There are many reasons as to why a person would own a firearm. One of the top reasons is that they want to have protection or to feel safe. People could cite situations such break-ins or potential muggings for cases in which they would need to protect themselves with a firearm. In such cases, the firearm owner would aspire to efficiently retrieve their gun and arm it in time to take an accurate defensive shot at their attacker. That efficiency only comes with training.
Typically, many could guess that all they need in order to own and carry a firearm is to pass a course and get a license. Though, for a firearm owner to truly be confident in their gun handling skill, they need to practice as frequently as possible. This can be difficult if a person lives a decent distance away from a gun range and if the gun range in their area has associated fees for using their facilities. Then there is also the cost bullets. Such expenses can really add up if that is the method of choice because to keep the skill up, the firearm user would have to go frequently. That alone might discourage someone from becoming a firearm owner, even if it’s something they are interested in: the cost might not be worth it. Dry fire training provides a convenient and inexpensive alternative to train and improve skill in firearms.
Dry firing can be easily done in the comfort of one’s own home, so it’s already more favorable than packing up everything they need to drive a long distance just to pay fees and then pack up all the same things to head back home. It’s a time saver, and it can also quickly become the main method of training due to ease of use. While there are different ways to set up the at-home dry fire practice area, they all have the same gist, which is to clear the firearm, mount a laser in or on the firearm, and set up a target that can easily show the laser hit point at the desired distance. The only thing left to do is drills – the set-up is that easy. Drills can include training in drawing, gripping, trigger control, aiming, sighting, reloading, and more. One could even use dummy rounds for practicing loading and clearing the barrel.
One of the most important drills a person needs to complete regularly, if not more than other drills, is that of trigger control. Excessive attention should be paid to trigger control for firearm owners who use firearms for professional or competitive marksmanship; for defensive shooting, an owner can only benefit from learning and understanding how positioning can affect a shot. Trigger control actually consists of two other drills: grip and aiming. How a person’s index finger lies on the trigger can affect where the bullet will land. The majority of the time, a person over-corrects their grip and positioning in anticipation of the recoil. When practicing with dry fire, there is no gunpowder-induced explosion to create recoil, so owners can practice their grip and aim freely without worry. After time, practice leads to muscle memory so that by the time they actually need to fire their weapon, their hand naturally knows how to make an effective shot.
Dry fire training will affect the lives of firearm owners by increasing the number of firearm owners since it provides a cost-effective way of training, which opens the door for people who are cost-conscious of taking on a firearm, and by improving a handler’s efficiency and precision. Drills in trigger control can greatly benefit any type of firearm user by focusing on practicing efficient positioning and pulls to create muscle memory without fear of recoil. When drills such as trigger control are practiced, a firearm owner’s confidence soars in their ability to use their firearm because, in the case of trigger control, the exercise will decrease the chances of an accidental misfire in the future, which can lead to injury or death, and increase the accuracy of the aim, which can be the difference in the life or death situation that most firearm owners are preparing for.
In the end we would like to tell you the good news that progress has not passed over the issue of dry fire training that we are discussing. Today there are many different shooting simulators and virtual shooting ranges on the market, which allow to diversify the process of dry fire training as much as possible. Such simulators are used everywhere, including in the shooting training of military and law enforcement officers.