6 Fun Phone Apps for Dry-Fire Practice

[Elderberry]

Shooting Illustrated by Kevin Creighton - Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Dry-fire practice at home is one of the fastest ways to improve marksmanship and gun handling. With a regular routine of dry-fire practice, you can quickly improve vital gun-handling skills like a smooth trigger press, a quick and efficient draw and fast, smooth reloads.

But here’s the dirty little secret about dry-fire practice: it’s boring. It’s like eating your vegetables as a kid: Yes, we know it’s good for us, and it’ll help us grow, but it’s just not as fun as other things like the noise and recoil you get when pulling the trigger on a live round.

That’s where dry-fire training aids come in, and several companies have teamed up the computing power and built-in of the modern smartphone with inexpensive lasers to create dry-fire practice systems that make practice at home a lot more fun.

There are essentially two different types of smartphone dry-fire apps available today: Ones that use the built-in smartphone of your camera to record the hits on the target, usually a scaled down version of a practical pistol or bullseye target, and then there are the ones that use another device to track hits and those those results are communicated to your phone for review. Apps that use your smartphone’s camera typically cost less up-front that those with a dedicated target stand, but then you also have to factor in the added cost of buying an adapter and stand for your smartphone in order to hold it in place as you do your training.

There are also two different ways to put laser “hits” onto the target, a small bullet-shaped laser that fits into the barrel of an unloaded pistol, and dedicated laser training pistols like those made by LaserLyte and Next Level Training. As always, for maximum safety when performing any dry-fire practice, make sure your pistol is unloaded and there is no live ammunition anywhere in the room where you are practicing. Here’s a look at some of the smartphone-based systems for dry-fire available today:

More: https://www.shootingillustrated.com/articles/2018/7/11/6-fun-phone-apps-for-dry-fire-practice/

[Cyber Liberty]

I thought dry-firing is hard on firing pins?

[Elderberry]

I thought dry-firing is hard on firing pins?

That's why they make Snap Caps.

[NavyCanDo]

I thought dry-firing is hard on firing pins?

Generally speaking most modern firearms will not be harmed by dry firing. Check out the youtube, THE MYTH OF DRY FIRING.

[Elderberry]

I have done lots of dry firing, but I have had 2 failures. A broken hammer on a TC Contender and a broken firing pin on a S&W Mod 36. I believe those 2 failures were just the "Luck of the Draw" and could have occurred while firing live ammo and dry firing didn't have anything to due with their failure. It was just their time.

[thackney]

I thought dry-firing is hard on firing pins?

@Cyber Liberty

Sorry for the slow response on an old thread, but...

Myth 5: Dry-Firing A Gun Is Harmful

To be fair, this is sometimes true. Dry-firing most centerfire rifles and handguns is perfectly safe once you have made certain they are unloaded and pointed in a safe direction. However, excessively dry-firing a rimfire gun is a bad idea. The firing pin of a centerfire gun is designed to strike a primer located in the center of a cartridge's base. When no cartridge is present, the firing pin strikes nothing. With a rimfire, though, the firing pin is positioned to strike the soft brass rim of the cartridge. When no cartridge is present, the firing pin strikes the hard steel of the breechface. Repeated dry-firing of a rimfire can eventually peen the firing pin, dulling it and causing misfires. Dry-firing offers convenient, easy practice, but if you are going to dry-fire a rimfire gun, invest in some snap caps first. These dummy rounds will cushion the firing pin's fall.

https://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2014/7/2/five-gun-myths-exploded/

[Cyber Liberty]

@Cyber Liberty

Sorry for the slow response on an old thread, but...

Myth 5: Dry-Firing A Gun Is Harmful

To be fair, this is sometimes true. Dry-firing most centerfire rifles and handguns is perfectly safe once you have made certain they are unloaded and pointed in a safe direction. However, excessively dry-firing a rimfire gun is a bad idea. The firing pin of a centerfire gun is designed to strike a primer located in the center of a cartridge's base. When no cartridge is present, the firing pin strikes nothing. With a rimfire, though, the firing pin is positioned to strike the soft brass rim of the cartridge. When no cartridge is present, the firing pin strikes the hard steel of the breechface. Repeated dry-firing of a rimfire can eventually peen the firing pin, dulling it and causing misfires. Dry-firing offers convenient, easy practice, but if you are going to dry-fire a rimfire gun, invest in some snap caps first. These dummy rounds will cushion the firing pin's fall.

https://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2014/7/2/five-gun-myths-exploded/

Very informative, thanks!  I only have a couple of 22LR pistols that I never use, the rest are all center-fire.

[Elderberry]

@Cyber Liberty

Sorry for the slow response on an old thread, but...

Myth 5: Dry-Firing A Gun Is Harmful

To be fair, this is sometimes true. Dry-firing most centerfire rifles and handguns is perfectly safe once you have made certain they are unloaded and pointed in a safe direction. However, excessively dry-firing a rimfire gun is a bad idea. The firing pin of a centerfire gun is designed to strike a primer located in the center of a cartridge's base. When no cartridge is present, the firing pin strikes nothing. With a rimfire, though, the firing pin is positioned to strike the soft brass rim of the cartridge. When no cartridge is present, the firing pin strikes the hard steel of the breechface. Repeated dry-firing of a rimfire can eventually peen the firing pin, dulling it and causing misfires. Dry-firing offers convenient, easy practice, but if you are going to dry-fire a rimfire gun, invest in some snap caps first. These dummy rounds will cushion the firing pin's fall.

https://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2014/7/2/five-gun-myths-exploded/

@thackney
@Cyber Liberty

Another slower response.

That statement was wrong. The breechface contains the firing pin hole so the firing pin does not strike the breechface it strikes the edge of the chamber in the end of the barrel. And the barrel is not hardened.

When a rimfire firearm is dry fired, the striker hits the outside mouth of the chamber instead of the soft brass rim of the cartridge. This can not only damage or destroy your firing pin, but over time will peen the barrel face. Extensive peening can be so bad that ammunition will no longer chamber.

They sell a chamber "ironing tool" to correct this damage. I have one, well its loaned out.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1007111192/menck-chamber-ironing-tool-22-rimfire

[Elderberry]

I'm going to give "iTarget" a tryout. I ordered a laser bullet(may be delivered Today) and I've downloaded the App to my phone. I just need to rig up a phone holder.

[Elderberry]

My laser bullet came in yesterday and nothing's safe now. I've been blasting every inanimate object in the house now.