Dry Fire Methods

First I would like to say hello to you all. I have been taking and using, bits and pieces of your advice for the past 3 or 4 years. Thanks to all of you my .22 is just south of expert and my .45 is high marksman.
  I am at a stuck so I am thinking about the basics again and for me, the dreaded Dry Fire! The boring part aside, I have spent weeks dry firing blank walls, targets and whatever else with no improvement. Then I don't dry fire.... It recently occurred to me that maybe there is a better method for dry fire than I was using. It would be greatly appreciated if some of you would put up your dry fire regiment if not your entire training program.

    Thank you in advance,
        Chris Baker

Here is a good start.

Proper dry fire training requires a lot of focus and energy. It isn't a matter of just holding the pistol up and pressing the trigger repeatedly.

Re: Dry fire routine suggestions...

 by CR10X 11/18/2019, 8:18 pm

I know this is not the answer you were looking for, but think about it for a minute or two before you dismiss the concept. 

Well, what do you need to work on?  Are you shooting mostly 10's with flyers or mostly 9's and limited X's? How do you feel before, during and after a match?  When was the last eye and physical exam?  

How good and consist is the grip, focus on front sight, strength and endurance, trigger process, trigger timing and continuous pressure, breath control and consistency, etc.?  What's the differential between the scores when you shoot a full match at the range by yourself and what you shoot in competition.  How many 10's do you shoot on average on a training string of 10 shots versus your average for a competition? Is your grip exactly the same at the end of a timed or rapid fire string as it was at the beginning? Does your focus seem to waver during the shot process? Chicken finger sometimes, all the time, slow fire or when the wind blows? 

The list goes on and on.  The shooting notes / journal or whatever you call it can point you in the right direction.  Just take some time to review and think through what you feel needs to be improved.  

For me it's not a routine, it's not practice, it is training by isolating the individual pieces of a complete shot process and getting better at the ones that need improvement.  

Generally I tend to start with simply training to complete the shot process with continual pressure on the trigger with exactly the same consistent timing for 10 correct reptitions in a row.  Then completely consistent grip pressure.  Then complete and perfect focus on a specific spot on the front sight (if the visual focus drifts to some other part, I have to start over).  Then a series of dry fire shots where the focus is seeing the wobble completely from the first settle until the hammer fall and shot call so well I can replay the movement wobble in my mind afterwards.  The list gets longer and longer....  And the reps are always how many can you complete without losing focus or getting distracted or just beginning to feel like you are going through the motions.  

Then at the range there can be other training and also "practice" where the is just firing matches just like a competition, scoring, etc., and keeping notes to review later for training. 

Here' something that I try to keep in mind when training. 














CR

But wait, there's more!

Some fundamentals questions...

 by Ed Hall Today at 11:47 am

- First, do some dry firing without looking at the gun, just to get a feel for what it's like to only focus on the trigger operation.  Repeat many times, working toward a determined operation.  Note how long it takes between initiation and hammer fall.

- Repeat the last step while looking at the gun from above, rather than via the sights.  If the guns jumps at all, modify your grip/finger placement/trigger operation and move back to the last step. Be conscious of achieving the same feel/timing of the last step.

- Move your attention to sighting on a blank surface.  Again, look for steady sights and the same feel/timing as previous.

- Move to the "distracting bull."  Again, work toward the same feel and timing from previous steps.  Be concerned only in matching the timing from trigger initiation to hammer fall, but add in a little follow through for evaluation.

And don't forget about Bruce Martindale's book, if you don't already have a copy.

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I'll also note tat I found the biggest improvement so far for me was focusing on my wrist and arm rigidity when dry firing. Your shooting will never improve if your wrist is free to flop around during or after the shot. (Follow through) Try to keep your hand, wrist, and arm as one member while dry firing/shooting. Any sighting/alignment correction should be made at the shoulder, not with the wrist.

As Bruce would say: "Squirt the Clown"!

Once again, a lot of good information. Thanks so much!
I have always used dry fire as just making sure my stance and grip were okay. Sight alignment and trigger finger location was good. Always felt like going through the motions. I never considered the importance of keeping everything consistent or even practicing the smooth one motion trigger pull. This will make things more interesting. How much time do you devote to a dry fire training session?
Thanks again, Chris

AC Baker wrote:How much time do you devote to a dry fire training session?

Only as long as you can maintain elevated mental focus. Once your mind starts to drift you are not getting good practice.

AC Baker wrote: How much time do you devote to a dry fire training session?

Usually about fifteen minutes per session for me.

I also hold for five seconds after the hammer drops when dry firing to increase my awareness of follow through. When I first started, I had a (bad) habit of lowering the pistol as soon as the shot broke during slow fire, and after the last shot of sustained fire.

I've been catching myself doing the same thing. Never considered training that out with dry fire until you mentioned it.
Had an interesting one a couple weeks ago. Did not get to shoot much this summer with work and other commitments. My .45 really tanked, couldn't figure it out. I was shooting practice one day and the shots are going all over as they had been. Thought it seemed like I was yanking the trigger. Started paying more attention and I was not just yanking the trigger but for some reason throwing the finger forward off the trigger after each shot. Took one box of ammo and concentrated on nothing but trigger pull. Raised my score by 21 points in the next match. Point is I could have, now will be, working this out in dry fire. Now I get it. Thank you.

I dryfire about 10-15 minutes which is about 10-20 times. 

