What is Dry Firing and Why Bother?

One of the things that makes life worthwhile, is learning new skills and becoming proficient in some useful skill, which might make a difference to your own life, or broader society as a whole. One should never stop trying to learn new skills and capabilities, in my opinion.

The main reason why I have been interested in shooting almost my whole life, is because it just seemed to be one of those things you had to learn how to do, to become an adult. A bit like learning how to drive a car, or learning maths, or how to manage your finances. It was part of growing up and becoming someone who could look after themselves, and take their place in society.

At least when I grew up.

Nowadays owning a gun, or any sort of shooting, has become very frowned upon in progressive circles.

The ironic thing is progressive policies seem to have resulted in a dramatic increase in crime and violence worldwide, an increase in conflict between people, and an overall reduction in public safety.

In any event, politics aside, the training I received early on was not very good, I think mostly because a lot of the modern techniques had not yet been become widely known at the time. It’s only now that one has access to training videos on the internet, hosted by highly accomplished competitive shooters and professional trainers in the field, that I have learned many training techniques that have helped considerably. While some people might sneer at learning from YouTube videos, for example, I think the improvement I have noticed, speaks for itself.

One of the main methods of training, which was far less popular when I learned long ago, but which seems to provide fast results, is dry fire training at home.

Dry fire training is when you remove all the live ammunition from your gun, as well as locking all live ammunition away (double and triple check to be sure, every single time, before you train), and then practice firing the gun, with the gun empty. You can learn almost all the fundamentals of shooting that way, safely, in the privacy and comfort of your own home, without spending a lot of money on ammunition, or range fees.

Certainly, in my case, the more thoughtful dry firing training I do, the more my shooting and gun handling skills improve, each time I visit the shooting range.

In the past, it was considered to be bad for the mechanical longevity of the weapon, to pull the trigger without a cartridge in the chamber to absorb the impact of the firing pin. Perhaps that may have been true for older designed weapons, using older materials. But nowadays, you cannot do any damage to most modern pistols, from extensive dry firing. But check with your manufacturer, if you feel you need to be sure about your particular weapon.

So the great thing about dry firing, is that you can do the bulk of your training safely at home. And you can do that at your own pace, as frequently as you like.

In this article I discuss various things I have learned and how I go about my own dry fire practices. The points are made from the perspective of someone, who even though I have been using firearms for many years, as well having undergone military training, like many South African men my age, I still consider myself a relative beginner – simply because I realise there is so much more I should learn in this field.

The dry fire training discussed is primarily aimed at responding to imagined defence situations, while armed with a concealed pistol. But I have found the training very beneficial for club IPSIC shooting competitions, as well, because most of the fundamentals apply there as well.

Some instructors recommend that 80% of your training should actually be in the form of dry firing. In that case, firing live rounds at the shooting range takes the form of a periodic “cycle test”, where you evaluate how well your training is going and identify areas which need work. This is quite neat, given how expensive ammunition is becoming.

In addition, when dry firing at home, you can visualise all sorts of situations and then try work out how you should respond to them appropriately. You can move about freely and shoot from stances and in directions that would not be allowed at most normal shooting ranges.

Safety First

Dry firing is a very safe way to teach yourself firearm skills, in fact, it’s probably THE safest way to train, PROVIDED you make sure there is no live ammunition in your gun, or anywhere within your vicinity, while you train.

Make it a habit to double and triple check that your weapon is unloaded and all live ammunition is safely locked away, or in a completely different room, to where you are training.

To repeat – do not start any sort of dry fire exercise, until you have checked that your gun is unloaded, and there is no live ammunition anywhere nearby. Especially check any magazines you might be incorporating into the training.

