Dry fire training

[Alephnaught]

Curious about a show of hands - how many do it?

Did some one-on-one marksmanship training with Tony Burton a short while back (http://www.burton-tactical.com/). Among the many helpful things he goes through, he recommends regular dry fire training. He strongly recommends it, in fact. He engages in 60+ minutes of dry fire training daily with his shooting partner as part of their ongoing training regime. Then again, for a shooter at his level this is probably a given.

So, I've been trying it myself - 10-15 min every other night. It's noticeably smoothed out my technique & I can see direct on-target improvements during range sessions. Wondered if anyone else does it too.

[Cottus]

You betcha. Not as much as I want to, but even a little bit sure helps. Pistol, hunting rifle, and precision rifle.

[The Flint&Fly Guy]

I do, it's improved my open-sight capabilities immensely!


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[700-223]

How was the training with Burton? Did you do carbine, pistol or what? Not a lot of info on their website...

[catnthehat]

I no longer do fry firing because I am no longer competing.
When I was actively competing in both full bore and smallbore I did dry fire training more than live fire training.
Cat

[gitrdun]

Personally, I don't dry fire train myself. However, I do shoot most of my gophers with an open sights .22 rimfire and off hand as a means to practise that style of shooting. I also have mounted one of those gallery gizmos in my shop. It has the little pigs that you knock off and the circle target to reset, I shoot that indoors with my air rifle during the winter months. As a means to practise. Another thing that is fun, is that I pick up the clays that we've missed off the ground and set them up for rimfire shooting. Sure, dry fire shooting is a good method to hone the skills, but it's boring.

[couleefolk]

I often set up a box with a target while watching movies and use my airsoft to practice. When I shot competitively, I would remove the firing pin and dry fire at a spot on the wall. Practice helps those of us that aren't naturally gifted.

[marxman]

I dont its too boring. I bought an anschutz laser rifle and target combo thinking it would be good but its not like actually shooting, plus i was surprised what a crappy outfit it was if they made one in china it would be better at one quarter the price. Kids like it though. I used to dry fire but found it did nothing for my biggest problem which was flinch. I think its overrated. I used to take a few dry fire shots to start at the range as it helps to warm up but now i am interested in the quality of my first shot so i dont do that either

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by marxman

I dont its too boring. I bought an anschutz laser rifle and target combo thinking it would be good but its not like actually shooting, plus i was surprised what a crappy outfit it was if they made one in china it would be better at one quarter the price. Kids like it though. I used to dry fire but found it did nothing for my biggest problem which was flinch. I think its overrated. I used to take a few dry fire shots to start at the range as it helps to warm up but now i am interested in the quality of my first shot so i dont do that either

I also think it's over rated but not when a match can be won or lost by 1 X in 600 rounds prone at 50 meters, when that X is 1mm in diameter , or in a 300 meter free rifle event shooting full bore match rifles.
For hunting, yes, it is over rated......
Cat

[Alephnaught]

Originally Posted by 700-223

How was the training with Burton? Did you do carbine, pistol or what? Not a lot of info on their website...

We did rifle because that's what I was interested in advice with. When we were talking, he clearly has a broad variety of clients and does training with multiple platforms.

I booked a private training session with them, which resulted in me being with Tony for an 8 hour session. It was a mix of theory and practical training, alternating between the two. It was quite obvious very early on that he's exceptionally knowledgeable and has seen/done a lot. Despite that however, there isn't the slightest note of arrogance or superiority about him and he's able to converse with you or provide corrections in a way that just makes sense and comes off positively.

The day unfolds in a very orderly, logical way. After the initial orientation and first instructional session, you confirm 100 m zero and he observes you as you make groups. Following that initial shooting session he had four specific observations that I have to say were very perceptive and bang-on. We started with the simplest of those and there was immediate improvement in group size. It was a fairly subtle change of how I was gripping with my trigger hand, but it made total sense. We worked on a few other things, then moved outward in 100 m increments, adding in information from the instructional segments in between. Totally worthwhile investment and exceptional value for the money.

He's big on the basics and the instruction begins with that - natural alignment, the breathing cycle, trigger pull, and follow through. He breaks each of these down into their components, starts there and builds from that. If a guy goes in with a teachable attitude, I'd honestly say there's a lot you can discover about your shooting that you weren't aware of. Mildly humbling, because it's natural to figure you have it all dialled, but an experienced coach sees a lot and can offer you a lots of advice. I felt I got that from Tony.

[Alephnaught]

One of the important things I'd say has come out of the dry fire training is absolute familiarity with when the sear is going to break. That and completely smoothing out your follow-through have been the biggest gains. I didn't realize it, but I was jumping right off the trigger after the shot. That's mostly gone now.

It'd also be a great way to eliminate a flinch.