Dry Fire Practice?

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Do you go to the range for dry fire practice?

If not do you have a backstop in case of a mistake? Where do you do your practice?

Any procedures you do to ensure safety when switching from loaded to dry fire and back again?

Wondering how other more experienced folks handle dry fire training sessions.

I know I need a lot more of them myself.
 
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I don't do dry fire practice, but if I did I would exercise the same type of safety I use when cleaning firearms.

When I clean, I clean in the garage. The garage never has live ammunition in it, ever. I take the firearms out of storage in another room in the house and make sure they're clear. Then I take them to the garage and make sure they're clear, again. Then I clean them. I don't reload in the garage, and I don't store reloading components in the garage. I only clean and repair (unloaded) firearms in the garage.

If you have a similar "ammunition free zone", I don't see why you can't do dry fire practice at home.
 
Before dry fire practice at home, I do multiple checks visually and by touch to make absopolutely, posikitively certain that the firearm is unloaded.

My KelTec PF9 will not tolerate much dry-fire without damaging it, so I don't do much with it. My other carry guns are more tolerant. I try to dry-fire once or twice per week and go to the range four times per year.

For dry-fire practice, I will have only one firearm active at any given time. I can aim at characters on the television knowing that I have an absolutely certain backstop and if, Heaven forbid, there was alive round in the piece, that round would not go elsewhere in the house or somewhere out of doors where it might harm anyone.
 
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dry firing

gm272gs said:
I don't do dry fire practice, but if I did I would exercise the same type of safety I use when cleaning firearms.

When I clean, I clean in the garage. The garage never has live ammunition in it, ever. I take the firearms out of storage in another room in the house and make sure they're clear. Then I take them to the garage and make sure they're clear, again. Then I clean them. I don't reload in the garage, and I don't store reloading components in the garage. I only clean and repair (unloaded) firearms in the garage.

If you have a similar "ammunition free zone", I don't see why you can't do dry fire practice at home.
Click to expand...

Dry firing is recommended on a daily basis. Set aside about 15 minutes each day and practice trigger control/sight alignment. Start with larger targets and then as you attain some proficiency, reduce the target. You can set up several targets spaced apart for multiple senerios. You can set up your own shooting range in the garage with different settings. Check the owners manual on the gun you are using if it is or isn't acceptable for dry firing. If you are using a .22, then use a snap cap when dry firing. If the manufacture recommends a snap cap, then by all means use it. I unload my gun in the bedroom and make sure the mag is out and the chamber is empty. I have a seperate mag for a zoom cap for dry firing. I dry fire in the garage and there is absolutely no live ammo there. I work on my guns and clean them in the garage with no ammo there. If you check the gun once, check it again and then check it again. If you forgot if you checked it, check it again. Dry firing you save you the expense of ammo and what you practice, you can use on the range to see the results. Remember, trigger control and sight alignment are the two most important fundamentals of the seven basic findamentals of shooting. Take aN NRA certified course for additional training. There are basic courses and advance courses available for the novice and experience shooter. Hope this helps. Good shooting.

Nick
 
At home. Clear the gun, move the mag and the extra bullet away, check again to make sure the gun is clear (lock the slide back, look down the breach and barrel. Stick your finger in there if you have to) proceed to dry fire

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Keep in mind that the following is in the context of revolvers and not autoloaders:

I perform dry fire practice at home, but only (and I stress the word "only") after I've confirmed beyond the shadow of a doubt that there is no live ammunition loaded, just A-Zoom snap caps. The nice thing about the latter is that they're anodized red for easy identification. I can't remember where I've read it, but I've found that mental affirmation (e.g. "I've confrimed that the firearm is unloaded and I am now commencing dry fire practice." and "Practice is over and the firearm is now loaded with live ammunition. I am keeping my finger OFF the trigger until I intend to shoot.") goes a long way towards preventing negligent discharges; you really can't second guess yourself too much when it comes to that.

Things I observe during dry fire practice: Consistency, sight alignment, jerking and flinching. Sometimes I do this in front of a mirror because it's a good visual aid. The only caveat to this is that the noise of dry firing can be annoying to your spouse or signifigant other, depending on their tolerance level.

