$200 to spend - dry fire "kit", ammo or reloading components?

[GuanoLoco]

Full scale practice beats scale-down practice, but you have to make do with what is available.

[nwhpfan]

Do you have a proper timer? Example: Pocket Pro 2

Do you have Dry Fire, Reloaded, and some Dry Fire Targets (relatively inexpensive)

Do you have a Dry Fire Practice Schedule?

Training, Self-Directed Learning and Purposeful practice, starting with Dry Fire, then Live Fire validation of Dry Fire results will yield the largest benefit.

Geegaws like Mantis, (speaking generically, I've never used one) Laser Systems, etc. are vastly inferior to the above.

At some point you need ammo to practice, and a place where you can practice appropriately (not a lane at an indoor range). Getting more ammo to practice with, cheaper is never a bad plan but you won't get much value from it if you haven't laid the right foundation to maximize value from the expenditure.

It's all about the dry fire. Timer, targets, and a book.

[GuanoLoco]

I think I shoot OK (USPSA A Class for reference), but not nearly as good as nwhpfan.

Interesting observation today shooting the FAST drill. I'll admit I've been shooting it "lazy" in dry/live fire without the slide lock reload, but my point will stand:

About a week ago I was dry firing this drill. I hadn't shot it from concealment in a long time, and I had all new gear - gun, AIWB holster & mag pouch. After a couple of evenings I was hitting a best case par time of 4.20s. No, you won't easily be matching this as someone new to dry fire.

Today I was shooting the same gear, same drill in live fire. My best run for the day was 4.41s clean. That's only 5% slower than my best dry fire runs which, by definition, could not include recoil.

Doing Dry Fire correctly WORKS. It takes a fair amount of effort to learn how to do it well. It took a long time before my dry fire was "honest" enough so that my live fire times and accuracy started looking like by dry fire times.

[JAD]

Does the OP have a shot timer? I'd bet not. Get one of those, either a Pocket Pro 2 or Pact Club Timer III.

I found that using a timer slowed my shooting way down.

[GuanoLoco]

I found that using a timer slowed my shooting way down.

I don't understand your point.

[awp_101]

Interesting observation today shooting the FAST drill. I'll admit I've been shooting it "lazy" in dry/live fire without the slide lock reload, but my point will stand:

About a week ago I was dry firing this drill. I hadn't shot it from concealment in a long time, and I had all new gear - gun, AIWB holster & mag pouch. After a couple of evenings I was hitting a best case par time of 4.20s. No, you won't easily be matching this as someone new to dry fire.

Are you not doing the reload at all or just not doing it from slide lock? If you're using a striker fired pistol, how are you resetting the trigger in dry fire? One of those dry fire mags?

[nwhpfan]

Are you not doing the reload at all or just not doing it from slide lock? If you're using a striker fired pistol, how are you resetting the trigger in dry fire? One of those dry fire mags?

There is a couple different ways to do this.

There is the take it out of battery version...where you put the slightest amount of tape or something on the breach face. It's not an actual trigger pull but you'll be able to actuate the trigger.

There is the - you only get one real pull, then you slap your finger on a dead trigger.

Finally there is the dry-fire magazines which I know nothing about...

I did the 1 real pull and slap a dead trigger. I think I'm just one of many, many, real life examples of B class to winning matches inside of 6 weeks of dry fire. So much of performance is in gun handling anyway. And for me, dry fire was a near inoculation of recoil, sound, flash, etc. Taught me to focus on the only two things that matter. Pointing the gun to the right spot and pulling the trigger without disrupting the aim.

[GuanoLoco]

Are you not doing the reload at all or just not doing it from slide lock? If you're using a striker fired pistol, how are you resetting the trigger in dry fire? One of those dry fire mags?

I was doing the reload, I had just forgotten to do a slide lock reload in live fire.

[JohnO]

If I were questioning what to do:

Get a case of 9mm. Dedicate that case specifically to ammo earned through dedicated dry fire on a regular basis. Establish a ratio Dry/Live you can live with 25/1, 50/1, 100/1 ... and stick to it. Also purchase a 100 pack of NRA B-8 repair centers. Earn yourself 20 rounds a week. Shoot two 10 round strings @ 25 yards each on a fresh B-8 and save them. Track your progress.

Watch this.

Follow the suggestion and you will see significant improvement over time. And like the Sergeant said it will be the Dry Fire and your laser focus on the process that will create the improvement. Refer back to the video over time. Make sure you are internalizing the advice.

Not everyone can get to the range on a dedicated regular basis. If that is the case don't go with 20 + XX you earned because you won't get the proper benefit.

[RJ]

It's all about the dry fire. Timer, targets, and a book.

This in a nutshell is what Gabe told us this weekend. Either Stoeger's or Anderson's (hope I have the name right) materials were ok.

I'm going to get the Stoeger set (Book, Targets) soon, only because I like his Practical Pistol Reloaded book.

i'm also going to use Gabe's suggested Dry Practice drills; I used them in class Saturday and there was a noticeable (ok, bear in mind that I suck) improvement in my hits at speed. Especially of course when I used those bumpy things on the top of the slide.