And nevertheless, even when you are certain your weapon is safe, part of all dry fire training is to consistently enact the four safety rules. So your training must include:

• Frequently checking that the gun is unloaded, even though you know it is. You can never check that the weapon is unloaded too many times, and frequently doing that is good training of itself.
• Always pointing the muzzle in a safe direction, so if a round is inadvertently fired, no-one will get hurt. For example, never let the muzzle sweep your own body, or anyone else’s, as you train. Never point it at a dry wall, which your bullets could penetrate, where there might be people on the other side, etc.
• Keeping your finger off the trigger until your gun is pointed at the target, and you have made the decision to fire. Making sure your finger comes off the trigger when you stop firing, or the gun is no longer pointed at the target.
• When you actually dry fire the gun, at your chosen practice target, make sure that if the gun where to fire a real bullet, the bullet would be stopped safely, without going on to hurt anyone. This means that all your dry fire targets should be placed in positions which would stop a bullet safely. So do not practice dry firing at distant targets outside your windows, for example, where you cannot tell where any bullets would come to rest. Never pull the trigger during dry firing, if anyone else might move into your line of fire.

Training Objectives

One of the main objectives for me, when dry fire training, is to use the freedom of being able to train at my own pace, to concentrate on hardcoding perfect form into my movements, so that I reliably, consistently and efficiently do exactly the right things, without thinking. I try to think of myself as a programmable robot, which I am training to exactly repeat a sequence of motions and hand-foot-eye coordinations, through repetition. Because, if one understands how the mind and nervous system works, that is exactly what is happening, as I train. I try hard to concentrate on getting all the motions right, all the alignments right, not taking any short cuts, but not adding any unnecessary flourishes or movements.

You need to do this slowly and deliberately – because that is the only way you can get it all right, at least to start with. If you try go fast, firstly you will not really know what you are doing, because it’s happening too fast, and secondly you will be hard coding whatever it is you are doing, without knowing what that is.

The problem with negative training – which is learning the wrong thing – is that it becomes very difficult to undo what you have learned. One has to literally first learn how not to do the wrong thing, before one can then learn what you should have done in the first place. And the first thing you learned is usually the more dominant, so that is what you will probably revert to under stress.

So unless you are naturally gifted and can do this stuff perfectly, first time without thinking, which most of us are not, then the only way to get it right is to get the motions programmed at slow speed. Once you have it all programmed it’s easy to pick up the speed later.

But as usual, training without clear objectives is just an exercise in confusion. So I set myself the following objectives, in order of priority:

• Hardcoding the enactment of the four safety rules.
• Hardcoding a consistent grip which naturally aligns my sights when I point at the target.
• Hardcoding hand-eye coordination, guiding the sights onto the target, using my peripheral vision, as I bring the pistol up into my view.
• Hardcoding a trigger pull which does not jerk my gun off target.
• Hardcoding the ability to achieve a first shot hit.
• Learning how to do all of the above consistently from different stances and positions.
• Learning how to be ready to move off-line in different directions, instead of just always being static, as one is forced to be, at the shooting range.
• Trying to visualise different self defence situations, particularly the visual cues, I might get of the impending situation, as well as when it would be legitimate to draw and use a weapon, and when it would not be.
• Trying to visualise how one would react to multiple attackers.

Visualising a Self Defence Scenario

The last two objectives, while perhaps seeming a little childish, are aimed at firstly breaking the “it will never happen to me” syndrome, which I think most people share. So by actively imagining a situation in which it IS happening to me, I hopefully stop myself from becoming naively complacent.

Another reason is to try think about how to spot a situation before, or as, it develops, and thus prime myself to be ready to deal with it somehow, rather than just stand there in disbelief.

I think one should imagine some actual scenario and then verbalise that to yourself, before you start each dry fire drill. Tell yourself what you see, why it represents a valid self defence situation, what would be the first cues that something bad is about to happen. How many bad guys are there? How do you know they are actually bad guys? Are there other innocent people around? If you have to shoot, which directions are safe, which are not? How do you know that you are not about to shoot the wrong person? Tell yourself why you would be legally justified to draw and shoot? Ask yourself, even though you may may be legally entitled to shoot, would it be morally acceptable for you to do so? Are there any alternative courses of action, which would solve the problem, which would avoid the need for getting involved in a gun fight, or shooting someone?

