Benefits of dry fire

[UnGe]

Yet another noob question.
There are a lot of recommendations to do much more dry firing than live one. What are the benefits (comparing to live training, including blank targets, lines, etc.), assuming that one can do both in the same place?

Drawbacks:
- incomplete routine, so full body muscle memory is different
- different feedback from a shot

Benefits:
- financial
- ?

[brent375hh]

When you shoot with a pellet, there is movement in the sights, no matter how good your venting/absorber works.

That movement masks the minor mistakes you make. When you can dry fire and you feel the click, with no sight movement, you are good to go. I dry fire every time I shoot, and don't load a pellet until the sights are not moving during letoff.

If all your shots are on call, it isn't as important. If you think you had a 10, but the result is an 8, dry fire is your friend.

[UnGe]

When you shoot with a pellet, there is movement in the sights, no matter how good your venting/absorber works.

That movement masks the minor mistakes you make. When you can dry fire and you feel the click, with no sight movement, you are good to go. I dry fire every time I shoot, and don't load a pellet until the sights are not moving during letoff.

If all your shots are on call, it isn't as important. If you think you had a 10, but the result is an 8, dry fire is your friend.

How this is different from live fire until all/most shots are on call (not for newbie, but for experienced shooter)? Let imagine that you have unlimited time and resources for sighting before the match. Would you still dry fire?

[Rover]

I ALWAYS dry-fire to "settle in" before commencing warm-up shots (sighters?). You can do this before the time starts for sighters.

[william]

Dry fire is also the best way to get back into the groove after a mistake. Execute a bad shot? Dry fire as many times as needed to return to proper mindset.

Put the pistol down for any reason? Dry fire until you can confirm all's well.

Thinking about things you shouldn't be thinking about like scores and remaining time? Dry fire until they're out of mind.

Distracted by something unexpected (maybe a shooter 4 spots down the line spontaneously combusting)? I don't really have to say it, do I?

Otherwise it's a total waste of time because, hell, they ain't no noise or recoil, and it doesn't punch a hole in the paper.

[Wile E Coyote]

When you shoot with a pellet, there is movement in the sights, no matter how good your venting/absorber works.

That movement masks the minor mistakes you make. When you can dry fire and you feel the click, with no sight movement, you are good to go. I dry fire every time I shoot, and don't load a pellet until the sights are not moving during letoff.

If all your shots are on call, it isn't as important. If you think you had a 10, but the result is an 8, dry fire is your friend.

How this is different from live fire until all/most shots are on call (not for newbie, but for experienced shooter)? Let imagine that you have unlimited time and resources for sighting before the match. Would you still dry fire?

One of the most critical aspects of an accurate shot process is being able to release the sear without disturbing sight alignment. Dry-firing will show you that the reason you are not hitting the X each and every time, is that you are moving (disturbing) the alignment of the barrel to the target. When you see that when you pull the trigger that the sights move, so does the point of impact. This is especially true for airguns since the pellet travels more slowly through a long barrel. That little flick you see when you pull the trigger dry-firing, is where the pellet is really going to hit the target. During dry-fire practice you are trying to release the sear with no movement. It isn't nearly as easy as you think. When you can consistently dry-fire with no movement, put in a pellet and do exactly what you were doing with dry-firing. When you start not hitting where you think the projectile was going to hit, stop loading and dry-fire until you're no longer disturbing the sight picture, then load and live fire.

Simply put, the idea behind dry-firing is to pull the trigger without moving the pistol. It's harder than you can imagine. If you really want to see how bad you are doing it, put a red-dot or laser on during dry-firing, you'll be sadly surprised how bad you're doing it.

The three most important things I've learned is to dry-fire, trust my hold (aka, don't try to pull the trigger when you're on the x, because by the time the projectile leaves the barrel, it won't be there anymore anyway) and follow-through. Nothing has increased my scores more than dry-firing (no less than a 20 point increase in a NMC). Trusting your hold and follow-through are close for second/third. But, the subject of this post is dry-fire, so I won't go there.

