Ammunition continues to be in short supply in most areas, causing many people (me included) to cut back somewhat on the number of rounds expended in live-fire range training.
You cannot shoot ammo you don’t have in your possession, and in many parts of the country even common calibers like 9mm and .233/5.56 are in such short supply that retailers display empty shelves just hours after receiving a shipment.
Marksmanship drills are not typically affected by reduced round-counts for an afternoon of training — dot torture drills will eat up the same number of shells every time, for example — but there is a potential impact on other courses of fire.
As a consequence, we need to be even more dedicated to the dry-fire training we do. In fact, my friend and Police1 colleague Ron Avery argues that “you must incorporate dry practice into your lifestyle.”
Now, there is no substitute for putting rounds downrange, but that doesn’t negate the positive effect you can have on your capabilities by being consistent and constant in your dry-fire practice.
There are some excellent tools you can use to increase your grip strength as well as your trigger control. You can get a Blue Gun replica of just about any duty handgun for about $50, and I’m a huge fan of SIRT Pistols from NextLevel Training as well.
My friend and Police1 colleague Mark Schraer told me a while back that “Off-range training should be a part of every training program and should include work on the draw stroke, the flash front-sight focus, and even trigger control.”
Don’t just “go through the motions” — incorporate visualizations into your dry-fire draws, malfunctions/manipulations, and trigger-control work.
Nothing can truly replace live-fire training, but utilizing some simple and cost-effective methods to build upon your live-fire drills can build both your confidence and your competence.
