Is Dryfire Worth It

[@yarghhargh9345]

"Is free training i can do quickly, easily and almost anytime in the comfort of my own home worth it?"

[@miltonoliver3705]

Dry fire is where you build fundamentals, and live fire is where you get confirmation of the fundamentals

[@Uhyota]

Well said

[@miltonoliver3705]

@scm6545 grip and sight alignment you can, obviously not recoil management, but with a proper, grip and proper sight alignment that's over half the battle

[@XxCrankyMoosexX]

I’d go much further than half the battle. 90% of fundamentals are built in dryfire. There’s very specific things that you have to build with live fire but even those fundamentals start with dryfire, like you said. How you’re subconsciously going to loosen grip after several shots, or after movement. That requires live fire but I’m not sure I’d call those fundamentals, because they’re built from your consistent grip and stance(dry firing). Being good at calling your shots has to be done with live practice though.

[@CitizenCarrier]

Asking a pro shooter “Is dry fire worth it?” is like asking a pro boxer “is heavy bag work, speed bag work and sparring worth it”? If it’s worth it for Ben, it’s worth it for me.

[@jimbodrums12]

Yup…and yes.

[@raidwolf4088]

Ben’s got Solid Snake’s infinite ammo bandana.

[@Awaken2Ascend]

Dry fire AT the range, sandwiched between live fire is the ultimate level up.

[@TUCOtheratt]

I have my own private range 50 yards out my back door and I still dry fire and do dry weapon manipulation drills. IMO it doesn't help you learn to effectively manage recoil but it does help with everything else.

[@danvon]

Dry firing made my range time more effective-especially with a red dot sight. Doing reps on certain objects in a room really helped me obtain muscle memory of where I need to raise the gun so that i can see the dot overlaying the target. For me, it’s like playing a guitar. If you want be good at it, you have to get to the point where you fingers just go to the right place. Even though you’re sometimes looking at your fingers, you’re just confirming that your fingers are hitting the right place on the neck. You’re not looking at your fingers to see where they need to go.

[@clutchshot3306]

You're absolutely right! Dry fire is like knowing the finger placement of the chord. Live fire is like knowing what pressures in your fingers are needed to execute the chord correctly. Nobody starts learning a whole song on their first session. We break it down into sections.

[@therealjohndoe3862]

Same here. I dry fire hundreds of reps per week, at least most of the time. It was ultra helpful when I transitioned to a red dot. Helped me get my index down. It's also great for getting your trigger pulls dialed in and committed to muscle memory. And I'd also include the same for refining your grip as it pertains to all the above.

[@AmicusAmici1125]

Dry fire is a great tool for establishing proper indexing, building grip and target focus. If I maintain a consistent and honest dry fire practice throughout the week it helps me to work specific skills easier when I’m at the range. The more I can make indexing, pressure and sight picture run in the background the less I have to think about when I’m working on live fire drills at the range.

[@JB22636]

Pretty much a perfect explanation.

[@adamriehl8166]

Even when I am at the range I will dry fire when I’m learning something

[@jimbodrums12]

Yup…the last drill I did in dryfire is the first drill I do at the range…in dryfire.

[@XxCrankyMoosexX]

Same. I always start with a bill drill to see what my cold start looks like - I end up doing several reps of dryfire throughout the session. Dryfire just helps with the muscle memory. No matter what it’s a net positive.

[@robertbrooks7196]

Always. Helps with muscle memory as well...no matter what you train for.

[@artwebb6939]

What really sold me on dry fire was going to a pistol class and discovering that my sensitivity to muzzle blast was so high from doing nothing but live fire training that if the guy to my left beat me to the drawer and got his shot off before I got mine off I actually flinched from the report of his gun And I'm talking about closing my eyes and turning my head That brought my attention to the fact that I was closing my eyes as I broke the trigger on my own gun Also the handout for the class went into detail about dry fire and the value of it

[@angelvelik]

Good question indeed! Thanks for taking the time to articulate such a great answer Ben :) I find myself dry-firing at the range every session. I can go many times a week if I wish, living only a few minutes drive away from a great range, and although I wouldn't call it unlimited, I do have plenty of ammo to shoot. Even so, I dry-fire my drills repeatedly during my training for exactly the reasons you highlighted: it helps focus on the skills more densely, while avoiding too much loading, picking up mags, pasting targets, etc. I've had comments before from both sides of the aisle: some people see the high number of reps I can squeeze through a session, even sometimes showing me as an example to more novice shooters (look how focused he is, doing all these dry-fire reps!). Others simply don't "get it", and continue blasting along all the ammo they bought without taking the time to analyze the targets...!

