Between the three of us at SBT we have half a century of military experience and we’ve learned a thing or two about weapons and training; that said, one of the most valuable assets we’ve gained is to be able to recognize and utilize sound advice when we get it. Long before a new police officer or soldier is allowed onto a live fire range they are taught about their weapons’ capabilities, conduct drills, and are given ample handling time. The result of this off-the-range work is a more confident and competent shooter. When you investigate the habits of the premier shooters in competition, law enforcement, and the military we’d challenge you to find one that doesn’t conduct those new officer drills.

Reigning supreme in terms of breadth and depth of corrective training potential without spending money for rounds and range time, are dry fire drills. The unfortunate reality is that ammo is expensive. It is pricey for the civilian, the training officers are wary of it, and even the military is feeling the pain. However, we and like-minded individuals are always looking to maximize our training time and dollars and you can’t beat what you can do at home without a projectile. Chris Sajnog a retired Navy SEAL Sniper Instructor and author of, “How to Shoot Like a Navy SEAL,” is a strong advocate of dry firing as a fundamental tool to produce effective shooters. Check out his argument for it and some ideas for the various training you can conduct at home to include; shooting fundamentals, drawing strong/reaction hand, and indexing multiple targets. http://centermassgroup.com/dry-fire/

Safety is paramount

The concept is simple:

-Remove magazine and clear your weapon

-Remove ammunition entirely from your training site (bedroom, yard, etc)

-Orient yourself in a safe direction anyway (i.e away from people, pets, property, potential ricochet)

-Conduct training on anything and everything you need to work on except recoil management (we’ll address that later)

On the civilian side of training, Doug Koenig a many-time-world champion competitive shooter who is supplied with his high end guns and ammo by his sponsors STILL sets aside time for dry fire in his weekly schedule. We like his stuff, and you can’t argue with the results. Time spent with proper training and building the muscle memory you need to reach your potential is the key and dry fire will go a long way to get you there. We are happy to source some more training ideas for you in the comments section but there are a ton out there with regards to dry fire practice. We imagine you’re picking up what we are laying down at this point.

So let’s talk the bottom line and then call it an article. Even if you are shooting on the cheap, the rounds start to add up. Range fees, gas, time, and availability of ammo or space are also serious considerations when you want to go train. Do as much as possible on your own time in convenient places (with good training value like your home) with dry fire practice and you are bound to maximize your results when you go hot. The only real complaints we hear about it are potential damage (unlikely, but mitigated with snap caps or a dedicated training platform) and that you can’t train for recoil management which is true but hardly a case against it. So DRY FIRE, DRY FIRE, DRY FIRE!

How we can help:

Even though recoil is just one of many factors that a shooter has to consider and manage to be effective, we’ve got an answer for that too. Our irPistols are dry fire capable and are a dedicated training platform that is ATF certified as a non-firearm, but here’s where we can do you one better: LOAD our irPistol with irSmartmag (tracks your rounds through mag changes) and conduct your drills anywhere you want WITH recoil and target response. So dry fire until you want to work recoil and throw in an irSmartmag and work that too.

We’d like to hear your thoughts on training techniques and spread the valuable insight our community has to offer. Please comment and let us know what you think.