Hey guys, I am just trying to pick up new training tactics that I can do at home on top of my standard dryfire stuff. Currently I am doing daily dryfire, as well as clearing snap caps, and associated feeding malfunctions. Handguns only currently.
I want to know what everyone else is doing. Just dryfire, airsoft stuff, laser targets, etc, I am looking for some more ways to get non range reps in. Thanks in advance, and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
I have no airsoft, but plenty of free time at night, so I’ve been dedicating time to practicing moving around with weapon (unloaded, of course) and clearing my house. Pieing, threshold clearing, flashing my wml quickly and learning to see as much as possible. Stuff like that.
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Dry fire is an important part of practice but as you know, it can’t be everything. I’ve seen guys come to our range that claimed to dry fire practice “32 hours a day” LOL types. Their manipulations were so-so and one practically jumped the first time he pulled the trigger and noise was actually made. An extreme case but you get the idea- you have to split your time wisely between dry fire work and also “converting money into sound” AKA actual shooting.
IMO dry fire work is best for the things few really want to practice- left handed work, rapid changes of platform, working on the ground, etc.
I’ve noticed like live fire, people want to do dry drills on things they are already good at. When we go to the range or when we do dry work, we should focus not on the things that we are already good at, but at the things we aren’t really good at. For most people it’s those things I’ve mentioned above.
Yes ammo is expensive now, but we still have to shoot some if we want to get or get more proficient. Developing skill at arms is an investment in time and money.
Couple things you can do to help mitigate ammo costs when training/practicing-
5,000 BBs works out to usually around $25. or less. A can of green gas will do approximately 20 magazines worth (I tried to keep count of this via tick marks on a can but lost track, last one I marked was 13 and it kept going for a while after that).
The biggest thing is no matter what, KEEP PRACTICING and KEEP TRAINING, no matter how you do it. Try to “budget” as much live ammo in as you can and fill the gaps with dry work, airsoft, etc.
I find barricade; strong side/ support side, done properly excellent practice.
Most don’t use cover properly.
I like transition from carbine to handgun and back again as well.
Since I already have good airsoft replicas of my main pistol and carbine, I’m looking at buying a cheap-ish laser+app system like Mantis X3 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RB316JF) or similar. Because I can’t currently justify the cost of something like Smokeless Range (https://store.laser-ammo.com/software/smokeless-range.html).
All of the above, plus practice getting into and out of position.
Manipulations, reloads, malfunction clearing, pistol and rifle.
Reloads out of whatever rig you’d be using live.
I find dryfire and presentations from holster to be very important for pistol.
For live, low round count drills like FAST test, 3M Test, Wizard Drill, MNQ.
ABSOLUTELY don’t load your mags all the way up, you get more reload practice.
Another vote for dry fire. I’ve done this for years but it helped big time when transitioning to a dot.
I am shooting like I always have, but I see a lot of people shooting .22’s in matches and in the desert. Ive been impressed with the S&W .22 handgun watching others shoot it.
PB
I have had the Mantis Blackbeard on loan for a while now and have posted about it on my IG account
It is a very useful tool for dry fire practice. Easy to bring to the range also to run some reps before going live.
This one is the non laser version and I am also looking at getting the visible laser version and some laser targets for longer distance etc.
Why visible, I dont like it but cell phone target apps dont work with IR what I understand. As my intent is to utilize both the above mentioned laser targets and the cell apps.
In any case the Blackbeard brings a lot for a reasonable cost and is something that I was heavily looking into a couple of years ago and I even approached one company about developing a system like this.
Works pretty well and a good investment even with regular rifle ammo prices, not to mentioned what you guys are looking at now
Thats interesting. Take a look at your cellphone under NODs. I’m not the only one that has seen a bunch of crazy IR flashing from the user-facing camera. If the phone has IR illuminators, then the camera can see IR. But… it seems the owner can’t access that.
This is great to know. I just got my MantisX3 I ordered last night and was able to run it on my Glock 19 and Sig P365xl and was very impressed with it so far. Felt good to get some solid reps in!
I am probably going to order the Blackbeard too, it just makes a lot of sense right now in the ammunition climate.
I’ll take a couple empty mags and work on drops, insertions, bolt trips, and target acq. This can be done without ammo inside the home. It’s a way to become smoother at reloading and getting the dot on what you want to hit. Tactical front rolls over the coffee table are optional.
Outside at my backyard plate range, I’ll load mags randomly with about 2-7 rounds and run them from my belt and carrier. This saves on ammo and promotes more reloading practice. The randomized round count helps me to keep shooting until empty but never knowing exactly when that will be. I’ll add in a pistol transition here and there using the same random round counts and a reload.
Sometimes I do just pistol drills and sometimes just carbine. I have five plates from 8" to 12" and I try to plug each plate twice at 30 yards as fast as I can make good hits, even with my pistol. Not easy, but good practice.
In my lane of fire I have a row of large trees on one side and a large building on the other. I’ll try to work up to the plates and then work my way back while switching between strong and weak. Night shoots are a little disorienting, but your daytime practice pays off not being able to see much and going by feel and memory.
Depending on how ambitious I am, I’ll go prone or to a knee, sometimes behind cover, but I’m always moving. This is how I practice.
Night shoots are a little disorienting, but your daytime practice pays off not being able to see much and going by feel and memory.
+1
If you have to look at your magazines when your reloading your gun, you need to be working reloads more.
You’re doing it RIGHT! Keep it up.
The best way to practice your action drills (non-malfunction drills) is with Air-Sim (high-level airsoft rifles). I use a PKS ar-type gas rifle that has a 40 BB limit. Yes, the magazines are expensive but the system gives me the best realism to my AR-15 that I’ve found. Get several people together and perform your reaction to contact drills!
Just be careful not to do the drills where common folk will call the police on you… ha.
Of course, the other drills listed above are great for shoot-n-scoot drills. Add in “I’m up, he sees me, I’m down” to the drills and you’ve got quite a workout!
Most important drill by far IMO is reholstering safely.
After that, you can practice less important things like drawing from concealment in multiple positions (seated with seatbelt, prone, kneeling behind cover), shooting from cover, etc.
First shot from holster is more important than the 9th shot on the 3rd target.