Dry Firing

[peterz]

As a newbie I'm beginning to understand why dry firing is essential -- I didn't basically until asking on this forum -- but I find that the books I have, Yur' Yev and "Air Rifle Shooting," don't go into the subject very deeply. Could I ask a couple of naive questions?

1) Is dry firing primarily to work on eye-finger skills, meaning mostly learning to concentrate on the front sight while squeezing the trigger, or is it more comprehensive, involving stance as well?

2) Is it important (for pistol) to stand in the shooting position, or is practice while seated also useful? One advantage of the latter is that I can stay in the same room with my wife rather than running to the basement range.

3) Are there essential differences in the dry firing drill between 10m pistol and 10 m air rifle that I should take into account?

4) And related but separate: after weeks of improvement in my trigger pull, suddenly I've started to jerk like a rank beginner, and as a result can barely find the barn let alone the bull. Are there some good exercises to work on getting back to a smooth squeeze? I can squeeze very decently when I support either pistol or rifle on a sandbag.

Thanks,

-pete

[RobStubbs]

Best dry firing is against a wall standing, in the shooting position. But you can also do some dry firing seated etc but it's only any use if you concentrate on it 100%. You still need to go back to standing dry firing as well though because you don't shoot sitting down.

As for the trigger, that can happen when you learn the trigger and you then start anticipating shot release. The trick is to stop doing that and release it 'properly' and observing the follow through for those twitches. This is also where dry firing helps. Some people can do this when they mistakenly set the 2nd stage too light. My feeling is that 2nd stage should really be 1/2 to 1/3 of the 1st stage, any less and you can't easily sit confidently on the end of the 1st stage, and hence you can lose feel as to where you are.

Rob.

[lastman]

Dry firing is a technique that you use so that you can learn the intricacies of delivering a good shot without the distraction of firing the shot.

It is important that you treat dry firing as importantly if not more importantly that live firing.

As for your questions
1 Dry firing is for developing the necessary skills to deliver a good shot without the distraction of the shot going off.
2 It is important to stand in full position when dry firing, that way your stability and stance can improve as well. However it is good to work on your trigger press when sitting watching tv.
3 Don't shoot rifle, so I don't know
4 Without seeing you shoot I would say what Ron wrote is pretty correct. You need to work on pressing the trigger constantly and consistently. Don't force that last little bit. be patient

[2650 Plus]

I despise using any negative cncepts when training or in competition but this may help you in your search for dilivering the perfect shot . You must at all costs avoid the error of NOW in delivering the shot. There is no now involved in a perfect delivery, The pistol just fires while you are completely involved in perfecting sight allignment For me, caution is also detrimental in my shot delivery. A smoothe steadily increasing pressure that does not require an extended hold time,,and minimizes time on target, so that eye focus is not strained,and consentration time is within my comfort area. I hope this will be of some assistance to you. Good Shooting Bill Horton

[seamaster]

You can imagining you are shooting in SLOW MOTION.

Continuous slow motion from arm raise, to align, to trigger pull, to follow through. Very slow motion.

Imagine you are the shooter in a slow motion movie. Your motion is slow motion, but active to the very end.

[FredB]

I despise using any negative cncepts when training or in competition but this may help you in your search for dilivering the perfect shot . You must at all costs avoid the error of NOW in delivering the shot. There is no now involved in a perfect delivery, The pistol just fires while you are completely involved in perfecting sight allignment For me, caution is also detrimental in my shot delivery. A smoothe steadily increasing pressure that does not require an extended hold time,,and minimizes time on target, so that eye focus is not strained,and consentration time is within my comfort area. I hope this will be of some assistance to you. Good Shooting Bill Horton

Bill,

This thought is very helpful to me, not as a negative concept, but as a way of recognizing what I do in slow fire. It helps me recognize the difference between my shots that "just happen" (almost always on call) and the ones that I intend to happen (almost always way off call).

However I am very curious how you apply the "smooth steadily increasing pressure" to the free pistol trigger. Does this description also apply to how you shoot free pistol?

Thanks,
FredB

[2650 Plus]

For Fred B. Yes Even with the free pistol I found that by using the steadily increasing pressure trigger control method, I avoided disturbing sight allignment by anticipating the discharge the pistol and avoided the disastorious sevens. good shooting Bill Horton

[Austpete]

You will find some useful information here http://www.potfire.com.au/info/dryfire.htm

[FredB]

For Fred B. Yes Even with the free pistol I found that by using the steadily increasing pressure trigger control method, I avoided disturbing sight allignment by anticipating the discharge the pistol and avoided the disastorious sevens. good shooting Bill Horton

Bill,

Thanks for the reply. The problem I've had with doing what you suggest is getting a feel for the light free pistol trigger. Do you use a heavy trigger weight for your free pistol - like maybe something closer to air pistol trigger weight?

Thanks,
FredB

[scott75]

I also have started understanding the real importance of using dry firing in a training program. Boring as it can be at times!! I have been shooting prone for about 9 moths now and average about 193 at this stage, i was at coaching on sunday and was asked to fire 10 shots to assure that the rifle was sighted in. Then was asked to shoot the next 20 shots getting up after eash shot and dry fire 2-3 shots then shooting a business (live) round. I was pleasently suprised with the 192 i shot.

Patience, practice and practice. The 3 p's

Cheers Scott
Sydney