I want to let you in on a little Marine Corps secret for how to develop the best marksmen in the world.  For a Marine to qualify as anything less than “Expert” is both a personal and unit embarrassment.  The Marine Corps is not into participation awards.   A high degree of marksmanship is expected of all Marines and required for qualification.  The Marines’ secret technique is called “snapping in.”  The rest of the world calls it “dry firing.”  It’s the same thing.  It’s really not so much a secret from the Marine Corps’ perspective.  It’s just that so many people think it sounds boring and don’t understand its value as a training technique.  So, they don’t use it and, as a result, it has become a secret hidden in plain sight.   The Navy’s Seals, the Army’s Delta and snipers across the world appreciate its value and rely on it for training.  So do serious competitors in the shooting sports.

So, what’s dry firing?   Dry firing is the practice of “firing” a firearm without live ammunition or practicing with an inert training platform such as laser simulator.  It may also include the use of a target/feedback system.  It’s not necessarily exciting.  (OK, unless you’re as much a nerd as I am, it can be pretty dull.)   But, it is very effective for building and refining skills at all levels.  For this article, I will speak in terms of dry firing a semi-automatic pistol.  But, the benefits of dry firing extend to any firearm.  Here are just a few of the ways it can help:

  • Safe handling of firearms
  • Target acquisition
  • Sight alignment and sight picture
  • Trigger control
  • Accuracy
  • Training muscle memory
  • Proper grip
  • Drawing and holstering
  • Learning to use cover and concealment
  • Magazine changes

Other major advantages of dry firing include the convenience of being able to practice at home (regardless of the weather), it is so much cheaper than using live ammunition and you can work on fundamentals at your own pace “for free.”  I like to make the point that practice does not make perfect.  Perfect practice makes perfect.    Dry firing is a springboard to perfect practice.   Dry firing makes it so much easier to identify and correct your errors without the noise, recoil and considerable expense of live fire.  Consequently, you can avoid engraining mistakes and rather develop correct habits and build a solid foundation of abilities.  Shooting is a very perishable skill.  Capabilities degrade pretty quickly if you’re not practicing.   In my own experience I have found that dry firing is the fastest way to regain firearm skills after a period of not being able to shoot.  For example, I found that on my military deployments, there was almost no opportunity to practice shooting.  My refined skills would go down the toilet very quickly.  By the time I would get back to the states, there would be some doubt about me being able to hit a barn from the inside.  OK, I’m exaggerating a little about the barn.  But, you get my point about getting rusty rapidly.  The perfect practice of dry firing can get you back on track in a hurry.

Some people are concerned that dry firing will harm their firearm.  That’s true for a .22 rimfire without a dummy round or snap cap in the chamber.  The firing pin will hit the edge of the empty chamber and gradually ding it up.  Modern centerfire guns (not your grandfather’s antique) do not have the same problem.  Even so, it’s not a bad idea to use dummy rounds or snap caps to minimize wear on the firing pin.  Also, doing so offers the advantage of making it easy to practice failure to fire drills.

Getting started:

Before conducting any dry fire training, it is absolutely essential that you make certain there are no live rounds in the chamber or the magazines.  I make it a rule to put any live ammunition in another room and to triple check my firearm and mags for live ammo.  If you fail to make certain that all live ammo is out of the picture, you’re taking a big chance of putting a hole in your wall (and maybe a loved one).  Even after triple checking for live ammo, remember the fundamental principle of safety and treat all firearms as if they are always loaded.

I’ve done very little dry fire practice with real firearms for the past several years.  The idea of using a laser pistol as part of my training regimen appealed to me because, in addition to all the other benefits of dry firing with a real pistol, I thought a laser would provide instantaneous feedback about accuracy and the opportunity to safely engage targets in 360 degrees.  (There are very few live fire facilities that can permit shooting in more than one direction, let alone 360 degrees.)   After experimenting with various laser trainers and finding that they were junk that couldn’t handle serious practice, I discovered Next Level Training’s Shot Indicating Resetting Trigger (SIRT) pistols.  They hold up, I really like it that my SIRT replicates the size, weight and feel of my everyday carry pistol.  I can use the same holster and mag holders for dry firing practice that I carry everday.  I’m totally sold on the SIRT pistols and use them extensively.  They are by no means cheap.  That is unless you consider the long term savings in ammunition.  There’s no way I could buy or reload enough ammo to enable me to practice as much as I can with my SIRT pistols.  (By the way, have I mentioned that my wife is a Saint?  She can’t watch a TV show without hundreds of little laser dots flashing at every conceivable target in the room.  We have a general understanding though that dry firing during meals is to be reduced to minimal levels as shooting during dinner is considered rude.)  Here’s a link to Next Level Training’s webpage:  https://nextleveltraining.com/    Let me know if you decide to take the plunge and get one of their pistols, I can give you a discount code that will save you a little.

I’m not suggesting that you entirely replace live fire practice with dry firing.  Rather, I’m suggesting that it be a prominent part of your training program.  If you really want to master the fundamentals of shooting, are striving to bring your skills to an entirely new level, are training for competition or just want to survive if you are forced to use a firearm in self defense, then practice dry firing.  Another Marine Corpsism is that you can only fight the way you train.  With that in mind, when dry firing, make your practice as realistic as possible.  If you’re working on competition, use your competition gear (all of it).  If you’re working on self defense, train with your concealed carry gear.  It will help develop muscle memory, target reaction speed, a steady hold, draw speed, presentation speed, sight alignment, trigger function, reloading drills, stoppage clearing drills, movement to targets in competitions, use of cover and concealment and even holstering.  Dry firing provides a perfect opportunity to practice slow until slow becomes smooth and then smooth becomes fast. After all, if you can’t do it slow, you can’t do it fast.  Copy the Marine Corps’ approach of perfect practice makes perfect.

Stay safe.  Train well.