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I'd like to get better at physical shooting skills in 2016. To do that, though, I'm going to need to actually practice. (I did some decent shooting in 2015, but I didn't practice nearly enough to really get better.)
Awhile back I designed a simple, straightforward dryfire drill that people could do easily every single day: Drill Zero. I wanted to create a drill that would make a significant difference to shooting quickly and accurately, but was simple, straightforward, took little time, and required almost nothing in the way of equipment or space.
There are a ton of people out there who participate in 1000-day DryFire Challenges and so on (mudnrox here I believe managed one!) so I'm inviting everyone here to join me in a 2016 Dryfire Challenge.
Here's a report card: 2016 Dryfire Report (https://precisionresponse.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/2016dryfirereport.pdf)
Simply color in every day you spend at least SOME time increasing your physical skills with a firearm. (Whether dryfire, live fire, or testing your skills in a class or competition.)
If you think that you can't get to the range that often (completely understandable!) and you don't have time every day to strap on all your gear for dryfire practice (that happens too) then read about Drill Zero, and use that so that you get at least SOME practice every day.
https://precisionresponse.wordpress.com/2016/01/02/2016-resolution-i-practicing-drill-zero/
My personal goal for 2016 is that every single day I will practice physical pistol skills in some fashion, and on the Dryfire Report I’m going to mark in black days I do Drill Zero, blue the days I do longer dryfire sessions, red the days I live fire practice, and green the days I test myself either in competitions or in training classes.
If I miss my goal---well, I'll keep going on and seeing how many days I can keep making myself better. If at the end of the year I don't meet my goal but I still practiced 300 out of the 365 days, I'm still going to get better. I've already marked out in black the first two days of the year--got my Drill Zero done yesterday and today--and tomorrow I get to color in a green spot because we have a USPSA match.
Anyone else want to do this, too? Pretty easy--just get a copy of the Dryfire Report! Who's with me?
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I'm in thanks you!
Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
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Nothing to lose, I'm in
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I'm in.
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Well, I got my first green square on the record sheet today---shot the USPSA match at ENGC. (The weather wasn't that bad, actually---no wind, and it was sunny out.)
The match itself was a good explanation of exactly why I need to practice my eye focus and trigger control on a daily basis---I ended up winning Production, but only because the other two top folks in Production ALSO screwed up just as many stages as I did.
In Production, you really need to be shooting a MINIMUM of 90% of the available points, without giving up any speed. Those are the folks that are doing well. And in this match, I had two mikes (unacceptable ever) and *7* D-hits (which should be unacceptable ever, really). Considering there were only four stages, that's pretty sad. There was only one difficult target in the entire match, and that was only because it was a little farther off than normal, and yet, my accuracy was poor. (Only shot 84.91% of the available points. That's not going to win any level II matches...)
....because in a number of cases, I was pulling the trigger without a solid focus on the front sight. Sure, there are plenty of targets where you can use a half-target-focus, and get perfect A-hits. But often you can't, and if you still try to shoot with that half-target-focus, you are going to drop points.
That was me today. (I also just yanked the trigger on a couple of occasions, so as always, my trigger control needs work.)
Drill Zero should help with both of those main problems. My movement was good, my gun handling wasn't bad (outside of one memorable didn't-quite-manage-it-reload), and my stage plans were just fine.
...I just need to use the sights and have good trigger control. Minor issues, right? :o
While I think local matches are tons of fun, I REALLY like the fact that they are tests of your shooting skills---and they show really quickly what you need to work on.
Apparently for me, Drill Zero is what I need to work on. A LOT. :)
How about you guys? What do you think of Drill Zero? Any thoughts about it? If you shot the match, what did it tell you about your shooting?
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I shot, poorly, today. Really going to give Drill Zero ( and other dryfire) a serious try. A few thousand extra quality trigger pulls can't hurt, can they? ::)
Definitely going to do something with the front sight so my old eyeballs can pick it up better and quicker.
