Dry Fire Advice?

[mr alexander]

When I shot pistols with iron shots, dry fire sessions were conducted while standing just a few feet away from a wall.

The bedroom had been painted in an off-white color and no target of any kind was used. Not counting the wall, only 2

objects were seen, those being the front and rear sights. Nowadays, an Ultradot 25 is on my pistol. Not counting the

wall, only one object is seen when dry firing. This, of course, is the dot itself. I shoot Bullseye on a 25 yard indoor

range. Having room now in my new residence, a black bullseye, scaled to the correct size, could be placed onto a far

wall for training purposes. If you shoot with dot sights, are you using a bullseye when dry firing at home? Is there an

advantage to not using one? Your comments on this are much appreciated. Merry Christmas!

[Pitt Willett]

In my opinion it is best to dry fire at both a blank wall and a black bull. During my dry fire sessions I will use the blank wall for focus on sight alignment and then move on to the bull for focus on allowing the shot to break in the black - while also carrying over the experience of the blank wall. Usually I start with the blank wall and move to the bull but sometimes go back and forth. You may get different opinions on this so do whatever seems to help you best with your shot process and scores.

As far as scaling the black I attach a 1" round black target paster on the back of a blank index card and then tape that up to the wall. The next time you're at the range pay attention to the relationship of the size of the black to your red dot. Later, just back up whatever distance it requires to get a similar sight picture with the right amount of black around the dot. No real need for doing trigonometry just place it at whatever distance looks right to you. My 2 cents. Merry Christmas!

[BobGee]

I can’t see how dry firing with a dot sight against a blank wall will tell you anything. You are only looking at one thing - the dot. I’d suggest that you need a mark on the wall, however close, to enable you to determine if you are moving the sight when releasing the trigger.

Bob

[porkchop]

Reduced Target Conversion Formula :
(Full size target in inches) divided by ( distance in inches) times ( new distance in inches) = reduced target size in inches.

Example for a B-6 50 yard target ( 8 inch bull ring) divided by (50 yards distance in inches) x (10 feet new reduced distance in inches)
(8") / (1800") X (120")= .5333"
( 0.00444") x (120") = .5333
Target Dimensions

Target X 10 9 8 7 6 5 4
B-2 50ft 0.90 1.54 2.23 3.07 4.16 5.56 7.33
B-4 20yds 1.12 1.88 2.72 3.73 5.04 6.72 8.84
B-16 25yds 0.67 1.51 2.60 3.82 5.32 7.22 9.66
B-6 50yds 1.695 3.36 5.54 8.00 11.00 14.80 19.68
Table 1: Slow fire targets (dimensions in inches)

Target X 10 9 8 7 6 5
B-3 50ft 0.90 1.80 3.06 4.46 6.14 8.32
B-5 20yds 1.12 2.25 3.76 5.44 7.46 10.08
B-8 25yds 1.695 3.36 5.54 8.00 11.00 14.80 19.68
Table 2: Sustained fire targets (dimensions in inches)
Stan

[mr alexander]

Stan,

Your math formula is the same one that I planned on using.

Thank you all for taking the time to answer my question.

[Chris]

I can’t see how dry firing with a dot sight against a blank wall will tell you anything. You are only looking at one thing - the dot. I’d suggest that you need a mark on the wall, however close, to enable you to determine if you are moving the sight when releasing the trigger.

Bob

Even on a blank wall I can see if the dot has moved when I pull the trigger

I also use both blank wall and a "target" when I dry fire

[william]

I never did much dry firing when I used a dot, but I wonder. I think a square divided into quadrants might be of use. I can't decide whether I think vertical/horizontal divisions or diagonal would give you better indication of your movement.

[mr alexander]

Pitt Willett and Chris use a blank wall and a target when dry firing with a dot sight. At first, I dismissed their suggestion of using a blank wall, thinking that doing so would have no merit. Just for the heck of it, I tried using this method to see if anything would be gained from it.

When actually shooting Slow Fire, I occasionally suffer from what some will refer to as "chicken finger". To me, this term means stopping the trigger pull while trying to “dress things up a little more”. It's a vain attempt at getting a better score with the end result usually being a big disappointment.

I now always start my dry fire sessions by using a blank wall. This gives my trigger finger a chance to "warm up" a bit. I have noticed that this seems to be of benefit after switching over to a target. Hopefully, some improvement will be seen when at the range.

Thank you Pitt Willett and Chris for your input!