While this might all seem like nothing more than fantasy LARPing, I think that if you associate all these images, thoughts and questions with the activity of drawing and shooting during dry fire practice, it becomes more likely that you will look for the same cues, and ask the same questions, if you are ever unfortunate enough to be faced with a real life situation. Obviously, in a real life situation you will not have time for prolonged philosophical ruminations, but nevertheless, these decisions about what to do and whether to shoot, will still need to be made. You either make those decisions deliberately, or you make them by default, without thinking, and then potentially risk a tragic mistake, simply because you have never thought about that situation before and did not have time to think at the time. So I think it would be best to simulate going through that process, slowly, when you have plenty of time, during practice, as far as possible, to help set up your decision making ability, if those circumstances ever unfortunately arise. Because people tend to do what they train themselves to do, when faced with real life situations.

Making a Shoot/Don’t Shoot Decision

I think it’s important to associate your training to draw and fire your weapon, with making a conscious decision to shoot, or not shoot.

Not every self defence situation necessitates the firing of your weapon. Do not develop an “every problem looks like a nail to me, and thus I need to hit that with a hammer every time” mentality.

There are of course the legal factors to consider. Which you should train yourself to recognise. There are specific laws which govern when one is entitled to use a firearm in self defence. You will have covered those extensively during your competence training. Make sure you are familiar with the laws and then role play applying them, as you train. Try ask your self each time what are the visual cues which would entitle you to draw and fire, from a legal perspective, as opposed to visual cues which prevent you from doing so.

But there are other factors to consider, as well.

Even when under direct deadly attack, where you would be legally entitled to use deadly force, drawing your gun immediately may not be the best option. For example, in a situation where the attackers are right on top of you, and you cannot easily get to your weapon, then it may be simpler and more effective to knock the person out, or injure or incapacitate them some other way, first, to give yourself the chance to either get away completely, without needing to shoot anybody, or at least gain enough space to draw your weapon safely.

In addition, if they are right on top of you, as soon as they realise you have a gun, and if they manage to get their hands onto it, then the situation may turn into a wrestling match over your gun. In that case, you better hope that you are good at wrestling. But against bigger, stronger, faster guys, the odds are not on your side. Again, your best hope then might be to injure or incapacitate them in some other way, if you can, while hanging onto your gun for dear life. Clearly this is not a situation one would ever want to get into. Even less so than getting into a self defence situation in the first place. Things would have definitely gone from very bad, to much worse. So be careful about when, or how, you introduce a firearm into any situation, no matter how serious it may seem.

If there are many armed attackers, and/or they already have guns pointed at you, then trying to draw and fire in circumstances where they will almost certainly shoot or overwhelm you first, is obviously not a good idea. You may need to manoeuvrer into a better position, or distract them somehow, first. Perhaps just running away, or diving for cover first, is the best option?

If the person attacking you is a child, or a mentally disturbed person, should you just shoot them, even if you are legally entitled to do so? How far are you willing to let such a situation develop, before being forced to take lethal action? Is there any other way to deal with the situation? You have to live with your own conscience. So make the choice that you can live with. No-one else can do that for you.

Ask yourself these sort of questions. Try work out the answers, in a safe training environment, while you have plenty of time to do so.

Remember also, that if your attackers do not know that you are armed, that gives you an advantage that you can use at some point. But you can only use it once. So use it wisely. So think carefully about when you should, or should not, draw the weapon.

There is no harm in going through a few scenarios in your head, each time, just before you start your dry fire training. The aim is to program yourself to think about these things each time you draw your pistol. Use different scenarios to make the training more interesting and motivational.

Another reason why it’s probably a good idea to do this, is to add some mental stress to your training. Self defence situations can become overwhelming due to a large amount of incoming information, which may need to be processed quickly, and the decisions that need to be made. You need to train yourself to still be able to think, react, and if necessary, draw and fire under those conditions. The more you can challenge yourself by slightly overloading yourself mentally as you train, the more you will be conditioning yourself to become more effective under stressful conditions. Try pose difficult, not clear cut situational questions to yourself, and then try solve those, as you train.

Do You Need to Move or Change Stance?

