Why Dry Fire?

Shooters spend thousands of rounds at the range reinforcing bad habits. Many of these habits can be identified and corrected by regular dry fire techniques. I once had an instructor say that every time you strap on a holster, you should do five draws and dry fire. GOOD ADVICE. Did I follow it? Of course not! I do now. It has improved my draw and I am much more consistent.

When you rely only on the range to cure your bad habits, you will most likely reinforce them. Every time you press the trigger the gun goes bang and you work with the recoil. This can cause the trigger flinch to continue as you anticipate the recoil. Dry fire allows you to change from trigger jerk to trigger press. You can develop the fine motor skills that will stay with you.

Remember that if we don’t mess with the sight alignment, our rounds will fly true and hit the target as we aimed. Dry fire can show us what happens when we pull instead of pressing the trigger.

Dry fire can be used to practice malfunction drills, reloading, and moving to cover.

Where is the cover in your home? Can you find it in the dark? Smacking your shin on the coffee table and saying “@*&!” will give away your position. Try dry running to defensive positions and dry firing at the probable entry point. The first time you retrieve your home defense weapon in the dark should not be when you need it most. Practice! Practice! Practice!

There are basic rules to dry fire:

    Make sure you unload the firearm. Do not assume anything. Not only check it, but if your firearm will not fire without a magazine, ensure that your magazine is loaded with dummy rounds or is completely empty. Verify! Verify! Verify!

    Do not point at the cat! Treat all firearms as if loaded and do not point it at anything you do not wish to destroy. Do not point at the cat anyway!

    Practice with a reason. Think about what skill you need to practice. Examples are trigger press, draw and fire, fire while moving, flash sight picture, etc.

When you go to the range, your practice will yield results. Your gun control will show the results of your practice.

Remember: Your shooting should be a validation of your dry fire practice.