[@pranavkamath4329]

Nah, dry fire is just too damn expensive

[@clutchshot3306]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@chasedooley6237]

Dryfire is like deliberate practice of specific parts of the exercise. Grip, index, speed, etc. You focus on each part, getting it right. This is how the grip should be, now some reps, and in rep, verifying that it’s right and correcting and understanding why the correction is necessary. Life fire is practicing the whole thing as a whole part - bring together all the parts (grip, speed, index, etc) into something that is cohesive. The goal there is to make the parts fit together smoothly and fast. I think of dryfire as learning the individual parts of a song, and live fire as learning the song as a whole. Drumeo channel has Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater drum, legendary guy) learning to play a really complex TOOL song. He learns the parts first, working over them until he gets them mostly right, then he brings them together and works on the whole until it’s right.

[@kriegerkleanse]

Most of my practice is actually dryfire. You and I are definitely not doing the same thing with our time but dry fire is helpful regardless. I have noticed my shooting is actually better than a lot of the people i see out at the range. I consider myself to be a beginner when it comes to shooting handguns and i look to all my friends who have been "shooting" for years and it is obvious to me which ones dry fire at home before range day and which ones that dont. its not going to make you Jerry Miculek but it will give you a huge head start.

[@chrism2042]

Dry fire helps me a lot, especially when I first started using a red dot. My first red dot, I mounted it, shot enough to zero the optic then did hundreds of dry fire over a couple weeks before I really started shooting with the optic gun. Then soon put optics on other pistols. Prior to purchasing my first red dot, a friend that had some dots kept telling me how hard it was to learn shooting with dot. I found that adapting to a dot was fairly easy. When I asked him how much dry firing he did, "none". I understand why you may have issues learning.

[@rannot4611]

Well, I got a dot and Bens DFR book. It took only 4-5 days in a row - 10-15 min per day, to see the dot just settling down more and more. Now it becomes almost immovable and I try to get trigger presses faster and faster. Dot gives so much feedback compared to irons (impulse speed), dot learning curve is running on warp speed.

[@amosmoses9247]

For IDPA, USPSA, Steel Challenge dry fire can build strengths and correct weaknesses. The same can be said for dry fire with centerfire rifles. Dry fire has helped my long range accuracy as much as live fire.

[@John-lz3hf]

insightful, thanks

[@shiftd_1114]

When or if you dry fire "properly" it makes a huge difference and is very noticeable , even dry firing just prior to live fire makes a huge difference ...

[@billycoleman8731]

I’ve had unlimited ammo situations in the past, and I always maintained a three to one dry fire versus live fire ratio. There’s things you see in dry fire that you won’t see under recoil.

[@loupuleff571]

Don't forget it's frickn hot as hell out here 110 plus and if it's monsoon season yeah I'll take dry firing !

[@aguy3896]

I'm a big proponent of isolating each skill or mechanic. Dry fire allows me to do that more effectively. I really like the Ace VR because it allows me to get an accurate dtaw time and see where the shot actually hit. Sometimes when I smash the trigger in dry fire I'm slightly off, maybe it felt okay and looked pretty good, but I can see in the VR if I actually pulled it off. There's no recoil to worry about so I can focus on my transitions, movement, and confirmation levels. Focus on recoil with live fire doing a few bill drills and practicing doubles.

[@familycollected3774]

Dryfire has contributed greatly to my increase in ability to

[@-whiskey-4134]

I can tell you, VR shooter games can help with some things. For me, games like Pavlov and Contractors actually helped me irl. I don’t always get to the range as much as I’d like, but I’m an insomniac, so sometimes I’ll do some gaming. Obviously, it’s not going to help with everything, and I’m by no means saying it, but things like getting on target, learning to find a dot, getting better with irons. Typically, I’ll use the guns I have irl in the game, or if I’m playing games that allow it, I’ll mod in my EDC. It helped me getting better with shooting with both eyes open irl, I’ve been trying to get good at shooting lefty, VR has helped with that to a degree. Some of the games allow you to actually strip the guns and force you to clean them and reassemble them to keep them running. You can safely learn the manual of arms with different platforms. It’s just fun to do all that in a safe and controlled way when I cant get to the range for a bit, or cant afford to buy a bunch of ammo to go dump. And yes, I dry fire, practice drawing and all of that irl too. A lost does translate. Plus a lot of games have shooting ranges in them and have in game recoil you have to adjust for. Like playing against other players honestly is all skill based. You have know the weapons, be able to aim, get on target, and go through the motions manipulating the platform or you lose the fight. Helps in simulated high stress situations too. It really shines a light on where you’re lacking. Once your brain accepts VR as “reality” and you’re reacting how you would irl, it becomes very clear if you’re going to freeze up, fumble, if you remembered to chamber a round, if you can actually get your weapon on target, if your tactics are bad, how well your situational awareness is.