One of the core principles in all martial arts, is when being attacked, the first thing to do, is get off the line of the attack. The best type of block is always not being there when the blow falls. So if you are attacked, do not just stand there – because if you cannot manage to block properly (which is quite likely if you are not highly capable in martial arts, or surprised, or the attack comes in with 100% commitment), then you will just get hit/stabbed/clubbed etc. Simply stepping out of the way at the right time, so that the attack goes past you, or cannot reach you, is far simpler, takes less energy, and has far lower risk than trying to block, using strength on strength. Of course, some times you have no option but to block or parry a strike, maybe because you were caught off guard, or were out manoeuvred, but if you can, your first reaction should be to just step out of the way. Which makes mobility and footwork a very important aspect of all martial arts. The better your footwork and agility, the easier things get.

Just because you are carrying a gun, does not change this principle. And obviously in a gun fight, one cannot block the bullets fired at you (unless you have that special ninja training from those monks, living in that secret monastery, which I have yet to find), in that case, getting off the line of fire and out of the way, is even more imperative.

But the problem with most firearms training is that it’s very static. One stands in a specific isosceles stance, and then draws and fires in the same way, every time. This is good for training consistency in the fundamentals of shooting, as well as getting good scores in competitions. The problem is that you are also training yourself to be very static when you shoot, as well as presenting a large square-on target to your attacker. Most shooting ranges do not want people jumping around waving loaded guns in their hands, for obvious reasons. Which is why they insist on a very calm, static approach to shooting practice.

But one of the benefits of dry fire training, is that there is nothing stopping you from becoming far more mobile, when you practise at home.

The challenge is to make sure you still safely practice all the fundamentals of shooting, while moving about more dynamically.

One can practice all sorts of movements as you dry fire, such as large dramatic side steps, or squatting down below imaginary haymakers or clubs swung at your head, or dropping onto one knee to become a smaller target, or going completely prone, or lunging diagonally, or back, or forward. The objective is to train yourself to still be able to draw safely and smoothly, without fumbling or losing your balance, to complete the movement sequence successfully, without breaking the safety rules, and while making convincing first time hits on target as you move.

You can start in different positions, such as being prone, seated, standing etc. You can simulate the target/s being behind you, in front of you, off to the side etc.

The more you do this sort of thing, the better your chances of being able to still draw and fire smoothly while moving off the line of attack, if the real thing every happens. Which is much better than trying to get all that right for the first time, while you are responding to a real attack.

At first it’s probably better to perform relatively simple movements, one at a time. The objective is to train your body to become used to a wide range of movements, as you draw and fire. You can put them together in more complex sequences later. Focus on good balance, not sweeping yourself (or anyone else) with the pistol muzzle, keeping your finger off the trigger until the pistol is pointed at the target, good breathing, coordinating your eye focus with your movements and all the other fundamentals of shooting, as you move in various different ways.

Establish a Solid Consistent Grip

One of the things I learned recently is, that while a lot of emphasis is placed on a good grip with the objective of managing recoil, the other, equally important reason to work on your grip, is to naturally align your gun with your target. You should not have to make any big adjustments to get the sights finally aligned, as you address the target. Because if your grip is consistent (as it should be), then that same adjustment will need to be made, every time you shoot. So if you can eliminate the need for that, quite a lot of time and effort will be saved, as well as gaining a systematic improvement in accuracy.

What this needs is some experimentation on exactly where/how your two hands go on to the gun – which will be different for different body shapes, hand sizes and pistol grips.

For example, that experimentation might be achieved by holding the gun between your two hands slightly differently, to start with. Your hands should be in their normal positions, but keep all your fingers straight, instead of establishing a grip (as if you were clapping, and your gun happened to land up between your two palms), and then raise the gun up to your line of sight, holding it out in front of you, as you normally would, so you can see the sights aligned with the target (so that you now have the gun in the correct position in space with respect to your eye, as well as aligned properly with the target). And then in that position, close your eyes (so that you lose reference to the target), and then establish a proper firm grip on the weapon, with both hands, but try keep it pointed at the target while you do that, even though your eyes are closed. Then, open your eyes, without moving the gun. You want to see that the gun is still more or less naturally aligned along your line of sight, to the target, as it was before you closed your eyes. Obviously it will have moved a bit, but your grip should not have fundamentally re-aligned the gun so that it is pointing off to one side, or up, or down, or anything like that. This probably will not be the case to start with. You need to work on your grip, until you achieve that goal.

