Safe and Effective Dry-Fire Training at Home [2019]

[Elderberry]

PEW PEW Tactical January 5, 2019 By Travis Pike

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easy, safe, and free type of firearms training you could do at home to improve your skills and shoot better?

Well, there is, and always has been: It’s called dry fire.

Dry fire means shooting without ammo, and it’s a surprisingly helpful skill builder.

Plus…you can do it with almost any type of firearm.

We are going to dive deep into how to dry fire, cover a few dry fire drills, and of course…bust a few myths along the way.

Now with video too!

What Is Dry Fire?

Dry fire is the act of simulating the firing your weapon without ammunition. 

Basically, you’re doing everything you’d normally do to fire off a shot…but without any ammo in (or even near) the gun.

Dry fire is one of my favorite ways to train new shooters in how to handle a firearm safely, and to teach them the very basics of weapon’s manipulation. 

Dry fire can be done inside the home with no equipment beyond your handgun, but there are some things you need to know to stay safe, and there are a few things that can make dry fire training more effective.

Dry Fire Safety

Dry fire should be a completely safe activity.  Of course you need to unload your weapon, and visually and physically ensure the weapon is clear, and a chamber flag ($10.39) wouldn’t hurt, but after that you should be totally safe.

When dry firing always keep the weapon pointed in a direction away from people, animals, etc.  Now is not the time to forget the basic rules of gun safety.

If you set your firearm down to take a break, use the restroom, etc, always re-clear the weapon before you resume training.  I go overboard and store ammunition in a different room entirely myself, and I recommend you do to. 

Why Dry Fire?

Dry fire allows you to practice a wide variety of skills.  Most importantly it allows you to build a foundation of basic skills.

Brilliance in the basics will lead to success in advanced manipulation.  With dry fire, you can practice proper grip, stance, trigger control, sight picture, and sight alignment.

A little dry fire every day can help establish good habits and build muscle memory.  For me, the biggest benefit was reducing my flinch.

I dry fired so much when the time came to do live fire my muscle memory was of a firearm that did not recoil.  Flinch became nonexistent.  I was able to train it out of me.

More: https://www.pewpewtactical.com/dry-fire-guide-training-home/