Advanced Marksmanship Dry firing

[Sbeatty1983]

How often do y’all dry fire and what’s your method for doing it at home? I live in town so doing it in my yard next to a golf course isn’t exactly a good idea. Ive been setting the parallax to 10m on my S&B and aiming down the hall at a spot i draw on the back of the shower with a dry erase marker. The wife looks at me like I’m nuts when I’m laying in the dining room floor with my rifle.

 

[Sheldon N]

I dry fire daily, a lot. I use a window and set up back from it enough so that it's not visible to neighbors but I can pick reference points to aim at. I don't practice dry firing in prone position, everything is from a barricade. I just use a wooden ladder and shoot every position, practice transitions, practice target acquisition, practice weak side and strong side, practice shouldering the rifle firmly, practice free recoil, try out different bags, try out no bags, mess with tripod rear support sometimes, always try to make every trigger pull perfect and have the reticle stay on target with follow through. Only time I'll do prone dry firing is to practice setting up fast and getting on target both weak side and strong side, trying to get time from standing start to breaking the shot under 8 seconds.

I'd love to be able to maintain a ratio of 1:1 dry firing to live firing but I can't get to the range that much. Still need lead downrange to really have complete quality practice.

 

[isofahunter]

I try to dry fire everyday. I have a rock at 90 yards that has taken 1000's of imaginary rounds and a power pole transformer at 1000y that has done the same. This is done from all positions, my barricade is a dinning room chair, shoot off table, couch and tripod.

 

[natdscott]

I try to dry fire everyday. I have a rock at 90 yards that has taken 1000's of imaginary rounds and a power pole transformer at 1000y that has done the same. This is done from all positions, my barricade is a dinning room chair, shoot off table, couch and tripod.

100%.

Don't make your dry fire routine so complex that you can't stick to it. It is REPS that you need to be doing, and for most people, that means it needs to be ACCESSIBLE and SIMPLE.

 

[isofahunter]

100%.

Don't make your dry fire routine so complex that you can't stick to it. It is REPS that you need to be doing, and for most people, that means it needs to be ACCESSIBLE and SIMPLE.

Good point, there are days where 5 or 10 are all I get but shooting is a perishable skill, if you are not getting those REPS you get rusty.

 

[natdscott]

OOH! I forgot:

Want a fun dryfire target?

Hang one of those 6" styrofoam balls from a piece of cord out at 2-300 yards. Moving around in the breeze, it will REALLY test your tracking ability to keep the crosshair on the dot.

For offhand, put the same thing at 100 yards.

 

[Mattio]

I dry fire using a DST PRECISION DFT. http://www.dstprecision.net/index.html
I use a powerpoint target presentation from 6.5 guys on a computer. best way to dry fire and do positional training at home!
http://www.65guys.com/dry-fire-practice-and-the-indoor-optical-training-aid-iota/

 

[Clint E.]

Are you guys using dummy rounds or snap caps when doing dry fire? I am worried about ending up with a broken firing pin in a middle of a match from too much dry firing.

 

[Sheldon N]

Are you guys using dummy rounds or snap caps when doing dry fire? I am worried about ending up with a broken firing pin in a middle of a match from too much dry firing.

Been there, done that, had to borrow a friend's bolt.

I carry a spare firing pin assembly and shroud with me now. Luckily my action has a spring/shroud that is quick disconnect so it's no big deal to swap.

I've broken a couple of firing pins on two different brands of action. Failure was somewhere around 10k dry fire cycles based on my estimates, but I've heard of others going far longer than that without issue. The practice is worth the cost of the broken pin, IMO. Not interested in snap caps.

 

[shipereyes445]

Dry fire drawing from concealment is particularly valuable obviously for people who carry concealed. Quickly and safely drawing your pistol from underneath a shirt, coat or other layers can be more difficult than you might think. Unpracticed, there's significant potential for snags and fumbling.

Dry fire practicing can help you from coming up short like

 

[natdscott]

Good post. I think we're talking about rifle, but that's valid.

 

[Tobyboy22]

I use the DST as well. He also has printable targets that correspond to different MOA sizes. I hung those on a wall in my basement and built a barricade. I also set up a cattle gate, and 55 gallon drum for practice.

 

[natdscott]

I use the DST as well. He also has printable targets that correspond to different MOA sizes. I hung those on a wall in my basement and built a barricade. I also set up a cattle gate, and 55 gallon drum for practice.

What's a cattle gate?

 

[Tobyboy22]

Just how it sounds. Common stage in matches. Usually have to shoot from 3-4 different heights on the gate.

 

[natdscott]

Thanks for humoring me. We had about 50 hd of mutt herd growing up.

But I will say..yeah, I had no idea you guys shot off of gates in your matches. Cool idea.

 

[OzTRG]

I try to dry fire every day. I use an IOTA on the front of my scope and scaled down targets, equivalent to the match I shoot. I keep a training (sorry lanny a performance) journal in which I record my training. I tend to shoot the unsupported positions of prone seated and kneeling. I set everything up,and practice as if I was in a comp. 10-15min each night on average and 3-4 sessions of 15-20min on sat and sun.

 

[RyanM]

I try to do it everyday but probably am closer to 4 days a week. I use my RRS tripod with a tac table on it and sometimes I clamp a 2X4 to it.

I mostly just work on getting that perfect trigger pull in a variety of positions.

The S&B @ 10 metres is what I do as well.

 

[Gray Squirrel]

I dry fire pistol more than anything else, I carry one for work every day and for our qual we have to make some fairly challenging shots. I have a setup in the garage with markers for 3yds, 5yd,s and 7 yds.

For rifle, I primarily do it from the prone working on the basic fundamentals. I choose a small target and concentrate on rock solid fundamentals. I do use snap caps to try and lessen the stress on the firing pin. Centerfire rifles should be able to take dry firing without issues, but its always better safe than sorry. I'm fortunate that I live in the county on an acre, so I can lay in my garage and put a target out on the fence without alarming anyone driving by.

 

[Kane0519]

Lots of good answers here.

 

[LouTenant]

I dry fire 5 days a week. I have a bench set up in my shop for rifle and a chart on the wall for trap shooting. For rifle, I try to concentrate on trigger control and sight picture .

 

[Mudlol]

I dry fire as much as I can in my back yard.

 

[Darkside-Six]

i dry fire a few times a week for about 20 minutes or so. I also use the DST indoor optical aid. i print a bunch of 1, 2, and 3moa dots off and place them on a wall and will practice different positions or off a homemade barricade in my basement.

 

[KillerJoe]

I dont dry fire my rimfire's due to the firing pin potentially striking steel but modern centerfires shouldn't do any harm. It is one of those old wives tales from days gone by when metallurgy was not to the exacting standards of today. I do it to my rifle with out too much concern.