For January, not a real bad day for shooting. :laugh:
I made a spreadsheet to track my dryfire report, since I know that piece of paper will disappear somewhere.
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Already a fan of Drill Zero.
Picked up a box of Crayola non-toxic markers in the HyVee tactical aisle today. :)
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Well, it has been a week, so I thought I'd post a picture of my dryfire report and talk about whether it has made any difference yet. We normally don't think of a mere week as sufficient to make much difference (unless we are in a class for the entire week) but if you think about it, as long as we have done at least Drill Zero every day, that's 210 perfect trigger pulls we've done in the last week alone...that's got to amount to something, right? :)
Here's my report:
(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1700/24276124076_cce18d31a4_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/CZctVo)
I shot a USPSA competition and an IDPA competition, mostly did only Drill Zero each day, but did get some additional dryfire practice both last Friday, and today. (The black/blue on Friday is because I did Drill Zero in the morning, but after work came home and got some additional dryfire practice done later.)
And a good thing, too---because I shot a different gun in a different division in the IDPA match yesterday, and the stages were ALL weak-hand-only, with your strong arm in a sling. Luckily, last Friday I did some extra dryfire practice including weak-hand-only trigger work with the G19 I was going to use in the IDPA match. It helped!
No red on the report yet--was going to get to the range today or tomorrow, but....the weather is doing a really good job of attempting to convince me that I don't need to live fire right now. (On the report, black is only Drill Zero dryfire, blue is a longer dryfire practice, green is a shooting competition, and red is live fire.)
I'm not going to say that I feel a huge difference in only a week---but I WILL say that I can feel perhaps a bit of a difference already in how fast my eyes switch focus to the front sight. As we get older, our eyes don't want to change focal length as quickly, and the extra practice is something I need. (My eyes are rapidly going downhill, and it sucks.)
How about you guys? What do your reports look like? If you have missed a day or two, we won't throw you from the group, by the way. You are still getting in more practice than all the people who have read this thread and article, and have decided that they don't need to practice!
How's it going so far? The report helping keep you doing it every day?
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(http://frontiernet.net/~netim/dfcal.jpg)
Missed one day. No red days either. Fair weather shooter here. I'm not sure if it's made a noticeable difference yet, but in the long run, I believe it will. Prior to this new training regimen, I relied on Dot Torture and good intentions to improve my WHO shooting. (Well, maybe there were other drills involved along the way.) :) Only 12 points down in the IDPA match Saturday AM. (Shooting wise anyway.)
Some day it will warm up. Then I will break out the red tactical marker. And Heartland has some stuff on the calendar it appears. :)
Edited to add: Don't know why the image is inverted. Looks good on the iPad and iMac. Must be a Windows thing. :)
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Well, I missed a day also :-[. Might get 2 competition this weekend. Really need some live fire practice. Also just a fair weather shooter ;)
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As we get older, our eyes don't want to change focal length as quickly, and the extra practice is something I need. (My eyes are rapidly going downhill, and it sucks.)
Wait a couple more decades, it doesn't get any better. (Ask me how I know) :'(
The report is helping me keep it up. If somebody does something regularly for several days it becomes a habit.
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Well, my first month of practice is up.
And dang it, I missed a day. I got up late, thought to myself "I'll have time when I get home from work because I'm not doing anything this evening" then when I got home from work I thought "I did that this morning, I can just relax" and the next day I got up and looked at my report and said DANG IT!!!!
(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1605/24736599585_bbdc55d6f8_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/DFTxfi)
On the good side, once I got a couple of weeks into the month, I had a chance to start doing more extended dryfire sessions, and actually got to the range a couple of times for live fire. Overall, 5 live-fire occasions this month, 10 extended dryfire sessions, and 17 Drill Zero sessions.
And one missed day. DANG IT.
...nonetheless, particularly with respect to SHO and WHO transitions and trigger control, I can see a difference.
How about you guys? How do the reports look? Anything you've noticed happening?
Sometime this week I'm going to try to put up a video with some variations on Drill Zero you can do instead, that take similar amounts of time but allow you to work on your skills in a slightly different fashion. Drill Zero can't do everything, and variations are fun to try.