And then the objective is to learn how to establish that same grip right from the beginning, before you draw the weapon from the holster. Your goal is to not have the pistol pointing off to one side at the end of the draw, which will require you to adjust your aim, every time. By getting your grip right, you should be able to draw and as you bring the gun up to your line of sight, you should find that the gun is automatically more or less aligned already.

Getting this right, will help a lot with consistent accuracy, as well as speed, later on.

For me, this means my hands have to come onto the pistol far more from the “sides”, than I first expected. So when I establish the initial grip on the gun in the holster, before I draw, I need to make sure that I am doing that, by learning how to index on various land marks on the pistol and holster by feel.

The other reason for establishing a good solid grip on the weapon while it is still holstered, is for safety. You can end up inadvertently firing the gun, or dropping it, if you somehow fumble the grip and get the gun half out of the holster with the trigger exposed, or tangled in clothing, and then feel you need to snatch at the weapon, with fingers all over the place, to try hang on. So always make sure you have a solid grip, before attempting to draw the weapon. If you find yourself slipping or fumbling as you draw, rather abort the process, take a deep breath, carefully reseat the weapon safely into the holster, ensuring there is no clothing tangled in the trigger and start again. Because dropping your gun, or shooting yourself in the leg, is not going to help the situation, no matter how dire.

Draw Safely From Concealment

The law states that your weapon needs to be concealed if you carry it in public. The reason why most people carry a weapon in public is for self defence. Which means that it needs to be carried on your person, in a manner that allows rapid access, but which is safe during every day activities. In practice that normally means the weapon is securely retained in a suitable holster, designed for every day carry, usually clipped onto your belt, inside the waste band, underneath your shirt.

Although your choices and circumstances might be different.

You need to practice how to safely draw your pistol from your chosen carry position.

Take note, that one of the activities during which people suffer the most accidents using firearms, is drawing the weapon from a holster. So be aware that you really need to concentrate on getting this right, because there is a higher potential of an accident occurring, while performing this task, especially if you try go too fast.

Because the weapon is concealed beneath various items of clothing, you need to learn how to clear all of that well out of the way, consistently, reliably, and efficiently, and then establishing a good solid grip on the weapon, before drawing.

Letting your fingers get onto the trigger as you draw, or getting the gun tangled in clothing, is a good way to either shoot yourself by accident, or end up dropping the weapon. So take the time to work out how to do this properly. Do not try go fast, at first. Do everything slowly and deliberately, and work out step by step, what works for you.

How exactly you go about that will depend on your preferred types of clothing and where you prefer to carry the weapon. You need to train in the same clothes you would normally wear, while out and about every day.

Other aspects to take careful note of, as you practice drawing the weapon, are not sweeping yourself as you draw, particularly be aware of your leg and foot, as well as not letting your other hand wave in front, or ahead, of the barrel. Also make sure you keep your finger well away from the trigger, until you have both hands firmly on the gun and the gun is pointed at the target and you have decided to fire. If you go fast, you will have no idea whether you are breaking any of these conditions, so start slowly, and evaluate what you are doing step by step. Program your movements to ensure you do the right things at the right time, through slow deliberate repetition.

Eye Focus Coordination with Hand Movement

Shooting a hand gun requires far more coordination between your hands and eyes, than one would first think.

There a few non-intuitive things happening, which if you do not realise that, will potentially lead to less than optimum results. Because you end up sort of working against yourself, without realising it.

An example of one of the non-intuitive things happening, is when you aim a hand gun, you should not think about extending it OUT towards the target. You should rather be thinking about bringing it UP, to intersect the line, running from your dominant eye, to the target. It’s a subtle difference, but an important one. Holding a gun at full arm extension, when you shoot, is actually inefficient, because you have less ability to hold the weapon steady out there, and it’s further for the gun to travel, from your holster, before you are ready to fire. But if you think you need to point the gun out towards the target, that is what you end up doing.

