Dry Fire Training: Laser solutions?

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PeteCress

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What firearms are you dry firing.
Some can be done without snap caps.
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Most modern center fire guns CAN be dry fired but snap caps are such cheap insurance.

As far as laser cartridges go I prefer the cartridge route
 
Dry fire. If you're actually doing that with a revolver, equip it with a lasergrip. Work on running the trigger without the laser dot moving.
 
Dry fire WITH regular, cheap snapcaps. A laser will be useful practicing firing and keeping the point of aim steady.
 
I use the good ole bullseye method. Watch the front sight on against a white wall or white sheet of paper. Practice pressing the trigger while imagining "pulling" the front sight through the rear notch.
 
Hmm, I love the looks of the one that goes in the bore. More universally useful for pretty much any caliber rifle or pistol. Also useful for bore sighting.
 
I haven't had much luck with the laser insert cartridges. I am a strong believer in SIRT laser guns. Accurate reproductions of M&P and Glock as well as a kind of universal pocket pistol configuration which has adapters as well as sanded a bit to resemble the shape of your carry gun. Our range utilizes a full size Glock 17 model and it had its trigger pulled hundreds of thousands of times.
https://nextleveltraining.com/
This is my smaller version.
365Sirt.jpg
 
A buddy of mine did some engineering work on the SIRT, and I played around with them a bit. It's really designed for someone else to judge your performance, since the shooter, per classical aiming doctrine, is looking at the sights, not the target or background.
If you are trying to learn "point shooting", looking through or over the sights, it might be just the thing.
 
I've got a Laserlyte trainer unit which goes into the muzzle. I bought it to use with some sensors that would make either a sound or visible light as a response. Between airsoft, dry firing (I make my own snap caps) and laser training, I would say I use the laser the least. I haven't prioritized drills lately, but that's just me being busy and it plays a part of it.

For the Laserlyte laser, I had read a review that the parasitic drain on the batteries when not in use is significant so I take out the batteries after every session. That's kind of a hassle to load them back in because they are *tiny*. Of course, that person could be wrong and I could try just leaving them in.

But it does fill in a niche. You see, dry firing without feedback will still improve your accuracy if done carefully, you just won't see the proof until next time you get to the range. (eventually your proof can come through tracking your own sight picture and sensation in your hands/fingers) Lasers help with downrange verification. Dry firing while point shooting very close doesn't really need verification of accuracy. Unless you really struggle with pointing. Dry firing while point shooting pushing the distance or accuracy I think is a unique area that lasers can help with. Your focus is already on the target, so looking for the red laser dot would not develop a bad habit in that case.

If you're working on fundamentals and trying to focus on your front sight, having a laser promotes breaking your front sight focus and sight picture to look for the red dot on the target. You can train that out (hard for a beginner), but getting some feedback (like sound) that does not require you to change your eye focus is preferable. It's a similar struggle that new shooters have where after every shot they will lower their arms to try see the new hole they made. Soon the grip, arms, eye focus start to go slack earlier and earlier affecting the quality of the shot. No follow through. Having someone else observe the shooter's laser placement and steadiness wouldn't have any downsides that i can think of.

But there are also some compromises between a hard front sight focus and target focus that I'm not an expert on, perhaps a laser would be useful for those too.
 
dgludwig said:
If it's a Taurus (at least for some of their revolvers), it's best to use a snap cap.
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Taurus, yeah. Though, at 12 years old and much dry firing later, my 605 is still OK. I do use snap caps, sometimes, but I'm not obsessive about it. Cheap insurance. And it's a conventional S&W style side plate design, so it wouldn't be all that hard to replace the firing pin, spring or transfer bar, if it came to that.

Charter Arms, absolutely, and your transfer bar will still eventually break. BTDT.
 
I referenced Taurus because the instruction manual for my Model 415 revolver specifically warns against dry-firing it. I have no idea why.
 
A few years ago I bought the Laserlyte blue practice pistol and the Laserlyte target. The laser insert included with the pistol was defective and battery life was maybe 1 day. They finally replace the original laser insert with an improved model and it works fine. I think the pistol is patterned after a Glock of some kind which I do not have but it is good practice. After initial purchase the only expense is batteries for the laser and the target.
 
dgludwig said:
I referenced Taurus because the instruction manual for my Model 415 revolver specifically warns against dry-firing it. I have no idea why.
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It might be a boilerplate type warning. But, I had a Taurus 66 decades back that took to mashing its firing pin spring into uselessness. Would not stay fixed.
 
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