What are the benefits of dry-firing?

[cslate]

I'm new to handguns, since I wasn't really allowed to shoot them growing up (mostly shot firearms for hunting not simply to shoot). Happy to have found PF.com and PT.com. Absolutely outstanding resources!

In searching the forums, I've run across multiple posts that talk about dry-firing, and it sounds like it must be a good idea. Can someone explain it a little more, such as the benefits/proper technique?

[John Ralston]

Lots of free practice in the convenient space of your garage or basement.

[Chris Rhines]

Welcome, cslate!

Dry-fire or dry practice, is simply the act of practicing weapon manipulations, such as the trigger press, establishing the grip, the draw, reloading, etc., all without ammunition in the gun.

The main benefit of dry practice is that it allows a shooter to refine his weapon manipulations to a much finer degree than one can when firing live. Take note of that part about, "...to a much finer degree..." I contend that dry practice is not just something that you do when you can't get to the range. In fact, I think that dry practice can be superior to live practice for building many of the skills that make up good practical pistol shooting.

In order to see the most benefit from dry practice, you have to be consistent about it. You'll be better off dry-firing for ten minutes every day, than for an hour once a week. I've seen no evidence that one can dry-fire too much.

The correct technique for dryfire is simple. Set up a location where you have a safe backstop (I dry-fire in my basement.) Unload your gun and all spare magazines. Triple-check that your gun is, indeed, unloaded, and that all ammunition is removed from your dry-fire area. Set up a target. I use 1/3-scale IDPA silhouette targets, but you can use almost anything. Start out by establishing a solid grip on your pistol. At your own pace, confirm your sight alignment on the target, and press the trigger so that the sights do not move. Repeat this 10-20 times. If the sights move when the trigger breaks, play around with how hard you grip the gun, how much (or how little) finger you have on the trigger, etc. The goal in dry practice is always perfect execution of the fundamentals.

That's one dry-fire drill; there are hundreds. You can practice almost any skill in the same manner. When I dry-fire, I always start with the slow-fire trigger and grip exercises. Then I spend some time on basic manipulations - draws, reloads, and non-standard shooting positions. Next I do some more complicated drills with multiple targets and/or movement. Finally, I sometimes set up a short USPSA or IDPA stage and run through it dry several times.

There are some excellent books on the subject of dry practice. Two I specifically recommend are Steve Anderson's (http://www.andersonshooting.com/) 'Refinement and Repetition' and 'Principles of Performance.'

Hope this is useful.

[John Hearne]

I wrote this about 9 years ago: http://thecurmudgeon.freeservers.com/fa-essays-drypractice-pg1.html

These is my best thoughts as of today:

Shooting is no different from other psycho/motor skills. The skills are developed over time and via repetition. Whether the gun is discharges is fairly irrelevant to the creation of the motor programs you need. Most of the core shooting skills can be learned and improved through dry practice. The only skill that really can't be learned with dry practice is multiple shot recoil recovery.

At a neurological level, drawing your handgun fires a particular series of nerves. The more you use the same pathway, the more it develops. It develops my layering a substance call myelin. Myelin is the substance that helps conduct nerve impulses. The more myelin that you develop, the more efficiently the nerve impulses can run. This is why there is no such thing as muscle memory but there is such a thing as myelination. Given enough repetition, it appears that the brain will transfer the skills from the explicit memory system (short term, like what you use to cram for an exam) to the implicit memory system. Motor programs stored in implicit memory are far less susceptible the effects of the sympathetic nervous system. In fact, about the only stressor that will really affect motor programs stored in implicit memory is fatigue.

What dry practice allows is the raw number of repetitions needed to develop myelination and eventually, transfer to implicit memory. You could generate similar performance results by doing that number of repetitions with live fire but most of us don't have the money for ammunition and the time to slip to the range to fire it.