[UnGe]

Thanks a lot for good answers (I am sure more will come)
I totally get william's points about error corrections during a match, but still not completely convinced about training benefits. This may be related to the fact that my hold is much worse than trigger pull, I just do not see any effect of pull during dry fire on air pistol (on 22 they are comparable, so there dry fire training makes perfect sense, multiplied by ammo cost)

[brent375hh]

When you shoot with a pellet, there is movement in the sights, no matter how good your venting/absorber works.

That movement masks the minor mistakes you make. When you can dry fire and you feel the click, with no sight movement, you are good to go. I dry fire every time I shoot, and don't load a pellet until the sights are not moving during letoff.

If all your shots are on call, it isn't as important. If you think you had a 10, but the result is an 8, dry fire is your friend.

How this is different from live fire until all/most shots are on call (not for newbie, but for experienced shooter)? Let imagine that you have unlimited time and resources for sighting before the match. Would you still dry fire?

I do dry fire. I just get bored pretty fast with imaginary shooting.

I then only shoot sighters until I get 5 solid 10s. I don't want to wear myself out shooting 10s.that don't count. Then my first shot for record is usually not a 10, so maybe its all just wearing myself out.

[B Lafferty]

A variety of dry firing exercises taken from
https://targetshooting.ca/general-shooting-exercises/

Dry Firing Exercises
Task Description Goal
DF1 Dry firing, hand supported – without looking at sights (preferably eyes closed), practice squeezing trigger. Focus is solely on squeeze, free of all other distractions. Develop conditioned smooth trigger squeeze.
DF2 Dry firing, arm supported at elbow (resting on pillow, armrest) – without looking at sights (preferably eyes closed), practice squeezing trigger. Focus is solely on squeeze, free of all other distractions. Develop conditioned smooth trigger squeeze
DF3 Dry firing in dark/dim-lit room Developing kinesthetic feel of grip/stance
DF4 Dry firing against a blank wall Develop sight alignment
DF5 Dry firing against a dot on the wall Develop hold
DF6 Dry firing against a target Focus shot delivery without the shot
DF7 Dry firing, finals Focus on process/delivery, shot in 75 seconds

[David Levene]

DF7 Dry firing, finals Focus on process/delivery, shot in 75 seconds

That might be a bit too long. In the Air finals you only get 250 seconds for the 5 shot sections and 50 seconds for the single shots.

[UnGe]

A variety of dry firing exercises taken from
https://targetshooting.ca/general-shooting-exercises/

Very cool list and a link (that also has holding exercises)!. That reminded me that I should stop playing and do grip carving and trigger adjustments first :)

[B Lafferty]

A variety of dry firing exercises taken from
https://targetshooting.ca/general-shooting-exercises/

Very cool list and a link (that also has holding exercises)!. That reminded me that I should stop playing and do grip carving and trigger adjustments first :)

Patrick is a really nice fellow--most Canadians are. :-) His site was left pretty much untouched for a few years when he left to work as a national coach for the Canadian federation. He's slowly revamping it now that he's back "home" with a wife and, IIRC, a two year old. I suspect that the child keeps him rather busy...
On the previous version of the site he had free monthly postal matchs which I hope he does again.

I'm in the process of adding layers of putty to the grip Andrew made me for my new AP20. I usually use an epoxy product, QuickWood, but had to order it from Amazon as the hardware stores here in the wilds of Northern Vermont don't carry it. I decided to try multiple layers of Plastic Wood which take longer to dry. Not a problem as my scuba tank went in to the dive shop yesterday for its five year hydrostatic recertification. I hope to have it back by Saturday or early next week.....dry fire only in the meantime.

[william]

"I'm in the process of adding layers of putty to the grip Andrew made me for my new AP20."

What am I missing? Isn't the whole point of a custom grip that you don't have to customize it?