It’s actually far better to hold the gun slightly closer, back towards you (instead of extending your arms fully, rather bring them back to about 60-70% extension). You have more strength in that position, and can hold the weapon more steady. It’s also a shorter distance for the gun to travel from your holster. The key thing to realise is, all that is needed to aim properly, after you establish a proper grip with both hands, is you need to bring the sights up, to intersect the line running from your eye, to the target.

Another non-intuitive thing, is if you are moving from one target to the next, it is more effective to switch your eye focus to the next target, slightly before moving your gun. This helps you move the gun precisely from one designated target to the next, without sweeping past and having to come back. It’s an eye-body control issue. Move your eyes from one aiming point to the next, and then guide your sights onto that new aiming point a split second later. This also helps you not get trapped into tunnel vision, where you cannot see anything other than what is in front of your sights. So the sequence of events would be; find a target, focus on that target, guide your sights onto the target while keeping your eyes fixed on the target, as soon as you see the sights align, fire the shot without jerking the gun out of alignment, look for the next target with your eyes (NOT by sweeping the gun around and only seeing what you can see through the sights), find the next target, and repeat. It also helps you clearly identify your targets, before you point the weapon, which is one of the four safety rules.

So coordinating what your hands and arms are doing, with control of your vision is something you need to practice extensively during dry firing. Your objective is to hard code the movements and integrate that with control of your vision.

For example, the sequence of events, during dry fire practice, from when you first realise you need to react, to when you fire, would be something like this:

• You are in an imagined self defence situation.
• You first of all move out of the line of attack, to whatever position seems appropriate for the circumstances. Perhaps stepping nimbly out of the way of an incoming stab, or something like that. Use your imagination.
• You see a target and decide that you need to shoot.
• Clear your garments properly out of the way and establish a firm grip on your pistol.
• Draw the weapon safely, without sweeping yourself, while keeping your finger off the trigger. Bring the weapon up to the “clap position” in front of your chest (the point in space where you would normally clap your hands). At that point, your support hand should join your other hand on the gun. Make sure that your support hand joins from behind, and NOT from the front of the weapon (once you draw, it’s a good habit to keep your support hand pinned against your body, when it’s not on the weapon, to stop it from waving inadvertently in front of the gun). Keep your support hand fingers together, as it joins your other hand, so your support hand fingers do not somehow find their way into the trigger guard. This position is also often called the “home position” or the “start position”, because no matter where you carry your weapon on your body, you need to get to this position first, before you can aim and shoot, using the modern isosceles approach. It is also the position you would return to, to insert a new magazine, when you need a new one.
• With your final grip of both hands firmly established on the gun, at the home position, then, if you have made the decision to shoot, and the gun is pointed at the target, you may place your finger on the trigger, even though you have not yet lifted it up to the final firing position. You can also take up the trigger slack.
• All this time, your focus will be firmly on the target. As you lift the gun up, to get your sights to intersect the line running from your dominant eye, to the target, you should start looking for your front sight in your peripheral vision. As soon as you find it, guide the front sight up onto the target. You need to learn how to do this with both eyes open (losing 50% of your vision in a self defence situation is not something you should ever do voluntarily).
• As soon as you get a properly aligned sight picture, you can fire the shot. But you need to concentrate on definitely seeing the sights precisely on target, before completing the trigger pull. You also need to concentrate on not jerking the sights away from the target, as you pull the trigger. If you see the sights firmly held on target, all the way through your trigger pull, you can assume that you hit the target. If you saw any sort of wavering, or twitch of your sights, during the trigger pull, you can assume that you missed. Note that it is your vision which controls your trigger finger. Do not fall into the bad habit of just pulling the trigger at some arbitrary moment, because you feel you just have to, when the sights are not yet properly aligned with the target. Your vision controls your trigger finger. Program that rule into yourself.
• When you have fired the shot, take your finger off the trigger and return to your home position. This step is not always relevant (if you are going to practice follow up shots), but as a beginner, it’s not a bad idea to repetitively hardcode taking your finger off the trigger whenever you have finished shooting. Once at the home position, you can work the slide to reset the trigger. After that, you can safely re-holster. Always re-holster slowly. There is never any need to rush when re-holstering. Re-holstering is one the activities during which accidents often occur. Take your time and do it properly.

