Dry firing

Dry firing. Glock tells you to pull the trigger (thus releasing the striker) when field stripping. What is the concensus (beyond this, since you have to do it) on dry firing Glocks?

[CCV]

Make sure the chamber is empty! Other than that it shouldn't be an issue.

[DAVEKO]

Dry fire, I found that as long as I was dry firing my scores/accuracy improved, when I stop dry firing for two weeks my scores/accuracy suffer because the bad things I do to the trigger pull come back very fast. So, I dry fire at least three nights per week for about 15 min, during this time I also practice presentation. Keep your trigger finger/pull tuned up.... ;f

Dry fire;
Do this with no one around or in the same room and let people in the area know what you are doing.
1.) remove and unload the mag and unload the pistol - rack the slide several times.
2.) unload all the spare mags
3.) place the ammo in a different room
4.) recheck that you have unloaded the pistol and rack the slide several times.
5.) provide a solid backstop
6.) place a piece of 3x5 index card with a 1" dot in the center on the backstop
7.) take a correct sight picture and slowly squeeze the trigger untill it releases the firing pin/striker.
8.) keep pressure on the trigger after firing/rack the slide
9.) slowly let up on the trigger untill you hear it reset (click) and then stop the trigger travel forward and pull/(squeeze) the trigger again.
This will help take out the errors we have when pulling/ (squeeze) the trigger. You can watch yourself, when pulling (squeeze) the trigger are you flinching, is the pistol dipping downward, are you pulling the barrel to the left or right, do you tighten the grip and squeeze the pistol at the last moment of trigger pull, do you let the trigger break surprise you and happen natural or are you waiting and thinking that the trigger should break now and causing a problem with accuracy, etc... This will also help you gain speed with correct trigger pull........practice and train doing it right.
10.) later on do muiltiple targets, presentations, practice tac and speed loads (with empty mags - no ammo - ammo is in a different room already because you already unloaded the mags before you started the dry fire.)
11.) do this for two weeks before you go to the range again.

I don't dry fire the night before or that day because I will try to rush and remember everything I have learned in the last two weeks and I get all upset that I might forget something. It will cause me to "think too much" - Not that you don't want to "Think" however. It will become natural if you keep dry firing and your trigger finger will have memory so to speak for the trigger pull.

Think - Target - Sight picture - breath - trigger control....... ;f

P.S. I've got over 25,300 actual rounds through just my Glocks alone and I've dry fired them at least twice as many times and have never replaced a trigger or trigger spring - in fact I've replaced no parts except my mag springs and recoil guide rod sets at approx 5,000 rounds of actual live fire for each pistol as a prevent maintenance program on the pistols....;f

[Elkslayer]

"I dry fire at least three nights per week for about 15 min, during this time I also practice presentation".

Damn DAVEKO, that's some regime and dedication!!
I'm impressed :)

[DeanG]

We really should clean up our wording here. There is no such thing as "dry firing". They are mutually exclusive of each other. You can either "fire" a weapon or "dry" practice with it. If we incorporate the proper wording ie: dry practice, maybe a few more of us will LOOK to ensure the weapon is really DRY before trying to PRACTICE with it.

While this may seem trivial to some, do you use a magazine or clip in your Glock? Ask for a clip and see what you get.

So let's all make sure we get out there and perform "perfect dry practice". As an OLD mentor of mine use to say, "perfect practice makes perfect. If you practice crap you will only become a crap master". "And under stress, it's the crap that will come out". ;)

Good shooting,

Dean

[DAVEKO]

DeanG, you have a good point, thats the first time I've ever heard that term since I've been training or shooting. But when I DRY (empty) fire it has always meant the weapon is DRY or empty already, maybe we should call it empty weapon trigger pull and slide racking? ;f Folks know that dry firing is an everyday common termanology in our sport, defense, and training. Then there are several new folks which do not know what that term is meant to be thats why we explain in detail to unload the weapon first while Dry (empty) firing (practice the process of firing an empty weapon). What your telling us is that we need to be correct and use the term dry practice, well dry practice for what? a weapon, a play, a ball game, or what. Maybe in order to eliminate the crap, we should call it dry weapon practice? I think thats a nice compromise, I kinda like that one - Dry weapon practice....... Dry (Empty), Weapon (the actual weapon), pracitce (that we are going to practice) All together then we would practice with an empty weapon but then what are we going to practice? (the process it takes to properly fire the weapon even if the weapon has no ammo in it).......... ;f So maybe even a better term to be correct and not spread "crap" would be - Dry weapon firing process training or DWFPT for short. Dry (empty), Weapon (actual weapon), firing process training (practice the firing process). Call it what you want, but, dry practice means nothing other than dry fire......and both terms will require the same amount of explanation of what you are going to do......
A Mag and a Clip are two diff. terms for two diff. things, your trying to compare that with two diff terms for the same thing and we know its the same thing..... ;f
In order to make a politcal correctness change Dean, We all have to call it the same thing, and I will call it what ever the shooting industry calls it (which includes trainers) but as you can see from the above that if you really want to be correct, even what you want to call, it is not exactly right.......

