Posted: 11/30/2011 5:08:40 PM EDT
|
I wrote an article for Personal Defense Network about practicing with what most people have available.
Most people, myself included, live in what I call the “resource-constrained environment.” While some people have access to a good training facility, or at least a gun club, that’s not usually the case. Generally, people who own firearms for personal defense have limited resources to train and practice with. Those resources consist, for the most part, of one lane on an indoor range, one or two boxes of ammunition per month, and a couple of hours or a few minutes here and there when they are away from the range. Article here. |
|
Several people have asked me to elaborate on my out the door dryfire practice session mentioned in the article. Here it is:
Short barreled revolver – Advanced Daily Dry Fire Practice Session 3 yards – two targets, two yards apart
7 yards – two targets, two yards apart
Done with iron sights only, my recording of this takes 2 minutes 10 seconds. For two sessions, one with laser and one with iron sights only, the recording is 4:36. The targets I use are LET Photo targets cut to the size of an FBI QIT. This session was adapted from the Atlanta Police Department Second Weapon Qualification Course. I tightened up the standards a bit, though. |
| The only critique I have is that with multiple pulls of the trigger per draw, you are not accounting for recoil and re-acquisition of the sight picture. Same reason to only do one press of the trigger vs. controlled pairs when training with .22LR. It simply isn't realistic. |
|
Quoted:
The only critique I have is that with multiple pulls of the trigger per draw, you are not accounting for recoil and re-acquisition of the sight picture. Same reason to only do one press of the trigger vs. controlled pairs when training with .22LR. It simply isn't realistic. True. But the focus of the article is maximizing your training within the available resources. Dryfire isn't livefire and vice versa. But dryfire is available on a lot more regular basis to most people than livefire. |
|
I am a big proponent of dry practice. That said, it is not a useful practice in my opinion to do "double taps" in dry practice as the recoil factor is non-existent. Just a minor critique of your practice iteration. My typical dryfire practice is a proper draw from concealment and extension of the shooting hand and a smooth trigger press. Then follow through, reset and re-holster to repeat.
ETA: With all due respect to your background and credentials, sir. Thanks for your service! |
|
McNielson, something to consider is muscle memory. If you always train to just take one shot in dry-fire, you stand the higher chance that under stress of a real engagement you will revert back to that muscle memory and fire the one shot. Look back at LEO shootings over the past. The most famous one was Newhall, where 4 LEOS were killed. They had their brass in their pockets because that's what they did at the range to put them in buckets. Remember EAG COC at PdC? Remember you doing NSR's? Things like that are taught to get out of the mindset of shoot 1, assess, or a very common shoot 2 assess. There have been shooting situations where LEO's have had just that happen. Engaging a threat and only shooting twice because that's what they did on the range for training. The threat was still coming though.
Even though it's only dry-fire practice, I will go through the same motions of pulling the trigger as many times as I feel needed for the threat. Recoil management is something that can be worked on as a seperate set of drills and practice. But you are shorting yourself if you only repeatedly shoot once and stop with dry-fire, or not practice controlled pairs or hammers with rimfires. |
| good point. The reality is, there are a lot of things to duplicate in a training environment to make it more "realistic". That's why no matter how much dry practice you do, there is also no substitute to live fire "full power" ammo at the range and formal training classes includind FoF excercises. |
|
Quoted:
McNielson, something to consider is muscle memory. If you always train to just take one shot in dry-fire, you stand the higher chance that under stress of a real engagement you will revert back to that muscle memory and fire the one shot. Look back at LEO shootings over the past. The most famous one was Newhall, where 4 LEOS were killed. They had their brass in their pockets because that's what they did at the range to put them in buckets. Remember EAG COC at PdC? Remember you doing NSR's? Things like that are taught to get out of the mindset of shoot 1, assess, or a very common shoot 2 assess. There have been shooting situations where LEO's have had just that happen. Engaging a threat and only shooting twice because that's what they did on the range for training. The threat was still coming though. Even though it's only dry-fire practice, I will go through the same motions of pulling the trigger as many times as I feel needed for the threat. Recoil management is something that can be worked on as a seperate set of drills and practice. But you are shorting yourself if you only repeatedly shoot once and stop with dry-fire, or not practice controlled pairs or hammers with rimfires. Aren't you just advocating a 2 shot muscle memory vice 1 shot? Can you show me where only 2 shots has been sufficient? Shouldn't you assess your threat efter each and every shot and continue shooting until the threat has stopped? Your answer seems to replace a habit with one no more effective. Considering the topic of this conversation, I think practicing a single trigger press is fitting. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
McNielson, something to consider is muscle memory. If you always train to just take one shot in dry-fire, you stand the higher chance that under stress of a real engagement you will revert back to that muscle memory and fire the one shot. Look back at LEO shootings over the past. The most famous one was Newhall, where 4 LEOS were killed. They had their brass in their pockets because that's what they did at the range to put them in buckets. Remember EAG COC at PdC? Remember you doing NSR's? Things like that are taught to get out of the mindset of shoot 1, assess, or a very common shoot 2 assess. There have been shooting situations where LEO's have had just that happen. Engaging a threat and only shooting twice because that's what they did on the range for training. The threat was still coming though. Even though it's only dry-fire practice, I will go through the same motions of pulling the trigger as many times as I feel needed for the threat. Recoil management is something that can be worked on as a seperate set of drills and practice. But you are shorting yourself if you only repeatedly shoot once and stop with dry-fire, or not practice controlled pairs or hammers with rimfires. Aren't you just advocating a 2 shot muscle memory vice 1 shot? Can you show me where only 2 shots has been sufficient? Shouldn't you assess your threat efter each and every shot and continue shooting until the threat has stopped? Your answer seems to replace a habit with one no more effective. Considering the topic of this conversation, I think practicing a single trigger press is fitting. No, I actually was using the double tap mentality as an example of what not to do as well. It's something that I see a lot of agencies do during their quals. When I do dry fire, I mentally am preparing to shoot 1,2,3 maybe 5 shots. What I do not think would be a good idea is thousands of single shots. |