If the past years of panic buying have taught us anything it’s that ammo is one of the first things to go. People see the writing on the wall and start buying up everything they can find. Most will sit on this and never use it. Leaving those of us that train leery of spending our precious metals. Unless of course we have prepared accordingly.
So what can we do to keep our skills fresh and not spend any ammunition? We can dry fire. If you have not been doing this already, dry firing is an EXCELLENT way to keep your skills up to date without actually shooting. The idea here is to take the skills that you obtained through training and use them without live ammunition. Write down what you want to focus on each session, shooting with both eyes open, strong hand only, support hand only, trigger reset, something specific.
You may have heard that dry firing is bad for your firearm. While this may be true for certain older model, rimfire, and 1911 firearms, almost all of your modern day striker fired pistols are fine to dry fire. I like to get a set of snap caps for all my calibers. These are used as training tools and aid in my dry fire drills. I am 100% confident in my daily carry firearm’s ability to dry fire without issue.
So here is how you get started. Find a location in your home that would be considered a safe direction if something bad were to happen. Meaning you don’t clear your firearm correctly and put a round through your wall. I like to use the foundation wall in my basement as my safe direction. Take ALL the live ammunition out of your firearm and remove it from the room. I like to hang my target up on the wall and practice my drills. I suggest working on drawing from the holster, move and present the firearm, and pull the trigger on your target in a safe direction. From here you would navigate to any specifics you wanted to focus on. I like to go through the same drills I would in a live fire session.
This is a great way to work out kinks in your setup or try new things. Change up the position where you carry. Find out what works and what doesn’t. Use different clothing. Try your summer clothes, winter clothes, or maybe a heavy coat. Have you ever practiced drawing your firearm from inside your vehicle? You could park in the garage but this may be an issue for some who don’t have a safe direction there. You could always grab a chair and bring it to your designated safe location. This is a great way to safely workout the mechanics of drawing from inside your vehicle.
Dry firing is a great way for everyone to become more familiar with their firearm. This is something that everyone should be doing. From your everyday carrier, your weekend target shooter, to your seasoned police officer.
I hope you all have a great day. Be safe, be comfortable, be confident!
