Physical skills development; is another area LESC focuses their training of law enforcement and security professionals. The development of firearms skills, one and two-man tactics, CQB techniques, impact weapons and OC Spray are a few of the training programs we provide… In this post I want to focus on the concept of dry fire practice, to both develop and enhance the fundamentals of shooting.When it comes to firearms practice we have all heard the excuses; I do not have time to get to the range, ammunition is expensive and ranges are few and far between and I don’t feel like driving 50 miles to the nearest range. Up here in the Northeast ranges are indeed hard to find and even harder to schedule time on. Due to liability issues a lot of ranges require a range master to be present for shooting to take place. So with this in mind, I want to talk about dry-fire practice and its ability to take the problem shooter, average shooter and expert to new improved levels of marksmanship.Dry fire practice is so important to developing marksmanship skills and individual confidence in your ability to hit what you intend to. You can shoot many rounds, but the real development of your skill comes through repetition of proper technique. The level of repetition needed can be reached through dry-fire training. Dry-fire training is simply practicing the fundamentals of shooting without any live ammunition. You do and experience everything but the bang and cycling of the action. This type of practice allows you to develop and hone your skills in safely and proficiently manipulating the weapon and hitting what you aim at.To conduct dry-fire practice, it is very important you practice in the safest environment possible. Find an area with a safe backstop and an area that is private and no one can enter to cross the path of the muzzle. What I have done is hung my bulletproof vest in an area against a wall as a precaution and safety enhancer. For a target you can use the blank wall, post a target of your choice, or the bulletproof vest will suffice as a viable target for dry-fire practice. How often should you dry-fire practice? The answers lies in the type of shooter you wish to become. In this Blog we are talking about professionals who carry a firearm as part of their duties. Therefore I make the leap that we should all be striving to be outstanding with our abilities to safely and proficiently manipulate and shoot our firearms. So with that in mind a general rule should be 10 -20 minutes 3-5 times a week… This will greatly improve all your skills.
Some rules for Dry-fire Practice:
- First clear and safe the intended weapon for dry fire practice
Download the live rounds into the live round container. Both weapon, speed loaders or magazines are empty
- Once you have downloaded the ammunition take the live ammunition container and store it in another room.Retrieve dry-fire target and place it in a safe direction. Try to put this at waist level to develop a more realistic approach.Inspect the intended training magazines or speed loaders for live rounds then load them with inert training rounds.
- Visually and physically inspect the intended weapon one last time, then begin your dry-fire session.
- If for whatever reason you are disturbed, immediately stop what you were doing and deal with the disturbance.
- When you return to dry-fire practice, clear and safe the weapon, then inspect all your equipment. Do not take any chances; all it takes is one time to change your life.
- When you have completed your dry-fire session or run out of time, do not attempt more dry-fire practice. Resist the urge to take that last squeeze. Clear and safe, then store your training rounds. Store your dry-fire target and retrieve your live ammunition.
- Place your weapon in the condition you wish it to be and carry on!
- Mindset (Proper ATTITUDE)
- Proper Stance
- Proper Draw (Presentation)
- Proper Grip
- Sight Allignment
- Sight Picture
- Hard Focus (precision shooting) Verses Soft Focus (combat shooting)
- Trigger Squeeze
- Follow Through
- Loading and Unloading (administrative,speed & Tactical)
- Ready Positions
- Threat Ready
- High and Low ready
- High Tuck
- Third Eye concept
Dry-fire practice from all positions; standing, kneeling,prone,right and left side cover positions. You can also practice shooting while moving and one-man tactics.
Some ideas for dry-fire practice:
To evolve in our marksmanship skills we must be willing and open minded as to how we train. You do not always need a 40 hour class of instruction to improve skills…A few minutes a day can make a world of difference in your abilities… Dry fire is nothing new. It has been taught for years and is one of the best kept secrets in developing marksmanship skills. Shift your mindset, adapt, take the safety precautions and drill set listed above and train.
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