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I missed a day also early on. Kinda getting to be a daily habit to dryfire in some form.
Haven't made to the range for live fire :-[ got a few drills want to try.
Did shoot 3 competitions though.
Finally figuring out what those metal pieces on the top of the slide are for :laugh:
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Finally figuring out what those metal pieces on the top of the slide are for.
I still have problems with that. :(
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Finished writing the article with some variations on Drill Zero that you can do to change things up. Still won't take any more time, and (other than printing out one page) doesn't take any more equipment than Drill Zero originally did.
For me personally, the good thing was that writing this out made a couple of days of my dryfire pretty solidly energetic, and I got in a LOT more reps than normal figuring out exactly how I wanted to explain it. :)
https://precisionresponse.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/drill-zero-variations/
Is Drill Zero being of use? How is practice going? Let me know what you think, and also what you think of the variations---after some practice, are they helping? Are they fixing the issues with Drill Zero that they are supposed to fix?
For folks just reading this for the first time---get yourself a copy of the Dryfire Report from the Drill Zero article, and join in! Yes, you have 3 minutes each day in which you can practice---and it will make a difference.
And for those who have missed days---ok, so what? Keep practicing!
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Yeah, I'm still in, spotty as it may be. Will try the new variations even though it will overload my onboard 4k of RAM.
(http://frontiernet.net/~netim/dryfire020416.jpeg)
Yes, it has been of use. I'm working harder on picking up that front sight thing as I refocus. I'm finding that if I slightly bend my wrist to elevate the muzzle, this front sight thing is easier to pick up as I drop it down into the rear sight notch thing.
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Well, another month down. How's it going for everyone else?
(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1486/25367752696_a87aa19a69_o.jpg)
I managed to drop another day---this time I knew it, but collapsed into bed anyway. If you are so dead/ill that you can't concentrate, dryfire isn't going to help.
Now that the weather has warmed up, I've made it out to the range a LOT more often. Hoping to continue that trend.
Huh. I THOUGHT I had been getting more extended dryfire practices in during February, but looking at the record, apparently that has only been in the last week or so. Need to get more of that happening--particularly because I've got different types of competitions coming up in the next month or so, and each has its own little quirks.
USPSA is monthly, of course. But I'm also heading down to Wichita Falls, TX for the Level IV IDPA match later this month, and drawing from under the vest plus the various versions of tac reloads and use of cover (at least, the way it is done in IDPA) is something that can really be helped in dryfire.
Plus, periodically I also run reps from my carry rig. And use actual cover/concealment and movement in various drills. :)
So while Drill Zero (and its variations) are good for all of that, there are some discipline-specific things I should also be practicing...need more blue on that record!
The last time I was at the range, in addition to shooting about 450 pistol rounds, I ALSO shot a little video with my new suppressor---the tax stamp FINALLY came back for my AAC 762-SDN. On a 300 Blackout and a .223, that thing is great. (I also need to buy some of the 300 Blackout 220 gr subsonic to shoot through it. Can't wait!)
http://youtu.be/KjUPpp2AYMQ (http://youtu.be/KjUPpp2AYMQ)
Fun times!
So how's your dryfire going?
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I've only dropped 1 day this year (yeah). Lots of blue, a little green, and finally 1 red (yeah, redux).
I'll post a picture of my sheet, which I am also tracking on a spreadsheet (got a thing about back ups.)
Ready for the match Sunday, weather looking great.
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I've only dropped 1 day this year (yeah).
Nice! Better than I'm doing!
Ready for the match Sunday, weather looking great.
It's going to be a good time. :)
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Well, another month gone! How's it going ?
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Well, another month gone! How's it going ?
Ok, I don't have to be the ONLY one who can respond here!
This last month did not go well, in terms of practice.
(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1461/25977487820_b460344c1f_o.jpg)
In my defense, if you are so sick that you can't stand up without wobbling, you probably shouldn't be holding a gun.
