If you don’t dry fire then screw you. Just kidding, but seriously. Dry fire practice is the only way you will ever move past the beginning stages of firearms training. Unfortunately, this type of training, while incredibly important, has been pretty much the same for the last 50 years. Now, with the advent of apps, lasers, and a few other modern tools, we can measure and time all of our key metrics to become better shooters. Keep reading if you want to find out 3 tools that will allow you to shoot like a boss, and save you thousands.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of this topic, lets go over the reasons why dry fire is important. Primarily, it allows you to practice the fundamentals of weapon manipulation, the presentation, target acquisition, and the shot.
Shooting is a mental game, with a few detailed skills that have to be honed, and there is no better way to hone these motor skills than dry fire practice. Also, you can’t look like these guys without dry fire practice, just saying.
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1. Laserlyte Training Rounds
These rounds are a great training tool. I have used them for years, with great success. They are caliber specific rounds that go into your chamber for dry fire practice. They have an activation pad on the rear that fires the laser when the pad is struck by the firing pin, letting you see where your round would strike.
Here are the links for 9mm, 40 cal, and 45 ACP. There are other calibers, but these will cover the vast majority of readers’ weapons. These are affiliate links. So if you purchase them from Amazon, you will pay the same price as normal, and help support this site. Everyone wins!
Not only is this a valuable tool that allows you to shoot a million rounds for only the cost of the trainer, but it allows you to practice safely. Once the round is in the chamber, no live ammunition can be loaded or fired. This is great because we all know you must practice dry fire with a safe and unloaded weapon, and what better way to make it safe than putting something in the chamber to keep live rounds out?
2. Video Stop Watch
This is an app that allows you to time any video to the thousandth of a second. You may ask, why should I spend 99 cents on this? Well, this allows you to video your dry fire drills, say one round from the holster for example, and get an accurate time. This is how you do it.
First you need to clear your weapon, and put the training round into the chamber. You need to set the camera up behind you so that it can see your movement, and wherever your laser will strike. This is key, because you need a visual to start your draw, and you need to see when the laser paints the target, as this is the stop point.
Next, you open the app, hit import video, and select the video. Now you use the slider to see when you start the draw, then press the green start clock. Once you see the laser hit your target you hit the red clock. That sets the stop point. Now hit the clipboard in the upper right to see the time difference.
I generally like to record several reps of the drill so I can average them together. I don’t think its necessary to time every single rep you do, as that is probably going to clog up your phone, but timing a few standard drills and comparing them every so often is a great way to measure your progress. Previously, this type of dry fire practice would require you to buy several hundred dollars worth of specialized timing gear. Thanks Video Stop Watch.
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There is also a corollary benefit to timing these drills. It allows you to self coach. Often times we might feel like Rob Leatham, or Bob Vogel, but we can’t really tell. The video doesn’t lie, and it does allow you to see what inefficiencies you are doing, things like: dropping your head, scooping, or fishing your presentation. So not only can you time your drills, but you can now self coach and see which methods are faster and more efficient.
3. Shot Timer App from Surefire
This app is a shooting timer, just like dedicated units that you would normally see, only this one is free. This is great because normal shooting timers can run in the hundreds of dollars range. The timer has a variety of features that are found on normal timers.
You can delay or change the start beep, and change the sensitivity or the mic. It will record every gunshot after the beep occurs, and give you the split times. One feature that this timer has that other’s don’t is the ability to email yourself the results. So if you shoot a personal best you can save, and send them to yourself, which is a nice way to keep track of your records.
Review
There are a huge number of drills that you can accomplish with these tools, and the best thing is you don’t have to spends hundreds on specialized equipment, and thousands of dollars on live rounds. If you’d like some more concrete drills, check this article out for specific drills and goal times to shoot for.
There are some limitations to dry fire. You will not be able to practice controlling recoil and muzzle flip, but that is probably 10% of your total shooting skill. This area is something you will need to work with live fire at the range, but all the other drills mentioned in the article can be done with the tools I’ve mentioned in the comfort of your own home. I recommend trying just one 20 min session a week and increase as desired.
I hope your are as excited about these tools as I am because I’ve been searching for a way to time my dry for for ever, but I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars to do so. Give these tools a shot and let us know in the comments section how much better you’ve become at shooting.
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