TargetTalk

Here in Colorado, we don't have many choices when it comes to indoor ranges for winter time shooting. The ranges that are available want an arm and a leg and an annual contract to shoot. I am a highpower shooter trying to become familiar with a 1911 to possibly someday become double distinguished. I am no beginner when it comes to dry fire practice with a rifle. I know dry fire is cock it and pull the trigger while lining up the sights at the target. I was wondering how some of you do it....what size dot do you shoot at? How far away do you stand? What color of background do you use for the target dot? How many shots do you usually shoot? Any exercises to firm up your shooting arm...before or after your dry firing session? If most of my practice during the winter will be indoors dry firing...I want to maximize my time by trying to achieve "perfect practice". Thanks for any thoughts....

The NRA B-6 slowfire target is ~8 inches across at 50 yards, which translates into ~16MOA. The NRA B-8 timed/rapid-fire target is ~6 inches across at 25 yards, which translates into ~24MOA. At across-the-room distances (let's assume 15ft/5yds here), you'd be looking to dryfire on targets that are ~0.8" across (B-6) and ~1.2" across (B-8). Call it an even one-inch in diameter at 15 feet. The aiming black of the targets are all-black (with white scoring rings, but disregard those for now), on a light background (white, or off-white).

As for a dryfiring routine...I simply dryfire. 10-20 snaps in a sitting.

You could also get an air pistol and a trap and get feedback from punching actual holes in a target.

Getting a match grade air pistol is a great idea. You get some real feedback when training (but there isn't a thing wrong with dry-firing). You also can compete in seperate matches; opening Interernational Pistol to you.

I want to add that for someone in your position, I would recommend an older FWB 65. You can usually find them cheap and they offer the features of an instantly adjustable trigger weight from 500 to 1360 grams and an easily installed recoil enhancer for real world practice.

I use to dry fire and use the SCATT. Now I train and practice using the methods outlined in the 12 part series written by Ed Hall. I have found that some of the "beginner" methods are the ones that seem to improve my score the most.
Pistol Shooting: The Art by Edwin C. Hall

If you are going for distinguished that means open sights. Personally I would dry fire as close to a wall as possible with a dot on it. This trains your eye to focus on the front sight. As far as how many shots: as many as you can give your full focus to. If its only five or ten at first then do that and increase as you get better with the focus. Dry firing for hours while your thinking about what you are going to do tomorrow at work will do you no good at all.

Scott

Kinks wrote:Here in Colorado, we don't have many choices when it comes to indoor ranges for winter time shooting. The ranges that are available want an arm and a leg and an annual contract to shoot. I am a highpower shooter trying to become familiar with a 1911 to possibly someday become double distinguished. I am no beginner when it comes to dry fire practice with a rifle. I know dry fire is cock it and pull the trigger while lining up the sights at the target. I was wondering how some of you do it....what size dot do you shoot at? How far away do you stand? What color of background do you use for the target dot? How many shots do you usually shoot? Any exercises to firm up your shooting arm...before or after your dry firing session? If most of my practice during the winter will be indoors dry firing...I want to maximize my time by trying to achieve "perfect practice". Thanks for any thoughts....

Kinks, where are you in Colorado? I can possibly hook you up with some people closer to you, or meet you myself. Send me an email so I can help you get started in Service pistol.

Lots of posts here on dry firing which is even more important in pistol than in rifle, because triggering is (almost) everything in pistol.

Start by reading a few of these articles.

http://www.pilkguns.com/pistolcoaching.shtml

I dry fire a good bit (~8,000 "rounds" a year +/-) and here are some of the things I do (in answer to the OP's questions).

• dry fire with the gun lowered, pretty much in my lap (but unsupported), just working the trigger. I will watch the front sight to make sure there is no movement, but don't align the sights. I do this one a lot, as it trains independent movement of the trigger finger.
• dry fire against a dot on the wall. The size of the dot doesn't matter very much, but I'll make it smaller for FP/AP, a little larger for bullseye. Close is good enough; I'm watching the front sight or the red dot, not the dot on the wall. I do this with the muzzle less than a foot from the wall.

I should emphasize that the above exercises should be done with an unloaded firearm :D

john bickar wrote:

• dry fire with the gun lowered, pretty much in my lap (but unsupported), just working the trigger. I will watch the front sight to make sure there is no movement, but don't align the sights. I do this one a lot, as it trains independent movement of the trigger finger.
• dry fire against a dot on the wall. The size of the dot doesn't matter very much, but I'll make it smaller for FP/AP, a little larger for bullseye. Close is good enough; I'm watching the front sight or the red dot, not the dot on the wall. I do this with the muzzle less than a foot from the wall.

I should emphasize that the above exercises should be done with an unloaded firearm :D

The size of the target I am aiming at does not matter much to me either. I am watching for dot movement and making sure my finger moves the same way each time.

Dry firing the gun while not aiming at a target is something I have started doing in the last month and I have seen improvement from that exercise. Focus on moving the trigger at the same rate each time and get that movement engrained in your muscle memory. It has reduced the amount of chicken finger I get during slow fire.

Pulling the trigger while not aligning the sights is something I would not have thought of. Thank you all for the replies...a lot of good stuff here!