[B Lafferty]

"I'm in the process of adding layers of putty to the grip Andrew made me for my new AP20."

What am I missing? Isn't the whole point of a custom grip that you don't have to customize it?

Semi-custom based on an LP400 grip adjusted to measurements take by me. Unless one is doing an actual mold of one's hand, I doubt that there will be anything that is truly custom, if then. But, I suspect that you are well aware of this. Breathe and relax, Grasshopper.......

[william]

"Breathe and relax, Grasshopper......."

I'm not sure I can. The condescension takes my breath away.

[B Lafferty]

"Breathe and relax, Grasshopper......."

I'm not sure I can. The condescension takes my breath away.

No condescension. Enjoy your day.

[spektr]

Nobody has mentioned the fact that dry firing is different precisely because it does NOT use live ammo.
Live Shooting invariably gets down to scoring, hold, foot placement, sight picture and all the interconnected components of the shot and score is used as the measure of successfulness. Dry firing removes most of this, and without the complications of scoring, we can work on the "purity" of release alone. Focus on the purity of the release unconciously drags all the other components of the shot forward together. Thats why it works.

[B Lafferty]

Nobody has mentioned the fact that dry firing is different precisely because it does NOT use live ammo.
Live Shooting invariably gets down to scoring, hold, foot placement, sight picture and all the interconnected components of the shot and score is used as the measure of successfulness. Dry firing removes most of this, and without the complications of scoring, we can work on the "purity" of release alone. Focus on the purity of the release unconciously drags all the other components of the shot forward together. Thats why it works.

Good point. I was just reading about training for beginners in Kyudo archery. The beginner must practice draw technique with a rubber band of sorts before even being allowed to touch a bow. Then, the draw technique is practiced with no arrow until the teacher determines that the student is ready to use an arrow. Learning the technique with dry fire to remove the distractive thought of the result so as to truly learn technique. My understanding is that testing for different levels of achievement (dan) is not only related to target results, the execution of the technique appears more important. I may not be factually accurate as to the balance between technique and results in achieving different dan levels. More to read about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh-ohsp ... yMindFilms

[SPPcoach]

LIVE FIRE: admit it or not but it is VERY difficult to not be OUTCOME based when shooting live fire. "What was my score?" is a far more common thought than re-evaluating any fundamental applied during the shot process.

DRY FIRE: removes the opportunity to be outcome based on the score. It's purpose is to get the shooter to focus on the PROCESS. If you have set a goal for yourself to improve your shooting by . . . . then the means to do that is to improve your PROCESS for delivering your shot. If you want a different result then you will HAVE to do something differently. Dry fire provides your opportunity to evaluate your process, make changes and improve.

Theresa Meyers (Olympic Development Team) stated years ago during one of our Olympic Development Camps at the Colorado Springs traing center,
https://mysasp.com/spp-hosts-first-juni ... ment-camp/
"Recoil hides a lot of bad habits."
So dry fire allows the athlete to see what was previously invisible. Even our beginners see the wisdom in that knowledge.

[B Lafferty]

LIVE FIRE: admit it or not but it is VERY difficult to not be OUTCOME based when shooting live fire. "What was my score?" is a far more common thought than re-evaluating any fundamental applied during the shot process.

DRY FIRE: removes the opportunity to be outcome based on the score. It's purpose is to get the shooter to focus on the PROCESS. If you have set a goal for yourself to improve your shooting by . . . . then the means to do that is to improve your PROCESS for delivering your shot. If you want a different result then you will HAVE to do something differently. Dry fire provides your opportunity to evaluate your process, make changes and improve.

Theresa Meyers (Olympic Development Team) stated years ago during one of our Olympic Development Camps at the Colorado Springs traing center,
https://mysasp.com/spp-hosts-first-juni ... ment-camp/
"Recoil hides a lot of bad habits."
So dry fire allows the athlete to see what was previously invisible. Even our beginners see the wisdom in that knowledge.

Well said.