Some Dry fire drills to try.
I have done/do all of these, they may help. If one of the actual shooters/instructors wants to weigh in I would appreciate it. If idaho disagrees with any of this he should be considered the expert. I’m writing as an amateur without any real degree of skill.
Classic Coin or Case on the Slide or Front Sight
Goal: Trigger Control (a.k.a. the single most important thing)
Procedure:
Initial/safety
-Confirm gun and magazine are clear
-Confirm no live ammo is in room, frisk pockets/mag holders
-Confirm backstop/target is “safe” and that there is no risk of rounds passing through and hitting someone
-Load gun with snap cap(s), press check to visually confirm snap cap (red A-zoom vs brass or nickel case)
Drill
-Place either a coin or a spent case on the slide
-Extend Firearm to firing position
-Work trigger straight to rear
The goal is that the coin or spent case should stay put throughout the firing process. If it jumps or slides a little, but stays on that is acceptable. If it falls and hits the floor that is a “fail”.
-Repeat
If your weapon has second strike capability than you can simply pull the trigger again. This adds the “how many trigger pulls can I get before it drops?” component. If you are dealing with a striker fired gun than you will have to work the slide and reset prior to each trigger pull.
Notes:
This drill can be done with either a one hand, or two hand grip on the weapon. Don’t neglect weak hand only work.
I have noticed using snap caps makes this quite a bit easier with my glock. The “Krunk…Sproong” trigger/striker hit seems to jump the case off of the front sight without one.
Trigger control is very important and this is a classic.
Brian Enos’s Index/“feel” Drill"
Goal: Master indexing the gun
Procedure:
Initial/safety
-Confirm gun and magazine are clear
-Confirm no live ammo is in room, frisk pockets/mag holders
-Confirm backstop/target is “safe” and that there is no risk of rounds passing through and hitting someone
-Load gun with snap cap(s), press check to visually confirm snap cap (red A-zoom vs brass or nickel case)
Drill
Level 1:
-Start with your weapon in your two handed firing grip and “sight in” on blank wall.
-Confirm sight alignment and lower weapon to “low ready position”, close your eyes
-Raise your gun to firing position, open your eyes, are the sights aligned?
-Repeat
Level 2:
-Same as above, except instead of “low ready” you complety remove your weak side hand. So you are basically going from count 2 in the draw.
Sometimes I will make this a pec index/retention position, but that may be me fucking up Enos’s drill
Level 3:
-Same as 1 except “low ready” becomes holstered. So you are drawing with your eyes closed and confirming sight alignment.
I am pretty happy if I have the front post anywhere in the rear notch. Sometimes it is pretty perfect, but only sometimes.
Level 4
-Sight in on wall
-Close eyes, pivot 15 degrees or so, right or left
-Open eyes and confirm alignment
I think Enos has increasing levels where the pivot gets more extreme and eventually you are doing footwork as well. I am not there yet. Sort of a humbling realization as to just how dialed in great shooters are
Level 5 ?
-I think Enos recommends actually being able to close focus on a specific target, close your eyes, draw, fire, and then confirm alignment. I am so very not there yet.
Notes: No you aren’t actually pulling the trigger here, but it is basically the shootin’ irons version of kyudo and I like this shit. Gi Fag card in full effect.
Timed Draws
Goal: Practice Drawing, indexing, aiming, trigger control, all under time constraints
Procedure:
Initial/safety
-Confirm gun and magazine are clear
-Confirm no live ammo is in room, frisk pockets/mag holders
-Confirm backstop/target is “safe” and that there is no risk of rounds passing through and hitting someone
-Load gun with snap cap(s), press check to visually confirm snap cap (red A-zoom vs brass or nickel case)
Drill
-You will need a “target” I recommend and 8 inch paper plate for “body”/high probability targets and index cards for low probability. If you are in a small room, smaller targets adjust for distances.
-You will need a timer capable of holding par times in increments of at least .2 seconds. If you don’t have a real shot timer than there are several Smart Phone apps that will give you something to work with. I believe Taurus and Surefire have them. I have a dumb phone and a Pocket Pro II so I don’t know.
-Set the buzzer for random delay, set the par time to something generous. If you have never done any draw and fire work than I would say at least 3 seconds from real, honest to god, concealment or Level III retention holster. If you are using an open top holster and no concealment make it 2.25 seconds.
-At the buzzer, draw, aim, fire
-Repeat. When you are guaranteed to beat your par time either add difficulty(smaller target, range, having to move or change position, etc.), or decrease the time.
[i]Please remember par is the beginning of the beep, not the end. A lot of folks like to spot themselves the length of the end buzzer.
What’s good? Just shoot for better than you are. Time limits are kind of arbitrary for dry fire. However I know several folks who hold that you need to be able to make body shot hits, at seven yards, from concealment or level III, in under 1.5 seconds. So the fact I cannot do it dry fire is motivation.
[/i]
Tom Givens resources
You can also play with the targets/drills on the Tom Givens’ sight I linked to earlier in this thread.
Hope some of this helps. I am not the expert with any of this material on these boards. There are a few here who could easily wear that title.
If there is more interest in shooting/gun related stuff or even edged weapons material past the typical I will try to post more of it when it comes to mind. I noticed this thread, the surviving edged weapons thread, and even the old trick shooting thread have brought out some posters we don’t usually see in the boxing vs BJJ or UFC gossip threads.
Regards,
Robert A