All the above steps would be completed in less than a few seconds in real life, but during dry fire practice, at least to start with, deliberately take it very slow. Try concentrate on perfectly completing each step, to the best of your ability. Thinking about all the different aspects, as you perform each action. Remember, you are trying to get the precise sequence of movements and coordinated actions stored into your system, by programming yourself like a robot. Once you have done that properly, repeating the sequences at speed, will be easy. But you cannot do the programming properly at speed, because you will literally not really know what you are doing, because your movements will happen too fast for you really to be aware of what they are, and whether they are correct, or safe.

The Need for a First Shot Hit

In a serious self defence situation, the first person who inflicts a debilitating injury on the other, is usually the one that walks away and gets home alive. This is true whether you are fighting with your bare hands, or with weapons, including firearms.

One of the things I do not agree with, in most firearm self defence videos one can find online, is the very high emphasis on speed. For example, you might think that one must be able to draw and fire in under a second, and then your follow up shots need to be within sub tenths of a second.

If one combines that idea with anecdotal evidence that seems to show that in real gun fights, about 80-90% of the shots miss the target completely, then I would have to ask what is the point?

Being able to expend all your ammunition very quickly, may look impressive on YouTube, but how does that actually help you survive a self defence situation, if you are not hitting any vital targets?

I personally would not rely on the assumption that “as soon as I draw my weapon and start shooting, the thugs will just run away”, which seems to me to be part of the “just draw and shoot as fast as possible” thinking.

The entire objective, once a self defence situation has escalated to the point where violence is necessary, is to stop the attackers in their tracks, before they severely injure or kill you, or your family. If you cannot hit the target, when you need to, then carrying a gun is a complete waste of time and effort, and potentially even a liability, in my opinion.

Remember that you are responsible for what happens to every bullet you fire. Firing off a whole lot of bullets, which all then miss and go heavens knows where, seems to be a very bad way of doing things to me.

In addition to that, if your attackers do not know you are armed, then you have one brief opportunity to surprise them, when you first draw and fire. If that first shot misses – well that’s a big advantage you just wasted. Yes, you can keep shooting after that, but for every successive missed shot, you are just giving away whatever advantage you had. Your first shot is your best opportunity to stop your attacker in their tracks, because you will be controlling the timing and hopefully choosing a good moment, and they will not be reacting to what you are doing yet. After that first shot, the situation becomes highly dynamic, for them and you, and thus more of a roll of the dice for you.

Of course, if you draw too slowly, then perhaps the degree of advantage you enjoy might be limited, but my point is that no matter how fast you go, one must prioritise hitting the target, above speed. If you can only make consistent reliable hits by moving more slowly, then that is what you have to do. The objective is to hit the targets, at what ever pace you can manage. As you get better, you will be able to do that faster, but speed itself is not the objective on it’s own. Hitting the targets is the primary objective.

For these reasons I think one should emphasise training for a first shot hit, during dry firing. I try to make sure that I only pull the trigger when I am certain that I would hit the target, and not before, with every shot, during practice. If I do not see what I think would have been a hit on target, I consider that repetition to have been a failure, no mater how fast or smooth rest of the sequence was.

Obviously, hitting with your first shot is not always possible in real life. So one cannot rely on that approach only, as a self defence strategy, but it’s certainly something which one should be striving for, when training.

It is also my experience from many years of training martial arts, that your speed and fluidity naturally increases, as your body gets used to the movements. But too much forced speed can also lead to sloppy habits which reduces the effectiveness of your movements. It’s always better to train slightly slower than you think you should, to focus on proper form. An in any event, you will naturally speed up when you need to, if you are unlucky enough to find yourself in an actual self defence situation. The objective is to give yourself the best training possible, to make sure you perform correctly, when you need to.

So during dry fire training, do not get into the bad habit of pulling the trigger when ever you think you might be close, just to stroke your own ego by getting a faster time for the exercise. In fact I would categorise that as negative training. You are probably teaching yourself to do the wrong things in that case.