Dry Fire - what to look for?

So, I have a confession to make : I suck! I went to the range the other day to introduce a bunch of newbies to shooting. We all had a good time, no safety violations occurred (my primary concern), and we put a bunch of ammo downrange. Good day. The embarassing part came when I went to shoot myself - all of my groups were low and left, again! With my G19 and my G17, my 2 "go-to" pistols. I did respectably with my 1911 and my G26, but still only "respectably" - it didn't help that the guy next to me's AR-15 muzzle brake was putting hot gas in my face every couple seconds but my groups were not that hot.

A lot of this comes from the fact that my range time has dropped drastically since moving from Oregon to New England. Some of it is my own laziness but mostly my schedule has been quite demanding. I do, however, still dry fire, and do so with enough regularity that I haven't forgotten everything I've ever learned...

That said, what do you all do for dry fire? I have read Todd's drills before ( and others), but what kinds of mistakes are you looking to correct/positive things to reinforce during this time? I know that I particularly have a hard time figuring out what to make of my sight picture on my Glocks and how to discover mistakes with no immediate feedback of rounds on paper. Any tips to help improve the productivity of my dry firing would be appreciated.

I've found that if I've been doing a lot of dry fire and not a lot of live fire that the old flinch can creep in real quick. If I haven't live fired in a few weeks I plan on doing some ball and dummy drills pretty early in my range session. It doesn't usually take me too long to get used to the gun going off again.

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Originally Posted by Nephrology

The embarassing [sic] part came when I went to shoot myself - all of my groups were low and left, again!

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As Bill Rogers says: "Always save the last one for yourself; some of you need to save two or three." :)

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Originally Posted by HeadHunter

As Bill Rogers says: "Always save the last one for yourself; some of you need to save two or three." :)

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My ability to spell has gone out the window since half of the things that I have been required to remember are acronyms and/or latin derivatives...

Balance a coin or .22lr case on the front sight. It will give you feedback on your trigger press.

Do it right, the object stays put.

Do it wrong, it falls.

Do you take newbies to the range often? Do you normally go to the range by yourself? Skills do diminish over time, due to lack of practice, but if your skill level had been much higher before this one time, you might have been distracted by working with the newbies.

On dry firing, remember that your grip pressure should be same whether live, or dry.

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Originally Posted by Gun

Do you take newbies to the range often? Do you normally go to the range by yourself? Skills do diminish over time, due to lack of practice, but if your skill level had been much higher before this one time, you might have been distracted by working with the newbies.

On dry firing, remember that your grip pressure should be same whether live, or dry.

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Lately i've only been going with newbies. I do some shooting in between their turns but its nothing dedicated and nothing specific to improving my ability to place rounds on target.

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Originally Posted by Nephrology

My ability to spell has gone out the window since half of the things that I have been required to remember are acronyms and/or latin derivatives...

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It was the phrase "when I went to shoot myself" followed by "all of my groups were low and left" that I found funny, so the BR quote. :D