Right or wrong, "dry-firing" is a term that is understood by many shooters. I don't remember which ones now (I'll have to go dig them out and look) but several manufacturer's manuals recommend against "dry-firing", using this term. Just quick search for "dry-firing" yielded around 1,500 results, here's a few:

http://www.sportshooter.com/improving/dalton_fundamentals.htm
http://www.glockmeister.com/glubric.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~murph864/article/dry.html
http://www.fulton-armory.com/dryfire.htm
http://www.highpowerrifle.com/dryfire.htm
http://www.smith-wesson.com/helpdesk/dry.html
http://www.creedmoorsports.com/C1051.html
http://www.rangemaster.com/new2/dryfire.htm
http://www.goarmy.com/tour/adv/bramt.htm
http://www.naaminis.com/22faq.html
http://www.lethalweaponstraining.com/HTML/basicpistol.html

Again, whether or not it's technically correct, it is a common term both used and understood. Sorry to create any concern, just had a simple question on the effect on my new Glock.

[SanduneCC]

What DAVEKO said!

[DAVEKO]

Takman, Thank You, there is no problem, I simply agree to disagree with DeanG, just our opinions, no concern really at all. You are correct, the term Dry Fire, is correct and that is what we call it. I do however agree with DeanG on a point, that what we call it is probably not a term for today or today's political arena nor for new people or training and the term Dry Fire will probably raise a concern for what we call it in the future as it already is in at least one training area, as I've gathered from his post. There could be a day in the future which the term could change, a word for word meaning for what it really is - word play or organize words to help understanding with a term for what is actually being done in a process. But as for now the shooting world responds to the term dry fire to mean what we are talking about.
Once again, thank you, I hope we've answered the question of dry fire, and that dry firing helps us to improve and correct some of our problems before we go back to the range which does not hurt the Glock pistol and has not hurt mine in any way. Dry fire often ;f...dave....

DeanG, Thank You for your very good points and I will also Dry Practice ;f / Dry fire often. ;f You are correct in my opinion that any meaning we can give to a term could help someone to understand that process better so that it does not become miss-leading, that it should be called what it is....I just have a hard time trying to figure out what else to call it and be 100% correct. Untill that time I will still call it dry firing as per the shooting industry opinion. When that opinion changes terms I will also.....dave..... ;c

[caz223]

". As an OLD mentor of mine use to say, "perfect practice makes perfect. If you practice crap you will only become a crap master". "And under stress, it's the crap that will come out".


Sounds like an old martial arts instructor I had.....

[DeanG]

takman,

Feel free to practice with your Glock DRY,(notice how I got around the wording discussion) without being concerned about any negative effects to your Glock. The worst case is that you will at some point have to replace the firing pin. Personally several of my Glocks have hundreds of thousands of "Dry" cycles without seeing any appreciable premature wear or damage. Wheew !!!

Now back to the "dry practice" discussion. As a professional trainer we must do everything we can to make our students ability to process information like range commands and or their concepts about a pistols functioning easier. There is also a safety issue IMHO.

When you stand behind a line of 20 students and give the comand "the range is clear, this is a DRY PRACTICE drill", there is little question it is expected of them to varify that the condition of their firearm is unloaded. Stand behind the same line of students and ask for them to prepare for a "dry firing" drill and some will unload their firarms and some will load them mistakenly only hearing the "firing" word or command.

The very term "firing" by it's name alone implies that something will be fired. This can lead to to much confussion in an area where safety for everyone must be paramount.

Good Shooting,
Dean

[WalterGA]

"replace the firing pin..."

Or, if you're "dry practicing" (That sure sounds awkward!), with a Glock, you might have to replace the striker, as a Glock doesn't use a firing pin. (Of course, we all know what we're all talking about; we're just making inconsequential and irrelevant taps on a keyboard.)