That being said, I still had five days in which I didn't get any practice at all, which is significantly NOT meeting my goal for myself.
Hopefully this coming month will be better, and I'll do a better job.
Taking a look at the last three months....
If I consider each color a "gun event," (which makes sense, as each color was a different gun handling session, even if there were two colors in one day) then I had:
32 events in 31 days in January
33 events in 29 days in February
27 events in 31 days in March
In the 91 days in the first three months of 2016, I've done at least Drill Zero 48 times, longer dry practice 22 times, gotten to the range for live fire practice 15 times, and shot 7 days in competition.
Why the heck am I not BETTER?? [sigh]
Actually, looking at the last couple of competitions I've done, a couple of things jump out in terms of "needed practice" so I'm changing my version of Drill Zero a bit in terms of eye focus requirements. (Starting with a near focus, taking a step as I transition my eyes to a far small target, then back to a near focus on the front sight as I work the trigger on that far small target.) Still freestyle/SHO/WHO, still 10 reps each, but working eye focus a bit differently.
I note that I HAVE seen a significant improvement in my SHO and WHO shooting skills, and they have come in handy in a couple of competitions---noticeably so.
For my live fire practice, I'm also going to be starting almost every practice with 50 rounds on the Dot Torture target. If I clean it twice in a row (on two consecutive live fire practice days) I'll move it out another yard. I'll start at three yards, and go from there. I'll stay at the same distance until I clean it twice in a row. (This is going to be discussed in a different thread.)
I've been doing about 5:1 ratio of competition gun:carry gun with respect to my dry practice. The difference doesn't seem to be any big deal other than I can transition the G17 faster than the G34 (at least it feels faster). Of course, there is a reason that my competition gun and carry gun have the same frame, sights, and trigger... :)
This month, the goal is more live fire, and getting back to dry practice every day. One thing that will help is that with better weather, I can take 150 rounds to the range after work, run Dot Torture, then spend another 30 minutes with the other 100 rounds working on a specific skill or two. In other words, I don't have to wait for a weekend day or something to run a long practice, I'll just run to the range for a quick hour on one or two skills, but do it more often. Twice a week would be nice, but at least once a week. (Hopefully still getting in an extended practice at least once or twice this month.)
Ok, how about someone ELSE post how they are doing here!!
(Note that my record includes a couple of day in April, but my written stats don't. I CAN count. Really!)
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Maybe it's down to us 2 :laugh:
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JUST TESTING THE NEW VIDEO AUTO EMBED MOD
https://youtu.be/jEy6MGu3bIA
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Originally in this thread, these people said they were giving it a try:
Lorimor
tstuart34
abbafandr
HuskerXDM
...so how's it going?
And that isn't a "put up or shut up" it is instead a "how is it working out? is the report format helping track/motivate your practice?"
Did you start strong but fade off? Only get in practice once every three weeks?
Here's the thing, though: Whatever you did or did not do earlier in the year doesn't change that you can start NOW. Or restart NOW.
Practice makes a difference. Folks who are just reading this thread for the first time---try it out! Get the report and start today.
Drill Zero takes less than three minutes and you just need an empty-and-cleared gun and a safe direction...you can do this!
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I had a long dry spell. :( I was fighting a vicious cold and lost interest for awhile. Plus, I was getting too good.
(http://frontiernet.net/~netim/drypractice.jpeg)
I have been finding that switching platforms, i.e., Glock vs 1911, I get screwed up, particularly when I push speed. After working with the Glock, the 1911 sights are too low and suddenly, the 1911 trigger is SUDDEN! No crunch, crunch grind sproink BOOM! :) And after working with the 1911, the Glock sights are waaaayyyy up there.
So, there's that. :)
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I had a long dry spell. :( I was fighting a vicious cold and lost interest for awhile.
I completely understand that. One of the reasons I made myself the dryfire report in the first place is because once you get out of the habit of doing the practice, you don't realize how many days in a row you've missed! (At least, that is what happens to me.)
