Dryfire Practice

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Dryfire Practice

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Could I solicit some pointers or even whole techniques for dry-firing practice?
ajj
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Post by ajj »

I'll give it a try if nobody else is going to jump in.
First, be safe. Be sure the rifle is empty, no live ammo in the room, but also aim in a direction which will allow an accidental discharge without injury. I aim at a concrete block wall in my garage.
Speaking from sad experience, the first thing to do is to decide EXACTLY what techniques you'll be practicing, both mental and physical. Don't just stand there clicking away and expect to do anything except reinforce bad habits. Make a PLAN for what you are going to be trying to teach yourself, from mounting the rifle to finding NPA to trigger control and follow through, with work on the mental program going on all the time. Read Dave Imas' thoughts on practice. The idea is that, in competition, you "fall back" on the things you've trained yourself to do.

The plan is important. The mechanics are simple. Use any challenging target. I like airgun-size silhouettes at 10 meters but round bullseyes, small circles and lots of other things will do. Use empty brass, rotating it about every five shots and ditching it after about 20. The break every five shots to rotate the brass is good for you. Gives you a chance to reflect and think about what you've been able to observe while dryfiring. So, above all, be observent. Don't hurry.
Practice regularly and frequently but don't try to go too long per session. When you get tired, stop. It is better to get into position and take four or five clicks every day than it is to force yourself through an hour once a week.
After some diligent practice you should start having a shot every now and then where you know you did it just right: brought the rifle up, thought positive and confident thoughts, concentrated completly as the dot came on target, stroked the trigger straight back smoothly and followed through. Those moments give you the incentive to continue. They are very satisfying. If you don't start getting some of them after a couple of weeks, you're doing something wrong.
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Post by Guest »

Okay - good info - and thanks for taking the plunge! :) It begs some "tips and tricks" questions.

Brass Rotation.
I like this idea - but out of curiousity - is there anything comparable? Plastic or Dummy cardridges? Dry-Firing Pin (My Anschutz came with one but I've yet to use it....)

I ran across an article last night on dry-firing practice. It touched on some basics but didn't deliver the details. It was based on Muscle Memory and Subconscious Shooting.

What are some of the Muscle Exercises involved? General Strength, muscle isolation, etc...?????

What is a good regime for the beginner? 10 minutes/day - work up to 30 minutes/day after several weeks? More, less?

Thanks for the help fella's.
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Post by GeoNLR »

Well I used to do quite a bit of dry fire before I got my air rifles. I have recently decided to add some dry firing practice with my smallbore back into my practice sessions. Last night I tried it for the first time... After shooting a full match on paper w/ practice and etc. was NOT the time to dry-fire practice with a lighter rifle! LOL.

I think I will dry-fire first and then shoot my match on paper.

For now I'm going to go with (4) sets of (5) well executed breaks with a small rest in between each set for a warm up of about 15 mins or so... I'll keep ya posted on how that works out.

When I was dry firing for practice I took a total of about (50) shots at scaled 10M targets per night. I have been thinking about using circles lately...
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Post by genphideaux »

Chick,

I tought you practiced by drinking 6 shot of tookillya then taking a broom stick, aim at a wall and yell pow very loudly. You've changed that?
We have but one life to live, live it like you stole it, live it right up to the hilt.

God Bless the USA

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Post by ajj »

I've never messed with the plastic snap caps because people who have say that the firing pin beats them up almost as fast as it does empty brass. They'd be easier to chamber, though. I wonder how the dryfire pin works. I've always figured that even if the pin face doesn't reach the barrel, the mechanical stop of the pin is taking a greater beating than it does when brass is chambered. The 1712 pin is a hefty piece of steel that must have considerable inertia.
The things I work on in dry firing are things like trigger control and mental program. I might do several sessions on confident trigger stroke where the only goal is to bring it smoothly but firmly straight back as the dot moves to the target, while carefully observing the results but not worrying too much whether the shot would have been a hit. You start seeing very interesting things like, as Tubb's book mentions, the dot moving to the target BECAUSE the trigger is breaking.
Another time I might focus solely on managing concentration so that I have the same things in mind at every stage of the shot...pleasant anticipation of a hit as the gun comes up, visual image of a hit as eye goes to scope, checklist for body relaxation as you breath slowly and wait for the dot to settle down, find the center of the target as you really bring the concentration to the start of the shot...that kind of thing. Just observe the times when your mind strays to something else just as you're starting to move the trigger. Don't get frustrated by it. You're practicing to make the concentration come at a specific time BECAUSE the routine you've laboriously learned summons it up.
There is no point in practicing when you're tired so just go until you feel you've had enough.


I'm still a big air rifle fan but I found that it's important to dry fire with



your match rifle because it's not going to hold and handle the same way. I would shoot great (after much practice) with my 11 pound luftwaffen and




then wonder why the 1712 seemed to zip all over the place during the match. When I started dryfiring the match rifle, my scores went up. I'm not too smart. Hope this steepens your learning curve.
saikatana

dry fire practice

Post by saikatana »

Try this info:
http://www.zediker.com/articles/zcomlawt.pdf
It is a holding drill by Tubb one of the top shoters in America
Good Luck!!!!!!!
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Re: dry fire practice

Post by Guest »

saikatana wrote:Try this info:
http://www.zediker.com/articles/zcomlawt.pdf
It is a holding drill by Lawton one of the top shoters in America
Good Luck!!!!!!!
Guest

Post by Guest »

cool - thanks.
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