Ammunition seems to be slowly getting back onto the shelves, but people still are not able to fully indulge as they once did. In turn, people have made the judgement that without enough ammunition, they can’t train. This comes from the assumption that “Range Time” is the only way in which skills are developed or maintained. In fact, I would go as far as to start this article off by saying that 99.99% of you reading this would perform better if you started training off the range and stopped thinking of the range as a primary training ground. This lack of ammo on the shelves can be a blessing in disguise if you are serious about advancing your skills.
INDUSTRY INFLUENCE
Almost any trainer out there will encourage you at the end of a long class to spend more time “training” and even point out going to the range as that sole method of training. Well, it is a nice little sentiment to think about going to the range often, but that is not always in our deck of cards. For range time to happen, we have to cut out a block of time (drive, setup, etc.) and money (ammo, targets, admission fee, gas) in order to shoot at a range. Unfortunately, it is not necessary to go to the range all the time in order to maintain or even learn a new skill. I can tell you from experience that shooting more is rarely the answer, especially when you have a life that doesn’t evolve around using that gun. However, this does not mean the range needs to be passed up when you have the chance.
RANGE TIME VALUE
There is great value in experiencing the characteristics of the gun running through the cycle of fire, and I am not trying to diminish that. Range time can help you understand the recoil, noise, sight/muzzle alignment at different distances with different ammo (Not accurately judged until you are able to pull the trigger consistently without disturbing the sight picture), sensation of last shot fired or malfunction, reliability with different ammunition, etc. However, shooting live rounds is not going to help you understand much more than what I already described. Things like learning safe handling, proper grip, draw stroke, sight picture, trigger work, and manipulations (malfunction corrections and reloads) can be done dry and then tested at the range for determining reflexive response to tactile or visual stimuli. Other than using the range as a specific training aid to get accustomed to a narrow list of indicators and characteristics, a majority of your training can and should be done without ammo.
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
Going to the range everyday may give you some results, but without good time focusing and paying attention to yourself, these results will be temporary. I have known plenty of people who go to the range and shoot often, but need almost a hundred rounds before they stop fearing the recoil and displaying their Stormtrooper qualifications. How is that going to look in a critical incident? Or how about the people who “start off slow” or “warmup” (lack of confidence) for the range? Same deal. In my view, warmups and slow starts piss away an opportunity to treat live fire as a verification of the concepts you have been practicing off the range.
Many feel that the amount of ammo used at the range is indicative of how much was learned. There may be truth to that, but without context, that number is no different than bragging about doing 1000 pushups in a week. Sounds impressive to the layman, but to a fitness hobbyist that will not be enough information to make a determination. Were all 1000 pushups performed properly? What pushup variant? Were all done in one set at some point during the week, a set done daily, or multiple smaller sets done daily? Context and details matter when we are evaluating range time, and even round count. Was your range time used by just plinking, doing drills, competitive shooting, training classes? What drills were done, and what were the times, the range of the targets, target size, scoring system/grading scale, etc? How many times did you run through the drills? Did you warmup, do any physical exercise? All of these variables add up quickly into telling us what is really going on. Just pulling a trigger does not mean skill development. The brain is what controls the body and therefore, if you don’t train properly, then the results will be displayed on the range during cold drills, and worse, during a critical incident.
THERE ARE OPTIONS
So how are you supposed to go about training if you cannot feel the recoil and get experience with fighting it? Simple! You spend that time training your body to behave how you want it to behave despite the recoil. If you know you want to control recoil, conduct isometric holds with weights and a gripper. If you want to get faster at drawing, put in a snap cap and run through the proper draw and include movement (dashing to cover, not that sidestep dance crap). Here it is okay to start slow because you are performing the repetitions properly every time and getting your brain used to the skill. Speed will develop with repetition and when your mind to body connection during this movement is well developed. Neurons that fire together, wire together. This means that if you already know what kind of characteristics your firearm is going to have when shooting, you can have a list of skills you need to maintain or work on dry, saving the range time for testing and monitoring your training progress (without warmups).
If putting a snap cap in is not going to be enough for you to tell what is going on during your trigger work, then get a training laser like those sold by G-sight and follow the advice I have given on my YouTube channel (doitriteak) for new owners. These products will save you a lot of money by adding a tier of verification to your training before using up precious ammo. Here is an example of how you can practice your draw technique and maximize the value of your range time:
- Practice your draw procedure with your firearm completely empty, ending the draw procedure at acquiring a sight picture but without pulling the trigger. Once you are consistent in technique and speed, add in a dash to cover or consistent movement during the draw. This is simply working on the mechanics of getting the gun out and getting it properly and quickly oriented towards the threat Start at a deliberate pace (100% focus on proper technique) in order to develop good neurological wiring for procedural memory development, allowing speed to develop naturally and at YOUR brains pace. It can take a couple days to get this down, and that is absolutely normal.