[@ripdoinksinamish]

As a longtime VR shooter player, I will say that it does not really help with mechanics that much. Vision is not the same because there’s no focal length change and controllers will never feel like a real gun. However, multiplayer VR can teach you a lot of the same stuff force-on-force training can, like IFF, decision-making, small-unit tactics, battlefield awareness, teamwork, scouting, observation, etc. Having the benefit of actually deploying physicalized weapons improves immersion and can help with really fast, close-up shooting. But it will not teach you the feel of guns or actually test your vision in the same way. Airsoft is actually better force-on-force training because you actually use your own eyes and don’t look at a screen.

[@BR-x64]

Using cameras during training or competitions, what’re your thoughts? I have approached it the same as looking at game day footage from sports growing up. If you do the same is there anything specific you do you found beneficial when reviewing?

[@GRS9790]

Should've been a two second video. "Yes"

[@chrisdarcy8998]

Yes!

[@jefftolonen]

Nice shirt!

[@AAlphaMike]

I find every time I dry fire with the pdp my next match I'll have a bunch of trigger freeze

[@jeffschultz8817]

Speaking of dry fire… when will the new dry fire book and section of PSTG go live?

[@joepiazza9194]

Can’t quite fix low left. Tries tighter grip. Looser grip with strong hand. It really shows in dry fire as I see the dot move.

[@XRKNIFEANDTOOL]

Low round count Chad here weighing in here, I never shoot pccs because. No. But doing a ton of dry fire on a airsoft ar9 rly did pay off and the recoil thing was rly the only new experience out of the whole thing. Still lots to learn but it felt like I hit the ground running instead of fumbling thru it to start.

[@CraigPolter]

When does your new book come out

[@Olivehollow]

I dry fire every morning

[@ShoreTea3]

Same!

[@PhillipDRobinson]

@@Olivehollow I jork it every morning

[@Olivehollow]

@@PhillipDRobinson you get it, you definitely get it lol

[@______4790]

you really should get that checked out

[@Az2FL]

But Mike glover said it’s bad!

[@codyrobbins2315]

Gilbert Arizona? Been there. Nice place

[@adamleighton8052]

I’m limited to indoor ranges. How can I maximize static drills/training? Thankfully I am able to doubles, bill drills, small transitions such as 2 A-zone, 1 to the head box. Aside from dry fire and pushing distance what else could I do to maximize static training

[@BenderIsGreat99]

How do you feel about practicing exclusively with partial targets? Like only ever using reduced c-zone or tuxedos. Do you think this is beneficial or does it have too many drawbacks?

[@clutchshot3306]

I personally think that it's irrelevant. Regardless of the size of the target, you should always be looking at a small spot and fire accurate shots according to you skill level. You should already be pushing your accuracy until failure to see what you can do from different distances and different target setups like no shoots. Push yourself until failure then assess why you failed. Then work on it.

[@justinhaagensen5277]

Hey Ben Stoeger Do you find the cool fire trainer for doing dry fire training more helpful than doing dry fire training with a laser cartridge in your pistol???

[@bcjaliu]

Trying to do performance shooting without dry firing is sort of like attempting to spar in martial arts without first learning the fundamental moves. I even like to dry Fire 5 reps for every live rep I shoot at the range nowadays.

[@8Marksman]

Many thanks for all the videos Ben! I have a sincere but somewhat niche question for you. I’m an IDPA guy entering the USPSA world and am one of those few guys in Uspsa shooting an edc setup for my own training. I want to set a realistic classification goal in uspsa using my carry gear. At what point will my equipment (a plastic gun shooting from concealment) hinder my ability to level up if there is one? Specifically I’m shooting CO with an sig Xmacro and regularly train live and dry fire using your books. Thanks for your time/thoughts.

