The way to better dry-fire????

[LeadLauncher]

Bottom Line Up Front: I need some tips on self coaching with dry fire from unsteady positions and barricades.

I am pretty good when it comes to improving with dry-fire for pistol, but I feel like I lack a good systematic approach with a rifle. For instance, a couple years back in Afghanistan I decided I wanted to hit a headshot from my holster in my combat gear at 7 yards in 1 second with my M9, and an 8-shot rythm group from the same conditions in 3-seconds to the body. I did the math for the target size, cut a couple squares of tape to size, and stuck them above my rack. I worked to a par time, and when my technique failed, I isolated the problem (i.e. DA trigger work, grip in the holster, support hand placement, or whatever), worked it, then went back to the whole sequence, faster, until something else failed, rinse and repeat. By the end of the deployment I could hit a head from the holster consistently in 1.1, and had the rhythm drill down cold.
On to rifle, I can consistently drill an E-type from kneeling sling supported at 300 yards, but when I go on the clock I consistently miss. So I've been working the same in dry fire. I'm setting a par at 5 seconds, starting from standing, dropping into position, and trying to break the shot in time, but I feel like I'm just doing the same thing over and over and calling misses over and over. I need a more systematic process to get from point A to point B in terms of skill building. I hope this makes sense. Input is appreciated.

 

[Gray Squirrel]

Break down the movements into sections and work on each section independently. Work on the kneeling portion independently finding which variation is most stable and works best for your body and rifle. Start developing the muscle memory and sequence for firing in that position. Then once you become consistent in that position and know what it feels like, start to add the standing portion. Once you start dropping into that position, it should feel like second nature and your body and mind should take over.

Adding a par time too early is going to force you to rush and might reinforce bad habits and sloppy work. That is probably what you are experiencing. Consistency is accuracy, so it comes down to just developing the consistency needed. Take as much time as you need to build that solid foundation before adding a par time. Also, during live fire, pull the target in closer to ease the frustration a little bit and help diagnose any issues you may be having with the fundamentals.

A pistol is easier to maneuver than a rifle and the margin of error at 7 yds is much less than the margin of error at 300 yds. Due to the differences, you have to approach the dry fire differently for both.

 

[LeadLauncher]

Thank you for the well thought out reply. I think you make some good points here. With pistol or other dynamic stuff you go faster to get faster, but I think you are right, the key thing may be to teach the body "what right looks like," or feels like, in this case, with holding drills and repeatedly building a position. Looking at some stuff on how the NRA high power guys train, this also jives with the stuff they are putting out. I also think, similar to pistol, I probably need to work trigger control in isolation. Also, in practical shooting, unlike, for instance, NRA high power, it's more about building a good position, whatever that position may be, not working a specific position, like standing or kneeling. The high power guys have their positions dialed in to the millimeter, to include establishing a near perfect natural point of aim. Shooting in a more tactical style match like PRS, or in in real life, those luxuries are often non-existent. You have to build a position from what's in front of you. Thanks again for the input.

 

[natdscott]

Consistency is not accuracy. Consistency MAY produce precision. But consistency at doing the wrong thing produces poor results, and ingrains poor habits.

I don't necessarily think you have a hold problem. I think you have a mental hardness problem...that ticking clock is in your bubble, and you lose the edge when you can hear it ticking at you.

Lose the clock. You're not ready for that yet, and you know so.

Learn to perfect the individual position, in every way, while you are watching the evening news. Dry fire is not required to learn how to build a more solid position and physically condition your body to hold the F still.

In practice, do a week or two of slow fire. Learn whatever positions and stuff you want, but only do one per day. One round at a time, focusing on nothing but how well you can place the ONE round in the chamber...none of the rest before or after count for shit to that 40 cent piece of copper in the tube. Only YOU count.

I am one of 'those Highpower guys'. One of the biggest things Highpower did for me was to establish a set of mental standards for what is acceptable to "green light" my trigger finger. The RESULT is a steady sight picture and good firing solution, but the standards I'm talking about are what leads up to sight picture: how have I built this position, is it shit or workable or really great, ?; is there a readily available way it could be better?; and yes...the old "This worked before, but isn't working now, so what changed?" And vice versa...

The perception of guys like me is that we can't do anything fast. I don't speak for everyone, but it's not true for me. Do I have to take a few minutes if I want to set up a 1 MOA sling prone? Sure I do. But honestly...how often do I ever need to do that outside of Highpower? The BENEFITS to all the slow work are that I can almost IMMEDIATELY sense and diagnose if a shooting position--ANY shooting position--has a "no go" condition, and then immediately address that issue to try to work the problem and get a shootable position.

But it wasn't "go fast" that got me that mental sensitivity...

So a guy practices in slow fire with no regard to any clock to:
1) raise his awareness of what PERFECT feels like in the position, and what it looks like in sight picture;
2) fix what is NOT working in a slow and introspective manner;
3) reduce hold radius on actual targets;
and (4) build significant mental toughness and confidence that, because you can shoot the F'n center out of the targets in slow fire, you will make great hits under time pressure.

"I will make centered shots because I am awesome."

Say it enough and practice like it enough, and you will believe every word of that sentence like your favorite hair metal song. When you start believing like that, you start becoming untouchable by clocks, the weather, sand in your vagina, etc. The sand just ceases to exist because it has no measurable effect on your firing parameters and mental condition.

Finally. Highpower has taught me, or attempts to teach me, that IIIIII am solely responsible for ALLOWING the round in the chamber to be anything less than a centered hit.

Winners recognize that they don't have to shoot misses.

 

[Sheldon N]

I'll offer thoughts from a PRS competition perspective. I would say the goal is not speed, the goal is smooth efficiency. In competition the efficiency happens in a couple places. Transitions are one area - efficient, precise, relaxed movement of any gear or support bags from position A to B, doing only exactly what needs to happen with no extraneous movement. Second would be target aquisition, dropping into position and instantly having the target centered in your scope. This gets especially important as you start to encounter multi-target stages where you need to be able to have mental references of where the target is with your naked eye, then be able to point rifle and get behind the optic on target without having to search or adjust magnification. Finally the biggest one is having the ability to make NPA happen very quickly in any position so you can execute good trigger control and follow through without wasting time. Like you said, there's not just one position, there's a huge number of potential positions that you might need to shoot from. If you watch really good competitors they drop into a final position on target, close the bolt, don't readjust body position at all and are able to send the shot within 3-5 seconds. You can see they are starting to relax into NPA the instant they position their body, which allows a quality shot to be made sooner, provided you hit the right position and were on target with your scope.

When you are efficient, you can look like you are relaxed and not trying, but actually be moving from shot to shot very quickly. We've got one of the top shooters in our region who practically looks like he's bored and half asleep when he shoots because of how relaxed he is when he moves.

As far as what/how to practice for dry firing, I would suggest putting together some props or barricades to give you a large number of possible positions and heights to shoot from, with different target heights/angles from those positions. Run drills that focus on the above skills, moving from position to position with no more than 1 or 2 shots at any one position before you move and reset. Focus on efficiency, and quality perfect trigger pulls with good follow through. The more potential positions the better, and just work on building repetitions and muscle memory. Grade yourself on whether you hit an imaginary 1 MOA target or not and whether you had quality follow through, then add a clock to see how many positions you can shoot in 90 seconds, or how many "hits" you can get in 90 seconds, or whatever. Grading yourself on "hits" when dry firing is better, because you will see the detriment of rushing too fast.

Then take the same skills sets and drills out to the range when you practice with live fire.