DryFire

I am thinking about getting the DryFire training system for the wife and I. Would like opinions on the effectiveness of the training for recreational shooters.

 

I have tried a friend of mines on several occasions and I can see the merit of such a training device ... I have to force myself to swing threw the targets so I do not get to be a spot shooter, that does not seem as difficult as I thought it might be the first time I tried it ... I did not like the idea at first but the more I use it the more comfortable I get with it (training )... Now that the heat wave (summer/ Arizona ) has finally broke I will go up and see if it did me any good ... I would say go for it now that I have used it several times ... If the friend (neighbor) who has it moves I will probably have to buy one of my own ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

I had great success with Terry Jordan's Wall Chart. Skeptical as I was (and I told him so) I was struggling with my shooting and (he told me his chart would help me) I purchased an 8ft. piece of vinyl with a trap house with targets positioned in the sky.

I gained confidence pretty quickly. My first shoot after using the chart a couple times was on a cloudy, overcast and dark rainy day. I believe I was on the 26 mark then. I'll never forget after my first 5 shots, feeling a sense of confidence I've never felt before and telling myself that I can break anything coming out of the house. I was proud of the 94 I broke that day. Much better than my normal scores in the low to mid 80's.

It was because of Terry's chart that I got my AA-27-AA pin that year. I have absolutely no doubt the chart works if you use it for practice and not just as a picture on the wall.

I have a file on "Practice Shooting" and one topic is dry-firing. The earliest recorded discussion I've read about it was in an old book from 1873 called "Plain Directions For Acquiring The Art of Wing Shooting." The writer gave his name as "An Old Gamekeeper." The first lesson is to practice gun mounting. When you feel you hit the correct mount 19 of 20 times you can move to lesson. In this lesson, the pupil first cuts the ends off the erasers that slide over pencils and uses them to cover (protect) the nipples on the old hammer guns. Several cards or envelopes were place about, some to the left, some to the right, some high and some low. The shooter selected a card in his mind, made his move and upon acquisition, pulled the trigger.

The point is . . . . dry-firing methods have been used for well over a century. I found the Jordan Wall Chart to be the cheapest practice and I know it works.

Here's an article from 1955.

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Enjoy Our History

HB

 

HB,/ TJordan,
I was more than Skeptical initially, your message to me was try it, you got nothing to lose so I did ... I adapt to bad habits quite easily and readily it seems ... My fear of becoming a spot shooter quickly vanished the more I worked on it, now to try the real test on real targets to confirm what I feel is going to be the out come ... I feel comfortable enough to say I think its good exercise and a worth while training tool ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

First is a small, what I call "Salesman's Sample.

Second picture from years ago.

Wife Standing too close, for illustration only.

Worked wonders for us.

 

Very good information in the responses. Thanks.

 

You're very welcome ccrider.

I might add that besides Terry being a champion shooter he's a nice guy too and always open to questions and offers helpful suggestions.

All I can tell you is his chart made a believer out of me and the proof was in my higher scores.

HB

 

I have both the Dry Fire and a wall chart. I'll admit I haven't used them as much as I'd like thus far. We ended up doing a lot more shooting than I thought we would this year despite covid. They'll get more use through the cold PA winter. The wall chart is good for smoothing out your swing, working on muscle memory, target acquisition, hold points, proper leads. The Dry Fire takes it a step further and can be very helpful with gun setup and changes to get near immediate feedback. You can follow trends over time as well to see what clays you are missing most often and how. You can also vary wind speeds etc if there's something specific you want to work on. It can save a bunch of money/time at the range when making changes. Both are great when the weather isn't so good. They both require some input to get something back. More so the dry fire. The dry fire has been able to confirm some things I suspected about my shooting as well as the kids.