2017 Dryfire Challenge!

[JTH]

Just like last year, I've made a 2017 Dryfire Report Card that you are welcome to use to help yourself track your dryfire practice. 

More importantly, you can use it to help make yourself a better shooter by practicing in dryfire every day.  We aren't talking about trying to have people put on all of their gear and knock out an hour of focused, concentrated dryfire practice every time (though if you can, great!), but instead--every day, work on getting a little better.

Here's an explanation here of what I'm talking about, and a couple of videos explaining Drill Zero and some of its variations:  2017:  How are you going to get better this year?

Last year, due to this, I ended up practicing Drill Zero on 174 different days.  That was in addition to days in which I did longer dryfire practice, did live fire practice, attended a training class, or shot a competition match.  174 days---which means that due to Drill Zero (a drill that takes less than three minutes and takes no gear other than an empty gun and a safe direction) I practiced an extra five thousand two hundred and twenty perfect trigger pulls (well, as perfect as I could make them) working on getting the sights to stay steady as I got faster and faster on the trigger.

No matter what else you do, if you can manage sight control and trigger control, you'll hit what you need to hit.  The rest is important, sure, but without sight control and trigger control, the rest really doesn't matter.  And Drill Zero is all about getting better at those two things.

Five thousand extra perfect trigger pulls?  Yeah, that WILL make a difference to my ability to shoot well.

I didn't meet my goal last year of practicing every day.  But, I still got a lot of good practice in, so it wasn't like it was a waste.  This year, my goal is again that every single day I will practice physical pistol skills in some fashion, and I'm going to mark in black days I do Drill Zero, blue the days I do longer dryfire sessions, purple the days I dryfire with guns other than my carry gun or primary competition handgun, red the days I live fire practice, and green the days I test myself either in competitions or in training classes.  (Yes, I own a lot of Sharpies.  Doesn't everyone?)

Every single day, there is going to be something I can mark on my report, showing that I'm working on getting better.  If nothing else, I can ALWAYS do Drill Zero.

Anyone else interested this year?   Who else wants to be a better shooter, as opposed to simply being a gun owner?  There is nothing wrong with just being a gun owner.  Plenty of people who own guns like them for collecting, for their history, etc.  There are lots of reasons to own guns, a number of which have nothing to do with actually shooting them.  However...if you DO think you are a shooter, what are you doing to get better?  At the very least, what are you doing to maintain your current skill level?

Dryfire! 

[tstuart34]

Day 1 done. I will have to print these soon.

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[abbafandr]

I'm in.  I think it helped but am going to have to come with a method of tracking it.

I have shot the last 2 Rockin' Thunder matches.  I haven't practiced with my G17 for weeks and my December score dropped quite a bit.  The pistol I've been practicing with score stayed roughly the same.  My score with the 22LR jumped considerably.

I think I will go back to practicing with the G17.  If I get used to the (relatively) crappy trigger pull on that, I don't foresee much difficulty with the Smiths delightful triggers.

[tstuart34]

Can I do drill zero with a brown or black background? My eyes really struggle to focus on the font sight for some reason. I think my young great eyes are starting to go slowly bad . I can focus fine on other backgrounds but the whitish color of my basement throws me off

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[JTH]

Can I do drill zero with a brown or black background? My eyes really struggle to focus on the font sight for some reason. I think my young great eyes are starting to go slowly bad . I can focus fine on other backgrounds but the whitish color of my basement throws me off

Sure!  For basic Drill Zero, the main point is that you need to be able to see your sights sharply and clearly.  Whatever background you want to use it up to you!

....that being said, actually changing your background every once in awhile isn't a bad thing, either.  You don't want to make the background visually distracting (at least, not for Drill Zero), but changing it periodically means that you aren't training your brain to only look for one particular picture, but instead training it to look for a certain sight alignment within the picture.

[bkent]

I'm in.

It's been quite a while since I've practiced, so I'm starting out with a basic Wall Drill.  Did 10 minutes tonight. I'm using a goal tracking app on my phone.

http://pistol-training.com/archives/118

Thanks for posting this!

[JTH]

I'm in.

It's been quite a while since I've practiced, so I'm starting out with a basic Wall Drill.  Did 10 minutes tonight. I'm using a goal tracking app on my phone.

http://pistol-training.com/archives/118

Thanks for posting this!

The Wall drill is obviously the main basis for Drill Zero---Wall is an excellent drill to isolate the singular skill of trigger control, and it works VERY well for that.    The main difference between Drill Zero and the Wall drill is that Zero requires you to also work on changing eye focal length, which is often a big issue for people.  They start off by looking at a far-away target, and when they have to bring in their focus to something close like the sights, they either 1) don't do it, or only partially do it, so that they don't really have a front sight focus and then they don't understand why their shots are inaccurate, or 2) they DO manage a front sight focus, but it takes a very, very long time.  The muscles in your eyes that regulate focal length, just like any other muscle, need a workout to be fast and efficient.  Drill Zero adds that extra component.  (That's not all, but that really is the major difference.)

