Sometimes the day is different and things settle more slowly. Hence knowing how to do it in 2 seconds or 3.

I probably screwed that up in some way. Hopefully Jon will correct my misunderstanding or misexplanation.

Blazin wrote:I do 90+% of my training outdoors, to include dry fire. I find my dry fire sessions to be much more productive with a target that's actually 25 or 50 yards away. But with this cold snap I'm beginning to wonder how I can enhance my indoor dry fire training through winter. Indoors I currently do holding drills, and some dry fire (mostly 45 deg raises to target to train for 22 EIC TF & RF). 

What do you do during the winter? 

I don't have an indoor range at my disposal. And I'd rather not drop $500+ on an air pistol that has a different grip angle than my trusty 1911.

I know this may sound crazy but India has some very fine ranges mainly for ISSF shooting but you can shoot bullseye at 25 and 50 METERS.
Weather is good sunny mild winter about 18-20 Deg Centigrade.
Great place to visit, excellent for dental and eye care so you can have a month of good shooting, get your dental work fixed and any eye care like glasses etc made cheaply.
Let me know if anyone wants to do this.
India has a very strong ISSF shooting culture esp air pistol and air rifle.

+1 on Ed Hall's writings.  His analogy about learning to read is compelling, as is the observation that beginners are skeptical of what they are taught.

https://starreloaders.com/edhall/12PPC05.html

When you're first learning to read it takes work and practice just to sound out words and get through simple sentences.  Over time the subconscious takes over, the "baby steps" disappear, and you can read quickly just by sight.  Of course we read hours every day for a lifetime - imagine how good we would shoot dry-firing that much (and how boring life would be)!

I took typing in high school and wasn't great at it ("B"). In those days (IBM Selectric) you'd type on the paper and errors were hard to correct. In college I would have my GFs type my papers (different GF's but all quite good typists).  Later computer based word-processors were available, which made error-correction easy.  My work requires writing several short reports every day, and I could dictate the reports and pay an employee to type them.  But it was easier to re-learn typing and type the reports myself.  I now type >60 words/min with few errors, using both hands / QWERTY keyboard, just like Miss Harlan taught 50 years ago.  

Now to find a way to dry fire several times a day.....

Phoenix, AZ is closer than India, and the flight is cheaper. Just sayin...

Get a SCATT trainer and use it on your 1911.  I have been using one for a long time (started with the old USB model when I was chasing the distinguished rifle badge).  Now I have one of the fancy ones with the high speed camera and you can shoot it at any well lit target.  It gives awesome feedback.