There's also another, not very oft thought of and more "therapeutic" purpose for dry firing: I actually rehabilitated a previously broken finger through dry fire practice after I had the pins removed. It was hell at first, but I was able to quickly rebuild strength in the atrophied muscle and tendon.
 
The way I teach my students to dry fire is to find a place in your home such as your basement with concrete walls. If you don't have this you can use a target of many magazines preferably your wifes home and garden mags. and or books. Take any live mags., ammo. or live rounds out of the room. I personally use a mag. that I have painted orange and use snap caps in it. As was stated before triple check your firearm, especially the chamber. Use a chamber flag if you feel that will help you remember. Take it out when ready.
 
the goal of dry fire practice is to focus upon maintaining sight alignment and trigger control.
An airsoft pistol closely resembling your EDC handles the bulk of this objective with ample safety.
also .. airsoft triggers are usually horrid interpretations of their real steel counterparts and demand greater attention which seems to transfer over to the range with good effect.
 
1. Unload weapon.
2. Put all live ammunition in another room, just in case you have a lapse of memory to load to weapon while dry firing.
3. Make sure there is no one or anything on other side of backstop, wall or berm is sufficient to stop ammunition.
4. Practice away!
 
A Laserlyte cartridge will help improve the quality of your dry fire practice. With the laser cartridge in place, you can't put a live round in the chamber.
 
Use EMPTY (fired) cases and color the head stamps with a marker to differentiate them as dry firing ammo only. DOUBLE CHECK them before pulling trigger - just for piece of mind. Don't do anything foolish like aiming at an object outside - through a window. You never know what a neighbor might think if they got a glimpse. Exercise standard firearms safety even though you are not really shooting live ammo. NEVER store your marked dry firing rounds with regular ammo.
 
Good recommendations in the previous posts, particularly those about keeping live ammo inaccessible during the session, and making sure about the backstop.

In addition, never use a practice target that's always there. Not the image in the picture frame hanging from the wall, not the light switch, not the bad guys showing on the flat panel TV, not the neighbor's window through your own large picture window, not the mirror reflecting your image. One day, you might actually be carrying a loaded firearm, and the habits ingrained during dry firing practice might just get triggered (pun intended) by the sight of the practice target. I've heard of someone who suddenly drew his firearm (it was loaded this time) and shot through his big screen TV, because it's what he had been using as a target during dry firing practice. Those Post-It notes or a piece of paper hung by tape are effective. Just make sure you remove them right after the practice session is done.
 
Great point made by LennyLames and all of the above. One more thing I like to express is that after dry fire Training do not go load up right a way and holster up. Take a minute or two to clear the mind of pointing and shooting at something. Decompress for a while and get the training out of your head. Remember whats between your ears and observe all firearm safety rules when pulling the trigger even on an EMPTY GUN. Never let fire arm safety be run on auto-pilot.
 
Dry firing

I began training with revolvers and pistols seriously in 1972, I began my profession in 73 and began instructing professionally in 77......dry firing has always been an integral element of my training and it was always an integral element that I instructed officer's and citizens.......I still dry fire on a regular basis.....so if you do the math, you will see that I have practiced dry firing and recommended it as a training aid for some time......a lot of relevant points made in previous posts.....probably the most important is to ensure that your revolver/pistol is indeed empty and do NOT have any live ammo in the same room.....as I could recount many incidents over the decades where folk's were dry firing, then absent mindedly reloaded, then resumed their "dry" firing.....this oversight has produced a lot of shot out windows, shot TV's, clock's, wall switches, fill in the blank, and in many cases produced some very very irate spouses. Firing a gun off and shooting something or someone unintentionally is the fastest way to lose all of your credibility with your family member's and or your professional peer's. Focus is important and mentally acknowledging that you are now transitioning from an unloaded firearm ( as in post #14), to a loaded firearm is critical & essential.
 
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Gun safety rules are redundant, by design. If you happen to screw one up, you are protected by the others. So when you dry fire, make sure you have no live ammunition in the gun or practice area. But pick a target that is capable of safely stopping the round you would be shooting if you weren't dry firing. Even then, don't point the gun at something you wouldn't destroy, and keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the (safe) target and you've made the decision to "fire." Your dry fire practice should include safe direction and conscience decision making because in a real critical event your training will dominate your response.
 
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