There are different "theories" of dry practice. Some folks believe that you should practice the skills at the same speed (full speed) that you'd use them. There seems to be a growing group of folks who like to practice at less than full speed. I'm in this second camp. I think that it is more important to develop the motor program perfectly than it is practice the program at full speed a lot. What I do personally is work the skills at slower than full speed at the start of my sessions and only push for speed a small percent of the time and only after warmed up.

What refined my dry practice over the years and am pretty happy with it. I start all of my dry practice sessions with what I call metronome drills. I have a powerpoint program that generates a series of beeps with a specified pause between each beep. I do all of my skills in four steps so I have four beeps. The drills are set a 2.0, 1.5, 1.0, and 0.5 seconds. I'll literally start by taking 8 seconds to draw the pistol to extension and prep the trigger. I am not moving and then pausing and waiting 1.5 seconds. I am literally moving very slowly, deliberately, and PERFECTLY. At each beep, I'm checking the position of my body and making sure that everything is done right. Once the gun is at extension, I'll work it back to the holster, using the 2.0 cadence. The theory is that the same neural pathways are being used, the only difference is the direction of travel of the pistol. Thus, I get two repetitions every time I draw the pistol. I'll typically start at 2.0, then 1.5, then 1.0, then 0.5 seconds. The theory behind this is that your priming the neural pathways and making sure that the motor program is done correctly.

I like to start at the most basic level and then add "complications" later. For instance, I'll work my presentation without a cover garment to make sure the motor program is correct. Once that's done, I'll add the cover garment. Similarly, I always practice speed reloads before I practice emergency reloads. The emergency reload will build on the same programs you used for the speed reload.

I also believe that your dry practice should contain some sort of feedback system to make sure you're doing it right. I like to start and finish with an empty case on my front sight, pressing straight back, and making sure the case stays there. (I started with a coin but that got to be too easy). Similarly, when I am pushing for speed, I will call every shot and make sure that I'm making the time. I do this with a Powerpoint that flashes the target for a fixed amount of time. I should be able to call the location of my sights when the shot breaks. Obviously, if the target isn't there, I didn't make time. This makes sure that I'm not just slinging the gun out and jamming the trigger - the exact opposite of the perfection we're trying to achieve.

FWIW, several years ago, my wife had major hip surgery and I was required to stay at home and take care of her. Slipping to the range was not an option. Instead, I dry practiced every day, and sometimes, twice a day. I did this for 35 days before the Rangemaster Tactical Conference. When it came time to shoot the match, I had not fired a live round for over 35 days. I managed to finish second overall and was beat by Wayne Dobbs who had just come back from the Iraqi police training contract where he was shooting every day.

My final thought is that you can dry practice a lot and still get benefit. A lot of folks suggest limiting your dry practice to 10-15 minute sessions. That's probably good when you're starting out. The shorter sessions will guarantee that you're only practicing "good stuff." However, if you already have good programs, then practicing longer is fine, as long as you're doing it perfectly. I personally can do 30 minutes of dry practice but I will stop as soon as any slop is detected.

[GJM]

Robert Vogel has an 8-1 ratio of dry fire trigger presses to live fire, and it seems to be working for him.

[Shellback]

Check out the SIRT (http://nextleveltraining.com/) trainers. Mrs. Claus got me one for Christmas and I'm liking it a lot.

Discount code: LE2011 gets a good chunk knocked off the price.

[SeriousStudent]

John, thank you very much for that detailed explanation.

Jay Cunningham had a really good post in his blog a few years back, which mirrors your thought, I think. It definitely helped my dry practice sessions. I try and use the sessions like a gym workout. I focus on trying to to 50 perfect trigger presses. I don't go to the gym to lift for 20 minutes, I go to do specific sets of reps, focusing on form. I think (in my really humble and amateur way) that there is a correlation.

And I've watched Wayne Dobbs blow the X out of the X-ring on a B-8 target, shooting at speed. Coming in second place is damn fine shooting.

Thank you again for your post, I definitely gained additional insight.

[cslate]

Chris, I will definitely be checking out those books. John H, what you described sounds almost like a kata; I'm sold. I really appreciate the feedback everyone! Now to add this to the schedule.