Lethal problems coming my way are mine to solve. I will bear the lasting consequences. So, I need to find ways to get better and stay good with my guns. Dry practice is a significant way to prepare for those moments.
Dry practice is the process of learning, rehearsing, maintaining and improving firearm skills using an empty weapon. It can be done for a few minutes at work or at home. With an empty gun, we can practice all the fundamentals of marksmanship and most elements of combat shooting. Accomplished shooters consistently emphasize dry practice as the foundation for effective shooting skills. [1]
There’s only one reason not to do it. It isn’t as engaging or amusing as live fire. Dry practice lacks thrill, so it’s easy to fall for the false notion that it doesn’t develop skill.
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Dry practice is the most underused training opportunity in law enforcement. In my experience, more than half of LEOs don’t get it when it comes to dry practice. They don’t get it because they don’t do it. And they don’t do it, so they don’t get it.
Comments like these are indicative:
- “They don’t give us enough shooting time.”
- “They don’t give us enough practice ammunition.”
- Implied is, “It’s their fault that I suck.”
In lethal conflict, the onus is on the LEO who is there in that moment. For those seconds, sometimes minutes, only performance on demand matters. Neither the assailant nor the situation cares who is responsible for the officer’s preparation.
No law enforcement agency provides enough ammunition. There is no such thing, so expectations that an employer should provide enough are vain imaginations. No agency can provide enough training time, either. Agencies with four or more live-fire sessions a year are as rare as they are fortunate. Four to six training sessions a year still isn’t enough.
Regular dry practice closes the gap.
I tested it. Twice as a patrol officer and again as a commander, I did not fire ammunition for a full year, except for department-sponsored training and qualification (four times, 150–200 rounds each time). I leaned into dry practice and got better. Focused, meaningful, regular dry practice works.
A “regular” regimen looks something like:
- 5–10 minutes five or six days a week, or
- 10–20 minutes two or three days a week, or
- 30–40 minutes once a week.
When you compare these routines with what live fire requires, training efficiency is apparent. In 30 minutes of dry practice, I can perform several dozen draws from different positions and fire 300 inert rounds. I can’t drive to an outdoor range one way in 30 minutes, and indoor ranges are more restrictive than a LEO’s preparation requires.
Dry practice cannot duplicate recoil management during rapid live fire, so we need to train with ammo occasionally to confirm our empty-gun work. Regarding recoil, the bullet exits the muzzle before the sight jumps up. So, each time you draw an empty pistol and all the way through the first shot, dry practice gives you all the benefits of live ammo.
Advantages of dry practice over live fire
If you’re still skeptical, consider the practical advantages dry practice has over live fire:
- Ammo is free.
- Ammo is limitless.
- No risk to our hearing.
- No weapon cleaning afterward.
- Adverse weather doesn’t deter.
- No indoor ventilation is required.
- We aren’t contaminated with lead.
- No travel time to and from the range.
- No range fee and no membership dues.
- A nearby training space is open 24/7/365.
- Home lighting is controllable for flashlight techniques.
- There are no range rule restrictions on movement, speed or technique.
- No risk of noise injury or lead exposure to a pregnant LEO’s unborn child.
Shoot as much as you want. You will never run out of dry ammunition!
Dry practice risks, rules and traps
There are risks with firearms training, even when we think guns are empty. We’ve seen property damage, serious injury and death. Those risks are mitigated to virtually zero when we follow three dry practice procedures without exception:
- No ammunition is allowed in the dry training area.
- Remove ammo from the weapon(s) and magazines.
- Place all ammo outside the practice room.
- Verify again that the weapon, magazines and your person are clear of ammo.
- Use a bullet trap or a safe backstop. The only time you press the trigger is when the weapon is pointed there.
- Adhere to the same muzzle safety protocol used with live fire. [2]
At our police station and in a substation, we have portable bullet traps for dry practice. Those are expensive. [3] At home, I use five-inch bundles of old Brownells catalogues. Whether using a concrete wall, an outdoor hillside, a stack of books or an old ballistic vest, the backstop should be capable of stopping the ammunition you normally carry in the weapon you’re practicing with.
Skills to practice dry
Except for recoil management — and, by the way, dry practice strengthens our hands for that too — everything can be developed, maintained or improved with an empty weapon. Skills for dry practice include:
- Rapid trigger press without moving the gun
- Retracted/weapon retention shooting
- Ready position to one precise shot
- Multiple targets/target transitions
- Moving targets (if you’re creative)
- Drawing and reholstering
- Partially exposed targets
- Shooting around cover
- Shooting while moving
- One-handed shooting
- Multiple rapid shots*
- Shooting positions
- Various distances
- Reloads
- More
*Even though the trigger doesn’t reset on most (non-double action) service pistols after the first dry shot, [4] we can pull and release pressure on the trigger multiple times anyway. Work to reduce sight movement with each rapid trigger press.
A primary benefit of live fire is confirming how to grip the weapon. When a handgun discharges, the weapon shoves rearward and the muzzle tips upward with each trigger press, so we have to hold it high and tight. In dry practice, we don’t experience that, so it is easy to become lackadaisical with our grip. Be intentional about gripping an inert pistol the same way you hold a weapon in rapid live fire, applying live-fire pressure with your hands.
After dry practice
When you exit the dry practice space, if you will carry the gun on your person, be sure to load it. I know “a guy” who was working patrol when he rushed off to a hot call one night, inadvertently leaving all of his service pistol ammunition outside a training room back at the station. But for the grace of God, as they say.
Because of that experience, I use the same pro tip for dry practice that my first FTO taught me when disarming at the jail. I put my car key with my ammunition when downloading for dry practice. I cannot leave my home or office without remembering to load the gun.
Last recommendation
Under circumstances of imminent danger, timing is a factor. An immediate threat of serious physical injury or death means time pressure is unavoidable. (The words imminent and immediate are intrinsic references to pressurized timing.) We sometimes control the pace of police action before a fight ensues (there was another reference to timing), but lethal fights are always time-competitive. Speed must be an element in our deadly force training. That includes dry practice.
Several useful training tools and devices are available to enhance inert weapons training. See this article for some ideas. I didn’t describe any here because I already recommended using a bullet trap or safe backstop and I don’t want to complicate this. But, given the critical and inevitable element of speed, I suggest getting one more thing: a shot timer. Start with a free app on your phone. (Search: dry fire par timers.)
Get a shot timer for dry practice and use it for live fire, too. Establish personal par times on some core competencies. Gradually add time pressure by decreasing your time limits to increase your speed.
Regular dry practice works. Frequent, focused effort improves firearm fitness without ammunition. With red dot sights on pistols, repetition is more important. Dry practice is an opportunity to have unlimited reps under our belts when dangerous problems suddenly require lethal solutions.
References
1. For example, Ben Stoeger in this short video. Stoeger also authored some excellent books on dry fire.
2. For example, the “laser rule.”Imagine the weapon constantly emits a dangerous laser from the muzzle.Don’t allow the laser to touch any part of a person during training, including yourself, not even briefly.
- Never point your firearm at anything you are not willing to shoot. (NLEFIA rule 2.)
- Always keep the gun/muzzle pointed in a safe direction. (NRA rule 1 / NSSF rule 1.)
- Never point a weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot. (USMC, rule 2.)
3. Examples: Portable Bullet Trap with Brass Guard Wheel and Portable Bullet Trap - MOD 1.
4. On some striker pistols, by inserting a small piece of paper against the breach face when you close the action, you can cause the trigger to return forward when you release pressure on the trigger. (You won’t get a reset or firing “click,” but the trigger moves.)
How does dry practice fit into your current firearms training routine? Share below.
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