Dry Fire Practice

This is in response to Allen’s dry-fire question. I have the same issue with my Glock. Every one of us can understand the benefits of dry fire practice. I certainly see and can understand where you got into the habit of racking the slide and didn’t even realize it just by creating muscle memory. I see several possible solutions to this.

1. Practice dry-firing with a comparable DA or DAO pistol. By comparable, I mean similar size, weight, and shape, not caliber. Remember, this is not going to necessarily be your carry gun. However, it will give you the opportunity to develop the muscle memory for your real carry gun. You will also have a back-up gun that you are familiar with if you ever feel the need to use it.

2. Don’t bother with the dry-firing practice, but continue to practice drawing and aiming to build and maintain the muscle memory. My practice is drawing and aiming the gun. I don’t dry fire it specifically so that I don’t know when the trigger breaks and the gun fires. Dry firing lets me remember that. In addition, practicing with a DA or DAO gun gets your trigger finger used to the double action pull. I would think this is not something you want to confuse you during a “situation” with a single action only gun like the 1911.

3. You’ll have to check on this, but I think some of the manufacturers of replica training guns make the 1911 that the trigger continually works, and so you don’t have to reset the slide when practicing your dry fire.

4. You may even want to only dry-fire once when you draw and aim. That way you get into the habit of resetting the slide before it goes in the holster (I’m assuming you carry that gun in Condition 1–locked and loaded). You can see what you are doing when you fire. I think the best results from will come from going to the range and just shooting. The bonus is that your gun can get a .22LR conversion. Get that, buy .22 ammo so you can practice cheaper than you cam with .45, but also practice with the .45 ammo. You don’t want to get too used to the feel of .22 ammo if you go this route. There’s really no easy answer to your problem. I think the second option would work best for you, it means you don’t have to buy another gun, or hunt for a trainer that may or may not exist. Keep practicing your draw and aim. -Eric, Minneapolis

In response to your question about dry-firing a SA pistol, I will offer my own opinion and experience. When I became a police officer in ‘75, our agency required us to carry (and purchase our own) revolver. While on patrol duty I carried a Colt Trooper MKIII; I couldn’t afford the Python that has always left me drooling! I carried the Trooper until I went into the detective bureau.

Needing a better concealment weapon, I bought a Ruger Security Six stainless revolver. I carried both these weapons for over 24 years, and like most of the other current/former/retired police officers (as well as many of our USCCA members), I practiced way more than just the required range time for my job, both in dry-firing as well as live shooting. Needless to say, I became very comfortable and confident with my revolvers. As with most agencies, trends change, and we were offered the option of going to automatic pistols. However, there were stipulations: They had to have TWO safes, and we had to keep at least one on AT ALL TIMES!

I smelled problems. The guys (and ultimately girls… I told you trends change!) would chide me about holding on to my ’round guns’. My only response was that if and when I needed to shoot, I was confident it would fire the first time, and I was very good at shooting them (as proven many times at the police range and simulated ’situational’ drills). It’s not that I would not have liked to use a pistol, but I knew what I had, and I trusted them!

As a point of emphasis, shortly after our transition to pistols, our first two shoot-outs seriously justified my stand; the involved officers drew their weapons and fired two-to-three times before they realized their safeties were still on, and they had not fired a single round! When you change types of weapons and go from familiar to not-so-familiar, it’s no big deal - until life and death stress factors in, and you automatically fall back on your old training and habits. Obviously, our policies changed to adjust, and with that we were allowed to carry a variety of ‘Range Officer approved’ makes and types.

Those changes ended the unnecessary risks. Me, I STILL stuck to my revolvers. Ultimately, our local county sheriff ‘merged’ with our department, and it was now mandatory to carry a pistol. Fortunately for me, pistol designs had changed, and I bought a double action 9mm with NO SAFETIES. Great. I now had a ’square gun’ that worked like my round ones! I quickly became familiar with my new weapon, and fired both live rounds and dry-fired the same as I did with my revolvers.

The most important thing was that I also TRUSTED my new weapon, knowing it would shoot the first time, no matter how stressed I was. Good feeling! Now, to more directly answer your question; I still carry a Chief Special Air weight, not because I don’t want a pistol, but only because I’ve carried it for more than thirty years, and I’m very comfortable with it. I do own a full sized Colt Combat Commander, but it’s a SA with two safes. Sound familiar? My fear factor still says go with what’s familiar, but I AM looking to buy a compact .40 cal DOUBLE ACTION pistol in the near future, and scour the USCCA forums and the Concealed Carry Magazine for input.

My point is (finally!), when you diligently ‘practice’, practice becomes second nature. The purpose of practicing is to create a natural reaction to whatever reason you practice for, whether it be competitive aerobatics in a plane, or struggling for your life in a face-to-face shooting situation, so that you automatically do certain things without conscious thought, thus allowing you time to process and react to any additional information.

Regarding the question about dry firing a SA semi-auto in this weeks Armed American Report. There are two different ways to practice shooting, each with their own pros and cons. I will discuss both sides of each. First off, there is live fire. The good parts of live fire is that you get used to the recoil, get solid feedback on how well you are shooting, and the gun functions exactly like it will if you ever need to use it for self defense.

