What Is Dry Firing in Airsoft

Some fourth dimension agone, I put out the hypothesis that using an airsoft pistol of the right pattern – pregnant a gas-operated blowback gun, not a spring-powered Walmart special – is potentially a better dry out fire practice tool than shooting your ain gun.

So I bought ane and started using it. I put in work, drawing and shooting the thing on a timer and with targets, in the hopes information technology would make me better at shooting my actual pistols.

Then…did it work?

Yes…

…but not in the mode I was hoping. However, I am admittedly convinced there really is something here.

The Original Goal With Shooting An Airsoft Pistol

Then what I was hoping for was vertical progress or all the things you tin can measure getting better.

Reliable and regularly faster outset shot times, faster splits, more than accurate hits…but what it really did was reveal foundational weaknesses I didn't even know I needed to correct.

To be fair, some of that happened. I did decrease split times shooting the airsoft gun (my initial splits were 0.4ish, now I can get 0.2s with it) and if I decrease my accurateness demands…I tin put a first shot on target from stiff-side concealment in less than 1.five seconds. My fastest start shot, when warmed up, was 0.96.

In alive burn down? I can hitting a silhouette target in maybe 1.eight. Maybe 1.6 if I'm good and warmed up and get lucky. Cold? Near two seconds, which kinda stinks.

In doing and then, I've glimpsed potential, which is vital to investing yourself mentally in whatever you're doing. However, what the airsoft shooting has REALLY done was prove me where I was cocking things up.

Grip Issues Intensify

The more I shot, the more frustrated I got with accuracy issues until I started experimenting with how I was gripping the gun.

Now, before the comments section starts, at that place are scads, scores, and bounties of blog posts and magazine articles and videos that talk about gripping a handgun. Use lots of pressure, fourscore percent this, and yada yada yada, but few (if whatever) tell yous HOW to practice it.

"But grip the gun" is usually about information technology. THAT yous should grip the gun, not HOW you should. And for someone trying to get better at something, that'due south of import information!

Where do yous utilize pressure? How is that force per unit area applied?

Practice you lot wedge upward with the alphabetize finger of the back up paw to keep the pistol stable, or use a clamshell-like squeeze? Or both? Does it affair if your back up-hand pollex is on the frame? In that location's the modern thumbs-forward grip that gets repeated like a mantra, but you'll as well discover a lot of deviation from information technology too.

Occasionally, y'all will find an instructor or video or article that gives you some of that, just they're few and far between. Nearly of the time, it'southward but "grip big important" and that'south it.

Here are a few of the nuggets I ran across trying to learn a bit more on my ain.

Brian Enos uses a thumbs-forward grip but doesn't put his thumbs against the frame. He merely uses pressure level from the fingers.

Massad Ayoob, along with others, has talked about the importance of the wedge hold, pushing the support hand index finger up into the trigger guard to proceed the paw stable. Or Pat Mac (briefly) talking virtually a clamshell grip on the gun.

The thought hither is that if you're trying to refine something, you lot demand to learn about all the different elements that can be experimented with. Pressure, direction, position, etc.

Turns out that a lot of the above works really well, especially the clamshell-similar clasp with a wedge concur.

The bespeak being, shooting the airsoft gun more and more immune me to get attuned to a lackluster support manus grip. I also discovered squeezing the shooting hand little finger helps a great deal with keeping the gun steady likewise.

Nifty, fine, some schmuck figured out he was doing stuff wrong, blah blah blah apathetic blah. Who cares? What possible benefit is this to anyone?

The Basic Premise Was Right: More Reps With An Airsoft Gun Is More Reps

My initial premise was spot on; shooting an airsoft pistol gives yous more repetitions, at less price, and with Way more convenience than shooting live ammunition.

Shooting the airsoft pistol a bunch didn't get me the results I wanted with a real gun on newspaper or on the timer, or at least hasn't withal. What it DID do was get me more than trigger time and that much more awareness of things I was doing wrong…then at present I can piece of work on them.

So would I tell anyone that airsoft pistols are the key to getting meliorate? No, only information technology would appear that it is a perfectly valid tool that volition probably help y'all if y'all're trying to be a better shooter.