An Evening at the Range

Yesterday I spent an evening at the range - the dry-fire range, that is.  

At Project Appleseed marksmanship clinics, we always tell our students they should practice using dry fire. Dry fire means practicing without ammunition, but doing everything else as though you were really shooting. It lets you practice all the steady hold factors, finding and confirming your NPOA (natural point of aim), and doing all six steps of firing the shot.

This is how I have done it for years on my indoor dry fire range:

I use 3/8" black dots (Zweckform Markierungspunkte or Avery dot stickers) on a white paper background, mounted on masonite and suspended from the ceiling. At a little over 11 feet (as measured from the front sight), the scale of the 3/8" dot is exactly the same as a standard service rifle target. If you don't have the exact size sticker, the easy way to do it is to simply adjust the distance until the width of the front sight post is the same as the dot (assuming you have a standard USGI 7 MOA (minute of angle) front sight post, not National Match sights). The reason I have several dots at different heights is to compensate for parallax, so I can assume normal standing, sitting, and prone positions. The reason there are so many is that this target backer has followed me around through several moves, and wasn't always hanging at the same height. So I just added dots at the right height for the new location.

My downstairs indoor dry-fire range.  You can do this anyplace where you have enough room and enough light on the target.  

In various different places that I've lived, this masonite target backer has hung from eye hooks in the ceiling, nails in the bare stringers of an unfinished basement, and now from the heating vent in our downstairs family room.

This little plastic plug is the Fulton Armory dry-fire device for the M1 Garand/M14. You can get a similar device for the AR-15.

This photo shows the dry-fire device inserted in the chamber, with the bolt closed on it. It holds the bolt open just enough so that you can reset the trigger by pulling the bolt back about 1/4", which is much easier than racking it all the way. This helps you to dry-fire multiple shots without breaking position. It also saves wear and tear on the action, since the hammer only drops a short distance, and the firing pin hits the plastic plug.

You can use whatever setup works best to achieve your practice objective.  

In the days when I was actively shooting in high power service rifle competition, I would completely replicate my entire firing line setup, including the spotting scope and shooting stool with all the little ancillaries like countdown timer, magazines or clips, and score book. Setting everything up in practice ensured that I knew exactly where to put everything so it was within reach and usable. Making it a routine ensured that I didn't waste any of the preparation period after moving from the ready line to the firing line. (unlike Appleseed, which only has an equipment line and a firing line, high power competition has a ready line in between the two). Large competitions are fired in relays, and you have to be very efficient in how you carry and place your equipment.

These days, my practice objective is to ensure I can still get into and maintain the correct shooting position, adjust my NPOA, and take the shot. So I use the minimum amount of equipment - rifle with sling, dry-fire device, shooting mat, shooting jacket, and shooting glove (not visible in the photo).  

It's been awhile since I did this, but I decided it was time to get back into shooting condition. It's the same idea as riding an exercise bike or practicing a golf swing. You have to condition your body and your mind if you want to perform well when it counts. 🙂

Mood: Happy

Music: Ellen Aim and the Attackers, "Nowhere Fast" (from the movie Streets of Fire)