So with the report, I can see the gap and tell myself "shut up and do the work! I don't care if you don't feel like it!" ---because without seeing directly what I've missed, it is hard to get myself to do it sometimes.
Plus, I was getting too good.
I have never had that problem. Unfortunately.
I would like to have that problem.
I have been finding that switching platforms, i.e., Glock vs 1911, I get screwed up, particularly when I push speed. After working with the Glock, the 1911 sights are too low and suddenly, the 1911 trigger is SUDDEN! No crunch, crunch grind sproink BOOM! :) And after working with the 1911, the Glock sights are waaaayyyy up there.
You know, when I shoot someone else's 1911 or 2011, I find I don't really have a problem with the grip angle and sights, probably because during the draw/press-out I focus on the front sight, which means if I don't see it I raise the muzzle as the gun is moving outward so it moves into the proper position.
If I had instead been used to the 1911 and went to the Glock, that problem wouldn't automatically fix itself because I'd be seeing the sights from the beginning, and it wouldn't be as obvious that the alignment was off.
Trigger, on the other hand....have you done anything to smooth out the Glock trigger yet? If it is still going "crunch grind" you CAN fix some of that, you know....
...whenever I shoot a 2011, I find that I have to be a LOT more careful on the trigger because I'm used to using the takeup of the Glock trigger to get tension on the trigger finger (because that can help stabilize the hand/finger) prior to finishing the shot. And yeah, 2011s and 1911s don't really let you do that much.
"Okay, sights are align.."-BANG-"..ed. Well. Mostly. Dang it."
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It's sorta like learning a new language, you begin to understand your native tongue better. It is helping me understand the importance of picking up the front sight on the pressout.
I haven't touch the trigger. Just been dry firing it some and some range time.
Sproink!
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Getting too good is definitely a problem I would love to have.
So far I've only missed one day.
3 days of live fire, 13 competition events.
I think there has been a small improvement but there is a lot of room there.
Planning on selecting a drill or 2 and run them as a measurement of the progress, (or lack thereof).
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Well, another month under the belt. I think there is some improvement. Not getting to the range for testing as much as I need to. But I have noticed some flashes of mediocrity ;D
How is it going for the rest of you?
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First off, I like the dryfire report. Nice layout and easy to read. Hope you don't have any copyrights to it, cause I'm stealing it.
Second, not sure if it's been discussed here before, but I was wondering if anyone out there has had any success with the LaserLyte dryfire training system?
Third, looking for suggestions for best dryfire drills (or direction to be pointed in somewhere else in the forums).
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First off, I like the dryfire report. Nice layout and easy to read. Hope you don't have any copyrights to it, cause I'm stealing it.
Well, I did post it so other people could use it. :) You might take a look at the PRT blog entry (https://precisionresponse.wordpress.com/2016/01/02/2016-resolution-i-practicing-drill-zero/) that goes with it for some ideas regarding its use if you haven't already.
Second, not sure if it's been discussed here before, but I was wondering if anyone out there has had any success with the LaserLyte dryfire training system?
I'm not a real fan of that one---the laser tends to die really easily, and the consistency of aim is...problematic, from what I've seen.
I have a much higher opinion of Laser Ammo than pretty much any other version of laser hardware. (I also like switching out my normal gun with a SIRT pistol periodically.) Using Laser Ammo and SIRT, along with the LASR software (developed by people here in Nebraska) is some seriously good stuff. I don't use it often, but periodically I supplement my regular dryfire practice with some drills using LASR.
http://lasrapp.com/
Third, looking for suggestions for best dryfire drills (or direction to be pointed in somewhere else in the forums).
For shooting skills, probably the two best books out there for dryfire practice are Steve Anderson's Refinement and Repetition: Dry-fire Drills for Dramatic Improvement and Ben Stoeger's second practical pistol book.