The downside to live fire is that it can get quite expensive to get enough practice in to get good enough, and you may develop a flinch. Second, there is dry fire. The upside is that you can practice as much as you want without ever having to spend a penny and you are much less likely to develop a flinch. The downside is that you have to manipulate the slide for every shot (causing that extra step in your muscle memory), you do not get the concrete feedback of where exactly your shots fall, and you will not get used to the recoil. Both sides have their benefits and downfalls, so the best solution would be to do a little of both.

Shoot enough that you can get the muscle memory of exactly how to handle your weapon in a fighting situation (this involves not just accuracy, but speed and multiple hits in a short time and on multiple targets). Dry fire enough to develop those good fundamentals of shooting: sight alignment and picture, focus on the front sight, and slow steady trigger squeeze. Something that our Drill Instructors had us do in Boot Camp (Marines) was to take out our charging handle (on the M-16) and replace it with a boot lace. Then another recruit would sit/stand behind you and “fire” the weapon every time that you pulled the trigger.

If you could come up with a way to do that on your 1911, that would probably help your problem. Another thing that I do when dry firing is instead of just racking the slide, I will act like the weapon just misfired, and do the complete remedial action for a misfire (smack the bottom of the magazine, rack the slide, and then fire again - we call it tap-rack-bang in the Corps).

Here are my thoughts concerning the "dry fire single action auto" question: 1) Get another gun (like a double action auto) you CAN dry fire, and practice with IT. (Trigger control will transfer from gun to gun, and it's a great excuse to buy a gun.) 2) Get a revolver. Everybody should have a .38 snubby anyway. Dry fire the snot out of it. 3) Airsoft. You probably can get a model nearly identical to your carry piece. Scott

Dear Tim I ama retired NYCPD officer Re: ejecting live rounds . It is no small task to divorce your mind from practice and real . But whenever I went to work in Bklyn NY I knew it was not the range or dry fireing What I mean is leave all thoughts of practice at home or at thr range when you exit either. POs also have gotten shot because they didnt want to dirty their uniforms so they didnt hit the ground in time. It is mindset, mindset , mindset. Ralph

Regarding dry fire exercise with a single action pistol. I carry a 1911 Colt Commander and I also have a full size 1911. I routinely practice 3 times a week at the range and practice dry-fire at home almost daily. I have never experienced a problem with habitually racking the slide after each round on the range. Perhaps my dry-fire technique has something to do with it. In the interest of safety, I make a habit of visually and physically inspecting the gun after each time I pull the trigger on each dry fire, something I don't do at the range.

a 45 ACP semi automatic in the old days had a hammer with a hole in it. That was for tying a string, and pulling the string to recock the gun during dry fire withoug racking the slide.

In response to the question about dry practice with a single action (typically, a 1911) pistol, here is my suggestion. Go find a USED Para 1911 clone. These guns all have a long double action trigger, and they don't cost much on the aftermarket. You can dry practice with one of these Para guns without racking the slide, and if you can keep sight alignment and sight picture with that longer trigger, you will be fine when firing your normal single-action gun. Meanwhile, because it is a clone of a 1911, the manual of arms is the same. Ken

This is EXACTLY the situation my wife and I worry about with our Glocks. We created a training tool using a laser insert and a laser target. We introduced the new product at the NRA Annual Meeting in Phoenix last weekend, and were astounded at the reception by the 65,000+ attendees. We are advertising in this next issue of Concealed Carry Magazine, and hope to help as many people as possible train as they know they should but without the concern over dry firing and single action (or "Safe Action" as well). Brent

I would recommend practice dry firing only with a DAO (Double action only) pistol or revolver, for the very reasons the author gives in his narrative. Now, I believe my CZ-75B is actually DA/SA but in any case the hammer will still cock and fire repeatedly without the slide moving at all. I believe this is true of my PT92 as well. In contrast, I would not practice dry firing multiple shots with any of my striker-fired carry guns, except to explicitly practice single shots rather than multiple. If the author has a back yard, a CO2 powered Air Soft repeater pistol (preferably one featuring realistic "blowback" action) loaded with paint pellets might make a good training alternative as well.

Regarding "...practice of dry firing a single action semi-automatic handgun..." and the resultant muscle memory it re-enforces. My input: Option 1 -- Buy a .22 semi-automatic and use it for live firing practice. This removes the need to rack the slide or manually cock the hammer. This option also advocates for little to no dry-firing. Option 2 -- Buy an Airsoft pistol for live firing practice. There are many types of "fake" but functional training devises on the market. Chose one that mimics "real life" with as much fidelity as possible. Again, the effort is to remove the racking of the slide or manually cocking the hammer from the series of movements leading up to engaging a target and squeezing the trigger. My real point here is when you "train the way you fight, you'll fight the way you train." I learned that saying in the Navy but I'm sure it's been around in many different arenas. Very respectfully, RedRider06

Hi, In regard to the practice of dry firing and racking a single action pistol in practice for each trigger pull, I also had the same thoughts. Recently, I bought an airsafe pistol in the same model that I carry. It cost about $200, including 1500 rounds of pellets and two cans of propane. so far, I have repaid the cost with using it instead shooting at the range. Dry fire practice with an airsoft duplicates what you may need in an emergency and you can also move around at home unlike at a range. Setting up the range means nothing more than handing a carpet scrap as a backstop. That may be a good reason to use something close to what you shoot while practicing.. As you found out, you shoot as you practice.