Firearms Practice At Home

In "Drills You Can Run at (Nearly) Any Range" at Shooting Illustrated, the author asks: "If your range won’t permit practical live-fire self-defense training, what can you do?" If you are like me, you probably read the title and thought the author was going to discuss some simple drills you could engage in at even at a strict indoor range. But that is not the case. Rather, the article is discussing augmenting your live shooting at a range with dry fire practice at home. He explains:

    For professionals (and everyone else), dry-fire practice is essential for maintaining our skills. For every round fired at the range, it’s a good idea to dry-fire a minimum of five times. Dry-fire lets us concentrate solely on our firing procedure (grip, sight alignment/sight picture, focus on the front sight, trigger press and follow-through) without recoil. We can better observe our unforced glitches in our shooting processes. Smoothly practicing presentations of the handgun’s sights into the eye-target line (that imaginary line from your eyes to the target), seeing the sight picture and pressing the trigger creates what is casually known as “muscle memory” (muscles don’t have memory; it’s actually more properly described as “highly myelinated neural pathways” creating an efficient action after repeated and consistent repetitions).

    Basics for dry-fire drills are conducted with absolutely no ammunition in or near the dry-fire area: 1) Designate a “no-ammo zone” and strictly adhere to this standard; 2) Dry-fire takes place only in the no-ammo zone; and 3) Before practice, guns are checked and then double-checked to ensure they are clear. Firearm-safety rules are strictly adhered to—especially muzzle direction—avoiding pointing the weapon at someone or something you are not willing to destroy; 4) Dry-fire practice sessions should each be limited to less than 10 minutes. 

But it can be more than just drawing and presenting the firearm. 

Dry-fire practice is an opportunity to introduce more dynamic skills that cannot be attempted at most ranges. For example, in some self-defense situations, especially within several yards of a threat, moving while drawing your handgun creates surprise, introducing complexity for the attacker, presenting a moving target who’s fighting back. It’s also useful to draw when moving to cover, getting you into the fight more quickly.

He goes on to discuss some other skills you can practice in dry fire as well as some tools to make it better and/or easier like Laser Training Cartridges, a SIRT training pistol, and the Mantis X10 Elite which is a sensor that tracks "muzzle trace (tracking how you presented and centered the muzzle to the target), shot placement, trigger control, a shot timer and more." You can find laser training cartridges at Dry Fire Pro Shop but I've also found similar products on Amazon. 

    Although not mentioned in the article, you can also try "Dry Fire Training Cards" (alternate seller) which have 50 dry fire exercises and drills. There is companion book available, although I haven't looked it over. And apparently the author offers a 21-day video course to go with the cards for $37 (if you purchase the video course, you also receive a set of the training cards). And don't forget snap caps. They are good for practice in loading or unloading a weapon, clearing malfunctions, etc.

    Besides drawing and presentation, I will practice trigger presses starting out slow and from a rest to make sure that I keep as steady as possible when pulling the trigger. A laser training cartridge (or even a laser bore sighter) can help you spot wobble. I also practice trigger presses from different shooting positions and faster speeds, but the slow presses are a good practice of the basics. 

    And when I have the opportunity--i.e., my family is gone--I will sometimes practice room clearing in my house so I have a good idea of how to maneuver through my home with a chosen weapon, any issues that might arise with a particular weapon, blind spots and corners, etc.  Doing so can reveal some problems with a particular weapon. For instance, I have a couple red dot sights that automatically adjust to the light, and this is where I discovered that if I am in a dark area (e.g., a hallway) looking into a more lighted area, the automatic adjustment can drop the intensity of the red dot so low it is hard to pick up looking into the lighted area. This is a good time to have backup iron sights.