Anderson's book: http://www.amazon.com/Refinement-Repetition-Dry-fire-Dramatic-Improvement/dp/1930847769
A good starter pack for dryfire (especially for competition, but it will help ALL shooting skills) is here: http://benstoegerproshop.com/dryfire-book-combo-pack-dry-fire-training-for-the-practical-pistol-shooter-paperback-book-and-scaled-targets/
Ben has a number of different books out for practice, the first of which (Champion Shooting, a Proven Process For Success at Any Level) is also very good.
My PRT article that gave the dryfire report also talked about the fact that many people excuse themselves from daily dryfire practice because they say they don't have time---and so I came up with Drill Zero as something people could do every single day no matter what. Later, I made another video and blog entry (https://precisionresponse.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/drill-zero-variations/) with some variations on Drill Zero that could also be done (regular Zero one day, a variation the next, etc).
Drill Zero (and its variations) aren't substitutes for more rigorous (and more varied) dry practice, but it IS a good drill to make certain that every day, you are working on getting better.
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Well, another month down---and THIS time I finally managed to get through a whole month without missing any days! (March was----bad. April, however, I got some good practice in.)
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7528/26531093370_5ab2b51f3e_o.jpg)
Oddly enough, none of the effects of that practice showed up in the MATCH that I just shot (which was the worst overall classifier match that I've shot in about 5 years, I think. Literally, by percentages), but that doesn't surprise me--what I screwed up at the match wasn't what I had been working on in dryfire.
Apparently, I need to add another particular issue/topic to my dryfire practice. :'(
(More on that in a different post, in which I also talk about Dot Torture. I know, I already said once that I'd write about it. Haven't had time yet!)
....in general, the things I've been practicing in dryfire have gotten better. The things I've been practicing in live fire have demonstrated gains based on my dry practice.
And I still have a long way to go. But I knew that already. :)
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Been awhile---but I've kept practicing, and have been keeping up documenting my practice. How about everyone else? Still doing it?
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8622/28026300530_c0a9fc5dab_o.jpg)
There have been about 196 days so far this year, and I've missed practicing on 11 of them. (Like I said, March was a bad month, and gave me almost half of those missed days.)
You can certainly tell when my summer schedule started! All those reds...interestingly enough, I need to actually spend more time on my dryfire, even when I can get to the range. I can push myself in dryfire considerably more than I'm comfortable with in live fire, and if I don't dryfire, then I don't push as much.
That being said, right now my main emphasis is on trigger control during recoil, for which I need live fire. (It is one of the few things that you can't do in dryfire.)
Just shot the Great Plains Sectional this past weekend, and on half the stages what I've been practicing showed clearly----my times were good, and my accuracy was excellent.
On several others, I was mediocre, and obviously sometimes wasn't doing what I needed to do.
On two stages, however, I completely ignored what I've been practicing, and when everything started going wrong, I didn't change what I was doing and it hurt me horribly at the match.
[sigh]
So much more work to do.
I just signed up for the Kansas Sectional match on August 27th, and that should be interesting--their matchbook shows a LOT of hardcover and no-shoot partials, which means that exactly what I'm working on now will be necessary to do well.
....I'm off to the range to try to suck less.
(I'm still going to post about Dot Torture elsewhere. Eventually!)
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Dang, had a nice semi coherent reply and made it disappear somehow ???
I have missed 4 days. 2 were medical ( surgery, yada yada). 2 were other.
June was a lot of WHO practice since minor strong hand surgery limited me.
I truly need to work on accuracy at distance and second shot accuracy. When A class or better shooters ask " do you even see your sights on the second shot" or similar remarks, you kind of figure what needs work :laugh:
I think this is helping but I have long way to go.
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When A class or better shooters ask " do you even see your sights on the second shot" or similar remarks, you kind of figure what needs work
You double-tap a LOT. :)
Often your first shot is solidly aimed---but you just rip the second one off immediately in a lot of cases, including on targets where *I* certainly would only use a seriously aimed shot. (Which is why you get a lot of Alpha-X targets, where "X" is normally something not-A.)
Making the second one aimed just takes a tiny bit of extra time (seriously, less than 0.2 almost always) and the increase in points will be SIGNIFICANT.
