Dryfire

[jmdavis]

Did you dryfire today? This week? This month?

Why not?

If you want to improve, you have to do the work. No one can do it for you. Talking about it isn't good enough.

Perhaps there is a reason why Marines spend a week dryfiring before they go to the range in Basic Training.

There are 3 National Champions in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IovOt0ToOo

[jmdavis]

http://www.beingofservicerifle.com/interview-kirk-freeman/

Add several more to his list of accomplishments, including a 998-44x Service Rifle Record shot last weekend, another win at the NC State Championships, and another entry into the NC Governors 10. 

[jmdavis]

100 new topics on the public side of Appleseed and not one addresses the act and skills of shooting.

Did you dryfire today, this week, this month?

Did you do any stretching, cardio or weight training?

Have you shot your rifle for score in the past month?

If you can answer yes to these questions you are ahead of the curve and your skills may not be atrophying. If you can't you need to ask yourself why. The keys are here. There are people here to help you. But you have to at least expend the effort to ask.

If you read this far, look in the Virginia section, for posts on dryfire, positions, etc. You have my personal money back guarantee that they will help you.

[maxwell]

100 new topics on the public side of Appleseed and not one addresses the act and skills of shooting.

Did you dryfire today, this week, this month?

Did you do any stretching, cardio or weight training?

Have you shot your rifle for score in the past month?

Of course, though no dryfire yet today. I only shot a 93.8% at my last match, and saw that I need to keep doing more dryfire practice. Now I need to get to the range and try out a crossed-ankle position to get rid of my pulse in sitting. I'm also working on a higher prone position to get rid of a half-round aperture artifact in my rear sight, exposed during dryfire practice.

However, I'm happily missing this month's club match to instruct at an Appleseed this weekend! Hopefully we can make some Riflemen.

[jmdavis]

Nothing wrong with 93.8% and nothing wrong with instructing the AS.

[maxwell]

Nothing wrong with 93.8% and nothing wrong with instructing the AS.

I can do better. I focused on standing dryfire in December, and it helped a lot (your dryfire advice and Agrivere's articles were a big part of it). Unfortunately, my other positions suffered, so now I'm trying to rotate dryfire time between all of them. How do you handle that?

[jmdavis]

I don't dryfire much sitting. I generally focus on standing and prone. If your sitting is the problem, your issue is likely position, trigger control or your are taking any shot rather than good shots.

My advice would be to keep working on standing until you begin shooting 94%. At the same time work on your sitting if it is weak. I have written some thoughts on that area in the "Good Enough" topic. My problems in sitting were positional and not being disciplined enough to not take the sloppy shots.

[PHenry]

Pop Quiz:

Q - What position should I practice the most?

A - The one you are least effective at.

Takes discipline because it's no fun to shoot poorly, but in order to make score on the AQT or even be competitive in other similar events, you have to do well in all three positions.

That's what I was taught by people who eat up the X ring many years ago.

[jmdavis]

Another way of thought advocated by a number of coaches is to first master prone, which is 50% to 66% of the course of fire and then focus on sitting and standing? Dick Whiting discusses this in some posts on the National  Match Forums. He has a number of exercises he uses with the WV juniors. Many people have benefitted from that advice and I wish that I had known it when I was starting out. Most of the time I shoot standing as well or better than slow prone.

It is only in the past 6 months that my slow prone scores began to exceed my standing scores.

[maxwell]

Well, I've been going with the PHenry school of thought on this one; my slow prone is bad (and I'm working on that too), but my sitting has been worse. It's a combination of things, really, but I've been giving up easy points on sitting, like this sad target from the January match. First two were 10s at 12, then I couldn't find my NPOA after the reload, and I shot it with my support elbow in a bad position.

I will say that after my first Appleseed, I pretty much exclusively dryfired prone, since that's where most of the points are on the AQT. It's where I was least comfortable, but that was mainly a stock fit problem.

[jmdavis]

1. Did you fire the sighters like slow fire or like rapid?

2. Ones position can loosen in a string, but your's loosened after the first two shots. If your support elbow did not move your NPA was actually lower than the first two shots.

I say these things because I have done them.

So, Grip the gun high and tight with the trigger hand. You might even want just a bit of grip with the forward hand but it might also cause issues. You will have to determine that. After the reload, make a quick check of your NPA and adjust it. Don't take the shot because its in the black, have a position that keeps the shots in the 10 ring.

When coaching me last year Alex Arrietta commented that I was shooting too fast. I was. I slowed my pace, improved the quality of the individual shots and began shooting 100's. It doesn't happen all the time, but as long as you accept the 9, you will get the 9 or the 8.

In prep time when dry firing, try to see if your position is deteriorating as you shoot. It does happen.


Check this sitting video by Sherri Gallagher. Notice that she doesn't hurry. Know too, that she has shot that stage probably more than 1000 times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI3CNcLDvTs