The Secret to Saving Time and Money While Practicing with Guns.
When it comes to practice, nothing replaces live fire and nothing replaces dry fire. Live fire is what most people think of when they think of shooting practice. If you are heading to the range to try out a new weapon or just wanting to get that smell of gunpowder in your nostrils, you can't replace live fire. However, if you are working on drawing, transitions from target to target, trigger control, grip, etc., dry fire is a huge asset to have in your training schedule.
Dry fire is when a shooter practices with no ammo. In all reality the only two things live fire gives you that dry fire does not is recoil and holes in a target. Everything else can be trained in dry fire.
This article will explore the variety of options in practicing dry fire. There are other tools such as airsoft, bB guns, and air guns, but we will save those for another article.
Let's start off by answering a few common questions:
Is it safe to dry fire your weapon?
doing a basic chamber check by pulling the slide back, one can identify if a round is in the chamber. it is suggested that practice is done with easily identifiable, colorful non live rounds.
Yes and no. Most of us growing up were taught not to dry fire our guns or we could damage them. Most modern centerfire firearms won’t be damaged with dryfire practice but you should check with the manufacturer before dry firing. Rimfire guns should not be dry fired unless the manufacturer states it is safe to do so. The issue is, firing pins were designed to strike soft metal. The firing pin on centerfire guns that are dry fired, just hit air. Even though the firing pin is not making contact with anything, other metal parts will be hitting each other while dry firing and could cause warping or distortions. When dry fired, rimfire guns strike a harder metal instead of hitting the soft brass of a bullet. This could cause warping or other deforming of the firing pin or other parts. Either way, if you plan on dry firing any weapon on a regular basis you should invest in snap caps to prevent possible damage.
What benefits does dry fire have over live fire?
The four main benefits dry fire has over live fire are: safety, location, cost, and time.
Safety: Dry fire dos not use ammo therefore the dangerous part of firing a firearm is removed. However, precautions must be taken to ensure no ammo is present in your dry fire practice area.
Location: Dry fire can be done anywhere versus live fire that can only be done in certain areas where precautions have been taken to create a safe shooting environment.
Cost: Dry fire practice is free, unless you decide to purchase one of the dry fire practice tools listed below. While live fire typically requires gas money to travel to and from the range, a membership or range fee, and the cost of ammo. On the less expensive side you will spend $15 on a range fee, $40 for ammo, and $5 for gas. That's $60 per live fire range session.
When a non live practice round is made of brass or other metal it is not easy to identify the difference between a live round and practice round
Time: The largest time saving aspect of dry fire is realized in travel time to and from the range. The average shooter spends 60 minutes traveling to and from the range. Many shooters will forgo a shooting session because they don't have a couple of hours to dedicate to shooting practice. Dry fire allows a shooter to spend 30 minutes practicing in their own home without having to spend time driving to the range.
What are the disadvantages of dry fire training?
Dry firing can cause the practitioner to practice racking the slide after each shot, then when firing live ammo the practitioner, because of muscle memory, wants to rack the slide after each shot.
Also, dry firing does not recoil like using live ammo. So, if you are going to shoot in a competition or other event you should do some practice with live fire before the event so the recoil doesn’t catch you off guard.
As mentioned above dry firing can damage some firearms and precautions should be taken to prevent damaging your firearm, especially if you will use dry firing as a regular part of your training regimen.
What training tools are available for dry fire practice?
Snap Caps are the cheapest option to use for dry fire training. Snap Caps come in a variety of colors and options. An issue with snap caps that resemble live ammo is they are not easily identified as practice rounds. By doing a basic chamber check by pulling the slide back, one can identify if a round is in the chamber. When a snap cap round is made of brass or other metal it is not easy to identify the difference between a live round and practice round. A chamber check should easily identify if a practice round or live round is in the chamber. for this reason, it is suggested that practice is done with easily identifiable non live rounds.
Laser Training Bullets used to be limited in options but that has changed and there are many options to choose from. Laser bullets are inserted into your firearms chamber and then shoots out a laser when the primer is struck. The laser must be coupled with a target. Targets are determined by what system you are using. Options include a smart device, tablet, or product specific target. You can fire a group of shots then view where your laser shots struck on your target. Remember you have to have both the laser bullet and receiving target in order for this system to work. You can pick up knock off systems for under $40 and the name brand systems will be over $85. There are pricer options that include more functions. The one thing to avoid with laser bullets is the tendency to peek over the front sight to look for the laser which would cause a bad habit to develop. Don’t look for the laser! Use the app or target to track your shots.
The Coolfire Trainer is designed to use your firearm with a replaced barrel, spring, and CO2. This system allows your slide to move back and forward as it would during normal use with live ammo. This system also allows the usage of a combined laser system to track your shots on target. The recoil is not as intense as with live ammo but does help with simulating the operation of a moving slide. Also, you don’t have to manually rack the slide every time you want to take another shot, as opposed to most other dry fire options. The price starts off at $400 for a barrel system and then increases as options are added.
Dry Fire Magazines allow the user to simulate multiple trigger pulls without having to reset the trigger. The slide does not move back and forth. There is a mechanism in the magazine that allows the trigger to reset after each trigger pull. You can not use the Dry Fire Magazine with any laser systems and mag changes take more effort and do not mimic an actual live ammo mag change. You can pick these up for around $100.
Simulators are the most realistic option for dry fire training but also the most expensive. Most simulators come with a gun specified for use with their system. A simulator can really help with target transitions, target identification, and shoot/don’t shoot situations. Some of these systems will have laser only guns without removable magazines and the more realistic systems will have moving slides with lasers and removable magazines. You can pick up an inexpensive system for as little as $400, without the practice gun. Costs start going up when you add in the gun and other bells and whistles. You can expect to pay $1000 for a good system with a good practice gun.
Dry Fire is a great tool to have in your tool belt of gun training. (Make sure you get live training before you shoot in events or competitions or else the recoil will catch you off guard.) You can train with something as simple as snap caps or spend lots of money on a simulator with a training gun. Either way, dry fire training is cheaper, more convenient, and safer than live fire training. Now you don’t have any excuses. Get to training.