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You double-tap a LOT. :)
Often your first shot is solidly aimed---but you just rip the second one off immediately in a lot of cases, including on targets where *I* certainly would only use a seriously aimed shot. (Which is why you get a lot of Alpha-X targets, where "X" is normally something not-A.)
Making the second one aimed just takes a tiny bit of extra time (seriously, less than 0.2 almost always) and the increase in points will be SIGNIFICANT.
You were one of the shooters I was referring to, among others :). I definitely know at least one thing to work on :o
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Another month gone by, way too fast. Only missed 2 days this year (yeah). I have had 24 competition days and 14 live fire. Still managing to get at least a little bit of dryfire real regularly.
Probably should look into some more extensive drills, but a little bit of practice is better than none at all.
How's it going?
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Boy oh boy, did I get behind on this!
Don't have a new scan of my report, but....it DOES have a big, week-long gap at one point. I flat-out took a whole week to not do ANYTHING useful.
It wasn't actually a good idea. While I was feeling burnt out, I wasn't actually burnt out on shooting or dryfiring, I was burnt out due to other things. Taking a week off shooting (and practicing) of all types didn't actually help anything, so that was a week of practice that I missed for no useful purpose.
Recently, I've had to change my practice a bit, since I've been shooting PCC in various places. So, I've been working on my PCC gun-handling skills, and alternating that with working on my pistol gun-handling skills---but instead of mostly using my G34 (competition gun), I've been working my carry gun from concealment.
It isn't that much different, really. :) There's a reason my competition gun is a G34---because my carry gun is a G17. Same frame, same sights, same trigger (glock parts, polished), so once I have my hand on the gun itself, it pretty much feels the same to me.
How is everyone else doing? Still getting the dryfire done? Doing better than I did with my time off?
Anyone new start up dryfire?
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Thomas,
Have you considered making an exercise in the LASR Community? Just curious :)
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Thomas,
Have you considered making an exercise in the LASR Community? Just curious :)
Um, it hadn't actually occurred to me. :) Folks are welcome to link to my dryfire videos and posts, though!
I really like the LASR software, and it can help in a number of ways, in my opinion. My posts were more for the folks who (like me) often have a "I'm really tired, I'll get to it later, I really WILL" response to the idea that we should dryfire more, as opposed to the group that already is good with pulling up the LASR software daily. :)
It is certainly true that doing Drill Zero 10 times from a tone using the LASR software, recording the average time (for good hits), practicing Drill Zero for a couple of weeks, then checking it again would be an interesting and useful way to track progress---particularly if you did the same for SHO and WHO, since most people will probably see the largest improvement in time and accuracy in those just because most people are really BAD at those. :/
The LASR software makes it really easy to take all sorts of standard dryfire drills, and turns them into data-gathering situations, which is really helpful to people who want to get better in the most efficient manner they can. (Not to mention, the ability to have the software give you start times, par times, call your shots and reloads, and all the other things means you can make all sorts of good things happen.)
It just hadn't really occurred to me to post about it there. (I'm not exactly sure where it is, actually---I haven't been there in quite awhile.) Most of those folks already have motivation to dryfire!
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Well, I'm still hanging in there. Have missed 5 days this year.
I have been distracted by the PCC craze ( and loving it :laugh:)
The LASR software looks interesting. Now that we don't have to worry about the evil one taking our guns, I might take a closer look at that.
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How's it going, folks? The end is almost here----how's the daily dryfire practice?
For me....there were issues. There was a section of time in there where there were sufficient other things going on in my life that I wasn't doing the dryfire. Just didn't do it. Matter of fact, there is one full week of completely BLANK spots on my dryfire report. (Not a couple of days here and there, but just one completely blank week of nothing.)
Now, I could have done my dryfire. It wasn't as if I couldn't have found the time, and it wasn't as if I was in a place where I couldn't dryfire---but I let the other things in my life be an excuse for not practicing.
