How to practice with less ammo?

G

g.willikers

New member
With the ammo and component shortages, how is it possible to still train and practice?
How do you go about having an effective training session without using much precious ammo?
Do you practice the same way as before the ammo crunch, but just less?
Or have you changed the way and even what you practice?
Curious minds want to know.
 
Dry fire. It's much more than just trigger control. You can work on movement, gun handling and visual skills. In short, everything you need to do during live fire. There's a ton of info about this online.

Get a good air gun, and work on your marksmanship at home.

Go to the range with a plan. Don't just blast away at targets.

If you're fortunate enough to have access to a range that allows you to move, practice moving into a position and getting a single shot off as quickly and as accurately as you can. I call it "show up ready to shoot".

Reload drills - draw, 1 shot, reload, shoot. Only good hits count. Repeat with double taps. Or strong hand only, or weak hand only.
 
22 or 22 conversion unit.
More intense practice-try some good old fashioned Bullseye shooting. 1 shot a minute.
 
I pretty much follow the above advise. Practice stance, trigger control with snap caps, and sighting at home. I use the laser on my Bodyguard 380 when dry firing at home. I've been thinking about getting one of those laser bullets for my 9mm.

I also only load 2 to 3 rounds at a time when at the range and concentrate on where each bullet hits more than normal. If I load more than 2-3 I'll end up shooting them with taking the time to investigate. It slows things down. I've also cut the number of rounds I take to the range in half.
 
Boy, that will do it, for sure - taking less ammo to the range.

The first time I discovered that a good practice session didn't need hundreds of rounds of ammo, was when I forgot most of it at home.
I had about fifty rounds for the handgun and maybe twenty for the rifle.
But it still made for a very enjoyable and productive day.

Thinking back to decades ago, the times we had any more than that for a range visit, was like never.
Maybe we've gotten spoiled lately, and wound up thinking more lead in the backstop was better.
 
I tend to stay at the range for about 4 hours. Other shooters come and go. I might have 4 or 5 different people next to me over the course of the morning.

I'm mostly a revolver guy...I like to load 2, skip 1, load 1, skip two. So I've got a total of three in the cylinder. Spin without looking and close the crane. Gives me the "suprise" factor.

I shoot those three then analyze where the shots went. Then take a break and watch other shooters, sometimes talk with them. They frequently offer to let me shoot their guns. There might be times when those three shots are all I do during the 15 minutes between range breaks.

I also might spend a LOT of time dry firing, there at the range. I do that a lot at home daily. But at the range it's just like I was shooting live.

I guess if I've changed anything since ammo got more difficult to find/expensive, it's that I go to the range more, but spend more time NOT shooting live while I'm there.


Sgt Lumpy
 
I find dry fire practice just as beneficial as live fire, you really get to work on trigger control and see what mistakes you are making, if you are making any at all. Also one of the most beneficial drills I do with my carry pistols is picking a spot on the wall and drawing my pistol to see how fast and close I can get my sights on target. Enough practice doing this and you will be able to point shoot like a pro and your pistol will point so naturally for you it will feel like an extension of your arm.
 
Now that sounds like a plan, SgtLumpy.
On a busy day, you could get a whole lot of shooting in, and never use any of your own ammo.

For dry fire practice, has anyone read this book?
Dry Fire Drills for Dramatic Improvement, by Steve Anderson.
http://brianenos.com/store/books.html
 
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A big plus one on getting an air gun. I like airsoft since it won't penetrate like BBs or pellets. There are lots of high quality airsoft guns that are perfect replicas of common carry pistols. Drawing and getting on target quickly are some of the most important skills you can have. The problem is that most ranges will not let you do either.

Don't buy a really powerful air soft gun as they tend to bounce the pellets off of the sticky gel targets. Under 300 fps is ideal. Some of the better air soft guns have blow back action to simulate recoil. It isn't the same, but better than nothing.

Drawing from concealment is great practice since the first one to put lead on target in a self defense situation has a major advantage. I was at a range where a few unsavory characters were shooting. They were holding the gun sideways and all and just blasting away. While their targets looked more like shotgun blasts, they still hit the target though. Lucky shots still kill.
 
Brilliant minds think alike.
I just got a blowback airsoft verison of a 1911, made by KWC.
One of the other members here recommended it.
A very good practice tool.
It recoils about like a .22.
 
[shooting other people's guns]
Now that sounds like a plan, SgtLumpy.
On a busy day, you could get a whole lot of shooting in, and never use any of your own ammo.
Click to expand...

Then come home and start cruising the internet for all the new guns you want to buy.


Sgt Lumpy
 
This is one of the times I'm glad I have a couple guns with Crimson Trace grips. They're exellent at allow you to work on trigger control, target transition and point shooting.
 
For dry fire practice, has anyone read this book?
Dry Fire Drills for Dramatic Improvement, by Steve Anderson.
Click to expand...

Yep. It's got a big fan base.

Also look up Ben Stoeger's 15 minute plan. Lots of other stuff available, too.
 
Dry fire, a .22, an air pistol, all good advice. But when you want to practice with your center fire, I suggest the following.

I have mentioned this before here on this forum, but here it is again. The condensed version…..

I took an United States Army Marksmanship small arms firing class years ago in Rockford Illinois. One of the Army Sergeants that was teaching the class made a comment that made my jaw drop, until he explained himself.

“Practice DOES NOT make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.”

By that he means ten shots in the X-ring, then going home, is better then 100 shots all over the target. Concentrate on the basic fundamentals of pistol shooting. Sight alignment, trigger press, breathing, etc. It matters not if you only get one shot off every ten minutes. Work on making that shot punch a hole in the X-ring.
 
During crunches like this theres probably more better shooters out there because of it getting alot of dry firing and better drills when we do have ammo instead of just blasting away.
 
I've always dry fired. Can do it at home sitting at my desk. Practice on squirrels, birds etc in my back yard. I've probably dry fired at least 1,000 times for each round of live fire in my lifetime.
 
I have a Laserlyte cartridge and use a Laserlyte Reaction Tyme. Lots of fun
and the wife likes it also. It gives you great feedback.
 
One of the least practiced methods is shooting on the move. Too many ranges are barely allowing people to do more than slow fire squared up to the target. So, if you have room at home as well as being able to do it safely, here's a tip...

Assuming you're practicing with, say, a 1911, you'll only get one actual dry fire out of the maneuver. Even then, you can still go through the motion of trigger press. Now, take a penny and place it on the top of the slide. I would start by forward movement. Place a target at the end of a hall or room. Walking towards the target while dry-firing, keeping that penny balanced, and your gun on the bullseye will be a challenge in itself. I use heel/toe footwork for smooth transition. Dry-firing is actually the secondary training exercise. Learning smooth footwork is the biggie, here.

There are plenty of other movements such as strafing, etc. But I figure this is plenty simple enough to try out and if you're intrigued, there's a bunch of quality instructors on YouTube, etc. to expound on those for better visual aid.
 
glh17 said:
One other thing about dry firing with a laser. You can drive your cat crazy.
Click to expand...
One caution: A shot of laser light into an eye can blind a cat or a human. So, be careful about where your cat or dog is looking and beware of reflective surfaces on behalf of your own eyes, too.

Lost Sheep
 
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