Dry firing drills

[daveyboy]

Just started to get into competition (USPSA) Meaning this will be my first year and was wondering what everyones dry fireing drills or routines are.

[Joseph B.]

I do my “slow thirty” every day. I like to do my dry fire nice and slow, ensuring that each step is deliberate and correct. I believe that to ingrain the muscle memory correctly, slow while dry is better.

10 slow draw and fire.
10 slow tap-rack-bang’s.
10 slow slide lock reloads.

I follow these up with my “fast thirty” once a week on the range (live fire). Using a timer I try and beat my times each time. Magazines one loaded with 1 live, 1 dummy, 1 live. Magazine two and three loaded with 1 live, 1 dummy and 2 live (2 live on top). 15 yards distance, 25yd pistol bull, all rounds in bull (try to stay 9 ring). I normally run 3 magazines and then reset and do it again.

10 fast draw and fire.
10 fast tap-rack-bangs (dummy round).
10 fast slide lock reloads, fire, scan re-holster.

[LOKNLOD]

Here's another good starting point: PTC Dry Fire Routine

[JeffJ]

I do my “slow thirty” every day. I like to do my dry fire nice and slow, ensuring that each step is deliberate and correct. I believe that to ingrain the muscle memory correctly, slow while dry is better.

10 slow draw and fire.
10 slow tap-rack-bang’s.
10 slow slide lock reloads.

I follow these up with my “fast thirty” once a week on the range (live fire). Using a timer I try and beat my times each time. Magazines one loaded with 1 live, 1 dummy, 1 live. Magazine two and three loaded with 1 live, 1 dummy and 2 live (2 live on top). 15 yards distance, 25yd pistol bull, all rounds in bull (try to stay 9 ring). I normally run 3 magazines and then reset and do it again.

10 fast draw and fire.
10 fast tap-rack-bangs (dummy round).
10 fast slide lock reloads, fire, scan re-holster.

This looks like a good drill/standards to add to my practice routine - but, I'm confused about the live fire portion. Are you incorporating ball and dummy drill in magazines 1 & 3? Also, are you starting from slide lock on the reloads, thus the dummy round to reset without using multiple magazines?

[daveyboy]

A lot of good tips, thanks. Keep them coming

[Joseph B.]

This looks like a good drill/standards to add to my practice routine - but, I'm confused about the live fire portion. Are you incorporating ball and dummy drill in magazines 1 & 3? Also, are you starting from slide lock on the reloads, thus the dummy round to reset without using multiple magazines?

Ball and dummy allows for the tap-rack-bang drill, each time I press the trigger I treat it like a live round, when I get a click T-R-B (if the slide locks back than reload). However, this load out can be done in many different ways. The underlining goal is to get 10 reps doing each, draw and fire, tap-rack-bang, and slide lock reload. The slow thirty builds the muscle memory and the fast thirty reinforces/validates it. I have had good results with it, and you don’t get burned out doing the same old dry fire for any hour, etc.

[mscott327]

Here's another good starting point: PTC Dry Fire Routine

+1 I use a modified version of Todd's.

[daveyboy]

Do you guys use any special breathing techniques...Ive found that i hold my breath a lot.

[Mitchell, Esq.]

I've been doing a lot of pressouts with a snap cap in the chamber and a .22lr case on the front sight with the G-19.

When I get to full extension and press the trigger, and the case doesn't move, it counts.

Case falls off, it doesn't.

With my S&W M-49, I've been using a dime for the same thing, only then I fire till the coin falls off.

[lcarr]

I dry fire about 5 days a week. For years, I've used drills from Steve Anderson's Refinement and Repetition: Dry Fire Drills for Dramatic Improvement. It is available at Brian Enos' website. The drills center around USPSA/IPSC, especially the skills it takes to do well on classifiers, but cover most aspects of shooting very well.

Lincoln