[@georgecook5120]

Ben, you mentioned you are working on a new version of your dry-fire book. Do you anticipate the new book will be substantially different than the current book or more like an update to existing exercises?

[@TheStapler9000]

When at the range, dry fire while loaded a few times before shooting for real? Any benefits? Something funny happens when loaded vs dry and completely safe at home. It's mental for sure.

[@jrwjr]

What is the key aspect to dryfire? How does it compare to or replace by Ace VR? Do you VR train or coach in VR?

[@kristian762]

You know how seriously someone is training based on how often they dry fire. I see a lot more gains in firearm manipulations such as draws and reloads from dry fire. Target transitions and movement as well, you get a lot of reps in while being solely focused on what you're trying to work on. Live fire i reserve for marksmanship training, and confirming that my dry fire is good and efficient

[@StagFabulous]

Regardless of the inherent benefits of dryfiring, I'm an absolute child, my guns are fun, and I can't help myself. Might as well aim while I'm at it.

[@JB22636]

Dry firing is fun!

[@mariah23613]

For real. It's like a deadly fidget spinner to me.

[@dn1715]

Is it also worth it if you don't have access to nearly unlimited ammo?

[@littlesherlock2313]

Is dryfire worth it? I don’t know, can switching to Geico save you 15% or more on car insurance?

[@Mike-ox1bu]

Hey Ben, your channel is the best! Do you recommend using Dummy Rounds when dry firing? I always use them on my Revolvers, but I've heard different opinions on Semi-Autos. Thank you!

[@jimbodrums12]

Weighted dummy rounds for weight of handgun.

[@BullseyeBallistics-kf1jw]

I used to be the guy who thought live fire was superior over dry fire. Why dry fire when you can actually shoot? And then I started shooting competition 😂 dry fire is important. It's also important to know you can dry fire wrong and it can hurt your live fire.

[@LarryBird_]

What you thoughts on goon Tape aka grip tape I heard you mention Pro Grip

[@ryno8er]

Welp I'm just going to return this ammo I have right now

[@bermudianmiracle]

1:54 clip it

[@charles17508]

Yeah Ben stogey smoke one for me man .

[@TheMrgrimm1]

If i didn't have to work as much as i do, I'd be a much better shooter... I realized that's not true a few years and thousands of rounds later. Dry fire has been the biggest help and is ideal for someone like me with no real time outside of work. Whats your opinion on dryfire mag if any?

[@shaunt892]

Dryfire builds stamina. Shooting takes stamina.

[@benjaminchase367]

wait that my comment LFG

[@rurouniad]

REM oil boys!!!!! Assemble!

[@ArmaLife_Texas]

Are there really people here who think dry fire is unnecessary and a bad idea? Are you even real people? 😅

[@jimbodrums12]

Yes…come to fud-land full of LEO: 1) Dryfire will destroy your gun 2) dryfire is for clearing malfunctions only. And if you disagree you hate America and all cops…so it’s a lose-lose situation.

[@baddogg7783]

Is common sense worth it?

[@matt291]

Sometimes dry fire just seems like practice for your eventual ND.

[@MG-so8yf]

STOP DRYFIRING! This is so stupid! Do you really want accidentally rack your slide after every shot?? Just go to a range everyday, it's as easy as that!

[@JUSTAGUY1000]

Is this Mike Glover’s burner account?

[@ArmaLife_Texas]

You won’t dryfire that habit into yourself. Thats ridiculous to think that. Also, dry fire is not only squeezing the trigger and racking the slide. I work the trigger just the same without charging it. You do that when your dry fire training holster draws and target transitions.

[@JB22636]

Lol - that's not how dry firing works. You don't actually rack the slide before every trigger press.

[@bcjaliu]

Bro, that’s the Barnie Fife method of dry firing you’re describing. You don’t know what you don’t know… I’m thinking you are a Ben disciple trolling us, in which case great job. In case you are being serious. Have someone knowledgeable show you how to properly dry Fire. Here’s a hint: you can dry fire every drill you do live, and without having to rack the slide for every shot. Look into it.

[@karimmanassa9634]

LOL the people responding to your post must have the same sarcasm detector as David Muir. I thought your post was funny.

[@PhillipDRobinson]

NOT SHOWING HITS ON TARGET ✅ SCOOP DRAW ✅ SUB 1S RELOAD ✅ 0.12S SPLITS ✅