Breaking a Subconscious Series of Actions When Dry-Firing

[Mr_White]

I live fire a handful of times a year, and even when I do, the ranges I go to don't allow drawing from the holster and a variety of other restrictions.

Fair enough. But we still need to contend with the problem (of potential training scars resulting from a practice or training activity not representing the way things will really be, or not allowing us to do things exactly the way we want to really do them.)

If you describe a drill of any kind to me, whether dry, live, SIRT, FOF, or basically anything, I bet I can identify potential training scars that could come from it. I think one has to acknowledge the pitfalls, then deal with them as well as they can under the circumstances, because the alternative is to not practice, and I think that's far worse.

[pax]

I use mindful practice. Like this:

Never rack the gun reflexively as you pull it back from the target. Rather, bring the gun back just as you would while live firing, with your mindset still in that place.

Then...

Force yourself to take a "hard break" after you've brought the gun in.Take a deep breath and look around. Consciously change your mental focus and deliberately think about what you're doing.

(You are reprogramming yourself to avoid the typical "swing your head around and see nothing" range dance, in favor of actually changing mental gears after you fire, and actually looking to consciously see what's around you.)

After you've taken that deep breath and changed focus, then and only then can you rack the slide. That's when you would ordinarily do any other type of administrative gun handling too.

After it's racked, put your thumb on the back of the slide, get your finger flagged away from the frame so there's room for your holster to fit between your finger and gun, and get your non shooting hand well away from the holster.

Then ease the gun smoothly back into the holster and prepare to repeat your draw.

pax

[HopetonBrown]

I live fire a handful of times a year, and even when I do, the ranges I go to don't allow drawing from the holster and a variety of other restrictions.

Perhaps you could try harder to find more live fire time and a place to do holster work? I live in one of the most oppressive cities in the country with regards to 2a laws but have found places for holster work every weekend.

[Talionis]

This thread makes me wonder how anyone has time for getting better through meaningful reps while being so tactically correct.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

SIRT. My concern is that for multiple shot practice, you don't have recoil to contend with. I shoot the SIRT much better than a real gun.

But for a draw and fire, that's what I do. I will practice a few times with it and a single shot/reholster sequence.

[pax]

This thread makes me wonder how anyone has time for getting better through meaningful reps while being so tactically correct.

If that was aimed at me, I should point out that it really doesn't take much time to take a deep breath and look around.

And mindful reps are far more meaningful than thoughtless ones.

pax

[Failure2Stop]

If you don't live-fire enough for dry-fire to be supportive reinforcement for the finer aspects of technique, I would recommend getting the closest simulation of the gun as possible that permits repeated fire.
Airsoft isn't a terrible solution.

[Talionis]

If that was aimed at me, I should point out that it really doesn't take much time to take a deep breath and look around.

And mindful reps are far more meaningful than thoughtless ones.

pax

Nope, it was a general reaction to the numerous suggestions on how to make dryfire more complicated and less useful that have cropped up in this thread. I agree that being thoughtful about what one is doing in dryfire is important though.

[WobblyPossum]

I sometimes place a rubber band through the ejection port of my Glock to keep the slide out of battery. Positive: the trigger resets itself so you don't need to rack the slide. Negative: your trigger pull becomes a long, light take up stage the entire pull through. There is no wall to press through.

Most of my non-SIRT dry fire is done by racking the slide though. I dry fire A LOT more than I actually shoot and I've never tried to rack the slide after actually shooting during range time/quals, etc.


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