  If it is a typical practice session I like to follow my process from raising the gun to pulling the trigger just like I would if I was in a match.  
  There are times (especially when I first started) where I would specifically concentrate on a fundamental
 Follow-through for example.  That element really helps not lowering your gun too soon after the shot is fired (which leads to lowering the gun before you actually fire it). 
  Hold
  Trigger Control
  Sight Alignment
  All of these have nuances that you will want to master.

My usual practice now puts all of those fundamentals together.  If I find myself struggling, I will revisit those fundamentals. 

Good Luck
John

Along with the physical part of dry firing, remember to add in the mental rehearsal (visualization) and also remember to do the mental part in separate sessions.

Dry firing should not just be standing there clicking the gun. Have a purpose and mix it up to keep it interesting.

It is all too easy to develop a process and trigger pull for dry firing and a different process when live firing. If you have ever experienced the trigger feeling heavier and longer when you load a live round or your wobble getting worse, that is it. It takes effort to dry fire the same as live fire and live fire the same as dry fire.

Dry firing is useful to identify patterns. When dry firing play back what your did and what you were thinking leading up to the good shots and the bad shots. Is there a pattern? 

Dry firing is a cheap way to test new techniques. How fast can you pull the trigger before it affects the shot? How does different finger pressure affect the shot? How quickly can you settle into middle and get the shot off?

Dry firing is a way to ingrain the techniques so they become habits. dry fire and keep score evaluating the shot ONLY on the technique you are trying to learn, not where you think the shot would have landed. I keep a cup of pennies and move one over every time I do the thing correctly and keep at it until I can do 10, 20 or 30 in a row that are "good".

Lastly dry firing is a way to practice for the match (probably what you have been doing). I find it more interesting to keep score. If the sights are aligned, somewhere near the middle and there is no jump from the trigger, then it is a good shot; move one penny over and think about what you did. If you get 5 in a row, or 10, or 20 think about what you are doing to make the shots good and write it down. Then when you get to the range read it and recreate it in the match.

And never quit your dry fire session on a mediocre or bad shot.

Always quit on as near a perfect as you can, if not a perfect shot.

Then use that to visualize until your next session.

Ed Hall wrote:Along with the physical part of dry firing, remember to add in the mental rehearsal (visualization) and also remember to do the mental part in separate sessions.

Ed, can you explain what you mean by mental rehearsal?

Sounds to me that dry firing is boring to you. It was to me. Then I got a Mantis X. It provides feedback in the form of a trace of your hold, trigger movement affecting your hold and follow through. It does NOT show you where you 'hit' the target. Only the hold. The challenge is to overlap all 3 colors of the trace. It's addictive. 

I have a bad habit of looking over or beyond the dot at the target. Mantis makes me focus on the dot.

Get the mount for an airgun and it can be adapted to other guns easily.

No financial interest.

It became boring because at the time my stance was okay, my grip was okay, trigger, dot and so on. I never put 2+2 together and used dry fire to fine tune each step of the shot process. By not being able to shoot much this summer I feel I lost many of the elementary skills I had. (Should have been dry firing).
Breaking down the shot process will make it much more interesting. I will also look into the mantis x, thank you.

Some years I can't get to the range much because of... life. Dry firing and visualization make a huge difference in how prepared I feel for the matches I do shoot.

AC Baker wrote:

Ed Hall wrote:Along with the physical part of dry firing, remember to add in the mental rehearsal (visualization) and also remember to do the mental part in separate sessions.

Ed, can you explain what you mean by mental rehearsal?

It helps your shooting if you tell your subconscious what you desire.  A mental rehearsal is going over in your mind what the perfect application looks and feels like.  After such a visualization, you conduct your dry fire shot and compare the rehearsal to the dry fire.

You should also do this for live fire, but when competing you should not be doing any evaluation geared to changing anything at that competition.

As you learn more about your dry fire (and live), your visualization will also advance.  At some point you should move toward the capability of rehearsing an entire event, but this should be left for a little bit later.


An anecdote:

In my early years of shooting I had the good fortune to hear some words of wisdom from Joe White, one of the past greats who was featured in the original Pistol Shooter's Teasury.  One time at the league:

Me: Wow! I just did as you suggested and it worked great.  I visualized five tens and then I fired a string of five tens.
Joe: Good, you're almost there.
Me: Almost?!?
Joe; Now visualize the five tens while you shoot them.

Good one Ed, thanks!
I pulled your Improving Hold and Trigger Manipulation article up out of the Stickys the other day. Been using it for training/dry fire guide. A lot of information and easy to follow. Thank you for that also. I will work Visualization in ASAP.

Lots of good stuff in this thread, and for that matter the whole BE-L site.

A big thanks to all who contribute and teach here!

I use the itarget pro system with accurize lasers (available on Ebay). I find it very accurate and designed for Bullseye shooters. It has helped me learn to hold steadier and to squeeze the trigger gently and correctly. I tried other systens (e.g., SCATT) and chose this system. It has helped me make expert. And, I have shot a few Master and one National Match High Master scores. You can download the software and targets for free. I am not associated with the company. Two of the settings are important (laser sensitivity and hue). It maintains your scores, plots the slope, and keeps a pic of the target. If you want to chat about it, email me at mamansell@gmail.com. I have watched other shooters improve with it as well. It is like weight training - you have to use it in order to see results.

Thank you for this thread. I’m new to competition, and everything I read here helps me with understanding the process. 

Don