Wall drill is really good---trigger control is SUCH a huge issue for most people, and they don't realize it.  And practicing Wall really, really can help.

Excellent!

[JTH]

Well, I've managed to practice every day SO far. 

So far we've got me, tstuart34, abbafandr, and bkent.  Anyone else this year?

[tstuart34]

Well, I've managed to practice every day SO far. 

So far we've got me, tstuart34, abbafandr, and bkent.  Anyone else this year?

I've slipped up a couple of days already... I have been hitting shotgun reloads also with this.  School started back up for me this week so I'm going to really have to focus on taking the time. 

The good news is I am already seeming some improvement. I feel like my eyes are focusing better and that I am snapping the gun harder to my eye focus point much quicker.  I need to print off some 6 spot targets so I can work on transitions. 

I'm seriously considering a LASR system just so I can do some progress tracking. 

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[JTH]

I've slipped up a couple of days already... I have been hitting shotgun reloads also with this.  School started back up for me this week so I'm going to really have to focus on taking the time. 

Believe me, I understand.

Since I'm shooting PCC at the USPSA Optics Nationals this year, I'm taking some of my dryfire time and working on gun-handling skills for PCC, also.  (Hence the "purple" choice for marking my report, because if I'm putting work in, I want my dryfire report to show it, dang it!  )

Matter of fact, since I'm shooting PCC Optics, Rimfire Rifle Open, Rimfire Pistol Irons, and Production at the upcoming (in April) Great Plains Steel Challenge Championship (where you can shoot up to four different divisions), I'm going to be spending some dryfire transition practice time with some .22s also.

My current plan is that even if my dryfire practice is non-primary-handgun (so, marked in purple), I'm going to ALSO try to at least get in Drill Zero with one of my primary handguns on that same day.  I really want to improve my trigger control this year.  My speed is okay, my draw is fine, my reloads are...adequate..., my ability to get on the sights and control my sights is fine....but my trigger control continues to be the issue. 

Note: when I say "fine" and "okay" that doesn't mean perfect, but it at least means that it is decent for my current expected level of shooting.  My trigger control, however, just isn't consistent enough for where I'm supposed to be.

Part of my live-fire practice plan this year includes a lot of Manny Bragg's trigger control drills, which means I'm going to be spending a lot of my time shooting dots.  And steel at distance.  But....if I get good at that, literally my entire USPSA game will improve significantly.

Not to mention that my self-defense capability will increase significantly in terms of operative handgun skill.

Dryfire to practice it, live-fire to verify it and ingrain it under recoil.

...that's one of my major goals for this year.

Hm.  That's an idea for a different post. Yearly goals.....

The good news is I am already seeming some improvement. I feel like my eyes are focusing better and that I am snapping the gun harder to my eye focus point much quicker.  I need to print off some 6 spot targets so I can work on transitions. 

Those 2" dots really help for practicing small transitions, and if you put two of them up several yards apart from each other (and then stand only a couple of feet from the wall) they ALSO really help working wide transitions.

I'm seriously considering a LASR system just so I can do some progress tracking. 

LASR allows for some pretty cool tracking options. 

[JTH]

So how it this going so far?  We are a month in now---how's the practice?

I have actually managed to do SOMETHING useful every single day.  Some days I did a variant on Drill Zero in the morning before work, then another drill or two after I came home in the evening.

One of the things I'm really trying to work on is grip and trigger finger strength---not building it (I'm working on that elsewhere), but actually USING it while shooting instead of letting my hands relax.  In my dryfire, in one variant I'm not counting the rep unless I'm really crushing the gun with both hands.  And in one of the other variants I'm doing, I'm using a Ruger P95 in double-action mode the entire time, with a lot of trigger pulls in a short amount of time, freestyle, SHO, and WHO.

It's helping me 1) realize how much I can really grip the gun without it making my hands shake, and 2) making me get the trigger to come straight backwards even through a really long and weighty trigger pull.    I originally thought about using one of my double-action revolvers, but I want the grip to at least mostly resemble my normal guns, and revolver grips are just....weird.  For me.

Not a revolver guy. 

The P95's trigger is actually pretty smooth---but it is long and heavy.  If I can keep the sights in solid alignment through THAT, then a shorter, lighter trigger will be less of an issue.  And it really makes me grip the gun solidly.  Trying to get to the point where a solid, extremely strong grip is the unconscious standard, as opposed to my (current) normal grip, and then having to think about tightening it up.

Looking at it, I was amused to see that I shot in 6 different competitions in January.  That's....considerably more than normal.  It is pretty neat, actually, how many shooting opportunities we now have in the Lincoln/Omaha area what with some of the new indoor ranges starting to hold matches also...

(Only two days of live fire, though.  Need to get some more of those this coming month.)

I'm trying to work more on getting at least one variant of Drill Zero every day, even if I'm doing something else with the gun (like live fire, or a competition).  Want to just be in the habit of drill zero, every day.

How's it going for you guys?  Getting any good practice?