Have not had time to get to the range for a month. I went to the range today and shot .45 and .22 pistols and my groups were poor. I could really see the difference from when I would go twice a week. What is the deal? Do we lose muscle tone in our arms that hold the gun steady? Lose concentration ability? Anything we can do when we can't get to the range? Does dry firing help while watching TV? Or do you have to simulate a range condition at home when dry firing to do any good. There is no feedback at home with snap caps, so never really bothered going that route. Are air guns any help at home?

Thanks,

Dan

Have not had time to get to the range for a month. I went to the range today and shot .45 and .22 pistols and my groups were poor. I could really see the difference from when I would go twice a week. What is the deal? Do we lose muscle tone in our arms that hold the gun steady? Lose concentration ability? Anything we can do when we can't get to the range? Does dry firing help while watching TV? Or do you have to simulate a range condition at home when dry firing to do any good. There is no feedback at home with snap caps, so never really bothered going that route. Are air guns any help at home?

Thanks,

Dan


I believe any practice can help. The idea of using like action air guns seems most appealing to me.

Mattpair has it right...any practice is better than no practice. For that mattter, a little strength exercise and some eye-hand coordination practice (shoot some pool) won't hurt, but the best practice is trigger practice...I'd favore an air gun, but not one of the recoiless match guns. Best practice air gun on the market is the Webly tempest becase is is a BUGGER to shoot well. The vibration and "twitch" the lttile gun gives forces you to be on your best form...the size is "handgun normal".....recoiless (like my old FWB 65) are so easy to shoot that I don't find they are great practice guns for "real" handguns.

But even a rusty BB gun can give you some good short distance practice.

54, dry firing is excellent for learning, maintaining, and improving trigger control. If your handgun of choice has a flat rib on the top of the barrel, place an empty .38 case on top of it, and see how many times you can squeeze the trigger, while aiming at an object across the room, with arms extended, without the brass falling off. This is an old exercise for PPC shooting I learned over 20 yrs. ago. Great for trigger control, and muscle memory. You'd be surprised how this will keep you tuned up ! Just follow all gun safety rules, and aim at an exterior wall. Jeff

Good idea, cast-n-blast. Maybe I'll start with a .45acp case. Working up to a .22lr case.

The Crimson Trace laser grips are great for indoor dry firing. You can watch and see it move if you jerk the trigger. I shoot air guns and dry fire in the house when I can't get to a range.

CD

Good idea, cast-n-blast. Maybe I'll start with a .45acp case. Working up to a .22lr case.

Are about to discover something. Dry fire with an empty chamber vs. dry fire with a snap-cap or fired case. Will find it's a lot harder to keep that empty cse balanced on the gun when dry firing with an empty chamber...the "dead fall" of a snap-cap or fired cases is noticable.

Firing pins don't run to their metal-to-metal stop when there is a case in the chamber, the pin falls on the primer, not to the limiting shoulder or pin, and the fall of the pin is somewaht cushioned.

One of the reasons I seldom dry fire without a snap-cap or fired cases...letting metal wack on metal seldom does it any good.

But I've spend a LOT of time with a dime balanced on the barrel, holding it at arms length (traditonal bullseye stance) and dry firing...is trigger control excellent practice.

I practice quitee a bit with "soft-air" pistols. I like the clear ones so I can take them out with them being mistaken for a firearms plus I can see how many BB's are left to fire.

Some of the manual cock one will push a pellet just under 300 FPS (as verified by my chrony), so they do a decent job. I use old frying pans as targets and hang them in the trees in my back yard. I first paint them flat white them spray then a florescent color. It's good fun and keep my skills sharp.

Thanks for all the help - most useful.

Dan

Forgot about those, which is kind of odd as i've used them (godchild's influence). Even used them at night with the glow in the dark ammo (roach hunt).

From across the rroom ranges, with the little "sticky" target, they are accurate enough to be very good practice with little real danger (i'd not want to catch one in my eyeball, but other than that they just sting).

the X-ring rubber bullets are pretty slick if you have a place to shoot them inside