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Pistol Dry Fire Drills



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Shooting Fundamentals
Dry fire is very useful to solidify your fundamentals. Be sure to follow all safety guidelines and make sure there's no live ammo or loaded magazines anywhere near you while you practice.  And even though your gun is unloaded, choose a safe spot as your aiming point.

  • Stance & Grip:  If you have not yet mastered your stance and grip, dry fire is a good way to do so. It helps to obtain instruction from a reputable trainer so that you are practicing appropriate techniques that will work for your needs – otherwise you might be ingraining bad habits.
  • Trigger control:  Develop that perfect trigger press. With gun on target, slowly press the trigger until it breaks; work on keeping everything as motionless as possible. You can also try this while balancing a spent brass casing on the front sight (it helps to have a friend to place it there for you). As you gain proficiency, begin to also work on your breathing.

  • Sight alignment & picture: With gun on target, obtain proper sight alignment and picture. Practice shifting focus between the target and the front sight post. You can also perform this drill with multiple targets, laterally and at different distances, to practice acquiring your sight picture as quickly as possible.
  • Shooting with both eyes open: Practice acquiring a sight picture with both eyes open and learning how to ignore the extraneous double image. Start with your gun on target, then progress to presenting the gun on target and transitioning between targets, and work on quickly picking up a sight picture with both eyes open.
  • Draw stroke: From the holster, practice drawing and presenting your gun on target. Practice from various different starting positions, including from concealment, turned away from your target, and while moving. Try your drawstroke with your eyes closed to see if you end up on target. Also practice strong hand and support hand draws.
  • First shot: Set a par time on your timer. From the holster, draw and engage target. Be sure to follow through so that you can assess your aim.
  • Target transitions: Engage multiple targets (e.g. the pepper poppers or two silhouettes on the RECOIL dry fire target). Check that you are leading with your eyes. You can place two or more separate targets farther apart to work on effectively rotating your torso.
  • Safety manipulations: Until second nature, it's very helpful to practice manipulating your safety mechanisms. Some weapons in particular benefit from practice, such as working the decocker on Sig pistols.
  • You can practice all of these drills with your regular two-handed grip, strong hand only and support hand only

Weapons Manipulations
Practice these drills stationary, in different positions, and while moving. Use a timer to track your progress.

  • Slide lock reloads: Gun on target, slide locked back, empty magazine in gun, magazine loaded with dummy rounds in pouch. On start signal, execute an emergency reload.
  • Proactive reloads: Magazine in gun, magazine in pouch. Eject the magazine, draw a fresh magazine and insert into the gun.
  • Tactical reloads: Magazine in gun, magazine in pouch. Draw a fresh magazine, eject the old magazine into your support hand, and insert the new magazine into the gun. Stow the old magazine.

  • Reloads with retention: Magazine in gun, magazine in pouch. Eject magazine into support hand and stow it. Draw a fresh magazine and insert into the gun.
  • Malfunction clearance: While specific procedures are beyond the scope of this article, you can also practice malfunction clearance at home.

Movement
Moving while handling a firearm and shooting while moving are important skills to work on, and if you have the room you can practice at home. Be very cognizant of your muzzle.

Getting in and out of positions: Practice moving into or out of positions, then engaging the target. For example, from standing to kneeling or prone and vice versa; and running to a particular position to engage a target.

  • Shooting on the move: Gun on target. Walk toward, away and laterally to the target and keep your sights on target as best as possible. As you get better, use a smaller target (e.g. the different sized circles on the RECOIL dryfire target)

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