Dry-Firing Safely.

One of the things which I try always to teach the shooters at the Introduction to USPSA (Live Fire) course is the importance of practice, specifically dry-firing and magazine reloading.

Not only is it important to help build muscle-memory and safe gun-handling skills -- including the basics of knowing where the controls (safety, magazine release, slide-lock, etc.) are located and how to use them without having to think about it, but it is at least equally important to know how to dry-fire safely.

The elements are a simple four steps:

1. Practice where you are alone, with no distractions;
2. Make sure that your pistol, and the magazines, are unloaded;
3. Ensure that there is NO ammunition in the room where you are practicing, and don't touch ammunition until your practice session has been completed;
   
4. Find an aiming point which is sufficient to stop a bullet if a Negligent Discharge should occur while you are dry-firing.

It's a simple set of cautions, but sometimes I think that the folks in the class tend to discount it as "not applicable". After, they're in the class to learn how to compete. They don't expect to hear safety rules about practicing at home.

Unfortunately, there isn't time (only three hours) to present all of the material, so this bit is often "mentioned" out of context and I usually feel that I haven't emphasized it enough. It's difficult to get the Bare Essentials across in the limited time frame, so if it's even mentioned in passing, that may be the best that we can do.

And yes, not only the class members wonder if it's pertinent in the often confusing set of instructions, but sometimes I wonder if I haven't gone beyond the realm of reality when I try to offer more information than is easily assimilated ... and remembered.

That's why, when I went through my EMAIL archives tonight, I was glad to read this article by Jim Shepherd in the October 9, 2009, edition of The Shooting Wire.

[Disclaimer: I would link to the article if I could, but TSW does not typically offer permalinks to their "editorials". I've been quoted by the author, Jim Shepherd, though, and I know he is aware that I often quote his editorials in toto. As respectful as I am about intellectual property rights and copyrights, I feel safe including an entire article here, for the cause of proliferating valuable information. By the way, if you have not already subscribed to The Shooting Wire, you can do so here. I encourage you to do so.]

The Article:
The Shooting Wire (Jim Shepherd) quoted 10/13/2009 9:55PM

Taking Your Education Home More Effectively

At the end of a long day of shooting drills, Gunsite Academy rangemaster Larry Landers was sitting with us in the classroom in a debrief. Actually, we were just relaxing and chatting when Landers asked us a question: what would happen to our improved shooting skills when we went home on Friday?

The answer was obvious: if we didn't do something to reinforce the skills we'd been practicing, they'd quickly go away. At that point, we'd either revert to our previous training levels - or actually find ourselves fighting new bad habits as a result of being unfamiliar with the newly-formed good ones.

One solution to practice when time or facilities aren't at hand: dry firing. Dry firing, Landers explained, gives any shooter the ability to work on a variety of skills, from the simple repetition of working the controls of your firearm to smooth breathing and consistent, smooth trigger operations.

"But you've gotta be careful," Landers told us, "dry practice means you practice safety to the ultimate degree. Unload your weapon, then check it again to make absolutely certain it's empty. If you're going to be using magazines, check them and be sure they're empty, too. "

Then, Landers told us, we shouldgo even further in the prevention of a negligent discharge. "Take the ammunition for that firearm" he said, "and put all of it in a box and move it to another room. Don't even have ammo that will fit that firearm in the room while you're practicing dry firing. And don't start to reload anything until you're done practicing."


He also had another safety recommendation we should all know- and follow. Remember that any firearm - especially a heavy caliber one - is capable of penetrating one - or several - walls in today's typically constructed home. So, he says, put your practice target on a wall that could handle "a catastrophic accident." Believe me, if you've ever suffered a negligent discharge - especially in your home - you know exactly what Landers is speaking about.

After taking those safety precautions, he says, it's a simple bit of practice "look up, locate your target, then press the trigger smoothly."

Reset, breathe, repeat for around 18-20 minutes. Any more, Landers says, and you're going to get bored. Boredom can lead to carelessness, and carelessness has consequences when it comes to firearms.

"No matter how long you practice," Landers says, "don't ever end on a negative. End on a positive note, regardless. Don't stop with a negative image in your mind."

After all, he says, the idea of dry fire is to help you eliminate mistakes and replace them with solid shooting practices.

Sounds reasonable to me.

--Jim Shepherd