- Put in a snap cap to protect the firing pin and practice your draw with movement and add in the trigger work and follow through (do not reset the trigger until follow-through is complete). Again, it may take a couple days to have a consistent technique.
- Use the Dry Fire Par Timer app in order to gauge the consistency of the speed of your technique. There is a start and stop beep on this app and your goal is to move, draw, and pull the trigger before the second beep goes off. Do this only at the very beginning (cold and unpracticed) of your training session. If you find yourself well inside the window of time and have proper technique during your pre-training test, feel free to lower the time by .25 seconds for your next pre-training test. You may fall well within this window at the end of that training session, but the real test is how fast you are when you have not. If/when you beat that window again, narrow the time down again and so on. You will notice your progress accelerate as the days go on.
- Use the G-Sight training laser in conjunction with the Dry Fire Par Timer app to verify that your skill is fine-tuned and consistent during the pre-training test. Depending on the range you have been practicing, you may find that the muzzle offset needs to be corrected slightly to account for close range. Use the laser throughout training if you noticed that major modifications to technique were needed. Once you notice consistency, precision, and good speed with the laser during pre-training testing, feel free to graduate to testing on the range.
- Perform the skill test on the range right away and without doing dry practice just before. Simulate reality by not trying to get any “free reps” just before the test. If you can, show up to the range ready to conduct the test with the gun carried how you intend to carry it, and already loaded with your preferred carry ammo.
The point of this example was to illustrate to you how thorough your training can be. Here I showed you how you can have constant levels of verification with the added stress of meeting a time window prior to the beginning of your training as a gauge of skill retention. Then I shared how you can verify your progress with a laser that is mechanically aligned with the bore and illustrates a trajectory that is very similar to a bullet fired. In my opinion, the laser is icing on the cake for your dry fire training because it will provide visual feedback that can confirm your skill development. That is money in the bank for you, much like using a laser boresighter to initially align an optic to the bore prior to range zeroing. The alternative is to not even know how far off you were throwing the sight picture off during the trigger pull.
TRAIN LIKE YOU FIGHT
You don’t see MMA fighters just going into full force sparring matches daily until they figure out how to fight. Neither do you see them doing a warmup with their opponent during fight night or in a real fight. They train out of the ring with isolated skill drills coupled with light sparring to train their mind/body connection for the techniques/skills/reflexes they are trying to build. There is also targeted physical strength/power/endurance development and reinforcement through workouts and even diet considerations. Sure, there is forceful sparring, but it is used as a testing platform throughout and gets more intense as the competition gets closer. Point is that you have to train up to being ready for a fight, and your training has to include tests that simulate the spontaneous reality of that fight, I.E. no warmups. Sound familiar?
TRAINING SHORTCUTS
If you are serious about developing yourself as a shooter and reaching peak performance, you can’t just toss money at the issue or rig the system like a liberal bureaucrat by buying expensive guns or doing trigger jobs to lessen the burden (It won’t help in the long run). Nor can you learn to shoot better without guidance until you just magically/hopefully get it right. Also, the “find what is comfortable for you” act is how you create scars and safety issues. To an inexperienced and untrained person, they have no idea what right feels or even looks like. They are hardly qualified to make a good decision about gear, tactics, techniques, let alone comfort and what actually works. For those of you who still have the shooting skills of a Stormtrooper, you have been doing what is comfortable, and you can’t make ends meet without serious ammo investments, so it wouldn’t hurt to do dry fire practice and my suggested course progression. It is the best way to pretty much guarantee that you will get out what you put into your training and not piss away money by wasting ammo.
CLOSING WORDS
You have to be calculated and precise when developing a skill, if the goal is to perform it right. It is not quick, easy, or entertaining (except for the reward of seeing the end product). But if it is worth doing, it is worth doing it right. I know some of you may be feeling like I am the anti-Christ of the shooting world for telling you to go to the range less. However, I am merely saying that you should be making your range sessions count for something more than just blindly throwing rounds out of your barrel and just expecting you will “eventually perform”. You have this amazing ability to prepare yourself for range day for very little money and develop yourself at home, so why not use this method of self-improvement?
Even if you have never fired a certain gun before and are not sure of the recoil, there is little reason why your first shot should not be precise and absent of anticipation. Dry practice prior to initial range time is crucial to accurate analysis of a new firearm due to it eliminating confusion about trigger characteristics, manipulations, and other handling nuances. All range time tells you is whether your grip pressure is adequate and how much correction is needed to reestablish a sight picture. Other than that, I stick to mostly dry practice and lasers to stay proficient. Range is merely a method of verification for me these days.
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