In the weeks after that, I got better, though I wasn't at 100%. On the good side, though, I did go back to my dryfire. Though...it wasn't always pistol dryfire. I thought about doing a second sheet for PCC dryfire, but I just kept it on the regular sheet.
For next year, I think I'm going to add a color for "non-iron-sight-pistol dryfire." (For when I practice PCCI, PCCO, Rimfire Rifle, and Rimfire Pistol Open variations. Also....perhaps some Carry Optics when my G17 MOS shows up. :) )
So---assuming my practice for the remainder of this week continues, some takeaways for me regarding the Dryfire Report...
1) I will have done a considerably larger amount of dryfire this year than in the past. If absolutely nothing else, that made using the Dryfire Report worth doing for me.
2) I actually spend a lot more time at the range (whether in live fire practice, or at a match) than I thought. 34 days of that consisted of being at a match where I was shooting. (Close to 10% of the year I was at a match!)
3) I need to more efficiently have my live fire practice a) verify what I'm doing in dryfire, and b) work on what I can't do in dryfire . Much of the time I did good livefire practice, but sometimes---I really didn't, and ended up just blasting rounds doing drills that I suppose were useful, but not optimal for what I needed to work upon. This year, my goal is to make my livefire practice better. (Noting that some of that will be with a PCC, since I'm going to Optics Nationals for USPSA this year, shooting PCC division.) Some of that had to do with my frame of mind, and that type of self-discipline is ALSO something I'm planning on working on this year. Which leads into...
4) I'm going to work on NOT letting the rest of my life interfere with my dryfire. That doesn't mean that dryfire is a priority over the rest of my life--instead it means that since I can do Drill Zero in less than three minutes, no matter what else is going on in my life taking three minutes to shut everything else out and simply concentrate on the simple basics of physical self-discipline is probably going to be good for me, so I should do it. Every day? Sure, that's the goal. I'm not going to beat myself up if I miss a day---but I'm not going to let my mind talk me into taking a week off again, either.
I got better at certain things this year. Not all the things I wanted to improve, and not always to the degree of improvement that I wanted. But it is certainly true that the dryfire helped me, and doing it again next year will help me again.
How did everyone else's year go? What did you learn? What do you need to do differently, to learn more?
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Well, I'm still hanging in there. Have missed 5 days this year.
I have been distracted by the PCC craze ( and loving it [emoji23])
The LASR software looks interesting. Now that we don't have to worry about the evil one taking our guns, I might take a closer look at that.
It's pretty sweet my dad has the full system with the IR laser. Triggers don't really compare but it is a nice tool to work on transitions and get feed back. It is also nice to actually be able to work on your draw to first shot with accurate timing. They offer a lot of drills and free classifier set ups.
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It's pretty sweet my dad has the full system with the IR laser. Triggers don't really compare but it is a nice tool to work on transitions and get feed back. It is also nice to actually be able to work on your draw to first shot with accurate timing. They offer a lot of drills and free classifier set ups.
I like using the LASR system with the insert in my actual gun. It is a Glock, so I only get one strike capability, but there are a LOT of drills you can still run like that. I do have a SIRT pistol I also use, but most of my practice, when I use the LASR setup, is with my actual gun--that way I'm practicing with my actual trigger.
The LASR software is really excellent, IMO. I don't use it a LOT, because most days I've got specific singular events to work on, and I don't need the feedback so don't need to take the extra time, but when I do use it, it tends to be quite a workout. :)
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I've only missed 6 days this year, most to vacation and hand surgery ( did a ton of WHO for awhile).
I was surprised at the amount of days at the range for competing, 44, guess you could call me a range rat?
The bad part was the scarcity of live fire practice, only 16 days. None of this includes days at the range in other functions.
I feel like I have improved, but need to find a way to quantify the improvement, or lack thereof. I like, and have shot, the 3 diagnostic drills provided by jthapkido.
I'll have to conjure some drills for my G41 MOS I'm waiting on.
I plan on continuing since it is a good way to get a few thousand extra quality trigger pulls a year.