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by Susan Smith,
AWA Florida Chapter & State Leader
What if there were a way to drastically improve your shooting without spending countless hours at the range and thousands of dollars?
There is! Let me let you in on a secret: Dry Fire Practice. Dry Fire or Dry Practice is the key that will allow you to see huge improvements with a minimal investment. The overwhelming majority of top competition shooters spend more time in dry fire practice than they do in live fire.
Dry fire practice allows you to train on at least six of the seven shooting fundamentals from the comfort of your home — grip, stance, sight alignment, sight picture, trigger control, and breath control.
Some would argue, and I am among them, that with an honest assessment of what you are doing and seeing, that you can also accurately train the seventh, follow through, with dry fire.
“Dry Fire or Dry Practice is the key that will allow you to see huge improvements with a minimal investment. The overwhelming majority of top competition shooters spend more time in dry fire practice than they do in live fire.” Susan Smith
I am currently listening to the Audible book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. The premise of the book is that small changes can yield incredible results. I truly believe that. I often tell people that I want to be better today than I was yesterday. If I learn one thing — a new word in Spanish, perhaps — I am better today than I was yesterday. I don’t need to conquer the whole Spanish dictionary in one sitting, just one word or phrase at a time pays big dividends. Over the course of a year, I can see my improvement. And over the course of a year, if I am consistent, that improvement is substantial!
Keeping in line with that, back in October 2024 — long before I started or had even heard of Atomic Habits — I made a decision to make Dry Fire a real part of my life. I knew about dry fire and its value to gun training. Heck, I even encouraged our ladies and my private students to build a dry fire routine. But, I wasn’t really doing it myself. I’d start and do it for a couple of days a week, for about a week, and then let it slide for months and months at a time before starting it again. For about a week.
I don’t know what happened in October 2024, but something clicked. Well, actually I do know what happened in October — Brian Hill’s Deliberate Coaching class. I had been seeing a lot of progress in my individual shooting and my instructing for some time. Brian saw it, too, because I had taken several classes from him over the course of a year, and he told me he saw the difference in my shooting and my attitude/mindset. During Deliberate Coaching, something resonated within me on an even deeper level and I made a full-on commitment to me. Part of that commitment to me included making dry fire practice a real part of my life.
So upon my return from the Deliberate Coaching class, I started dry fire with a new passion. Just a few minutes a day — maybe five minutes and a few days a week — maybe two or three.
I created a safe area for my dry fire. I live in a small house, without any real extra space, but I have a hallway outside of my bedroom. At the end of the hallway, is one of my gun safes. That makes a perfect backstop for dry fire. I already had BarrelBloks, MagBloks, shot timers, and a mostly unused Mantis X10 Elite. I was ready for my journey.
I had previously read some books and articles on dry fire, so I dug those out in earnest and pored over them again. Particularly useful were The Dry Fire Primer by Annette Evans and the section on dry fire in The Cornered Cat by Kathy Jackson.
About that time, I heard about a Dry Fire Basics webinar that Memphis Beech holds. I had met Memphis at a conference last year where he was next to me on the firing line during a class. I looked up his webinar, signed up, and took it! It was fantastic and greatly exceeded everything I had hoped for. In addition to the teaching he provides, you set up your laptop and camera so that he can actually watch your dry fire and then make suggestions as necessary.
I increased the frequency of my dry fire. I started dry firing six days a week, only taking one day off when Dad and I go fishing. I also dedicated early morning time to dry fire. My morning routine has become: get up, shower, dress, devotions, dry fire, and THEN coffee. Like a dangling carrot, I don’t allow myself my first cup of coffee each morning until after my dry fire is done. It works!
On December 1, 2024, I took my dry fire practice a step further: a journal. I now journal my dry fire sessions. Before the session I write down my plan for that day, whether it’s to work on my draw from concealed on a timer, different micro-drills, practice one-handed draws while not “dropping the baby”, or work through the various courses that Mantis offers. Most of my dry fire sessions are five to eight minutes long, although occasionally I practice for up to 20 minutes.
Fast forward to March of this year: I was in a weekend class for the Active Self Protection Skills Summit in Georgia. Guess who was in my class as a student? Memphis Beech. During the weekend, I asked Memphis to look at my Dry Fire Journal and make any suggestions or comments on it. He told me that I was including good, trackable information in the journal. His biggest suggestion was to add a comment about how I was feeling, or how the session felt. So now I do that. The comment can be something as simple as “Wow! That was fun!” or “I’m feeling very distracted today.” But those comments show a bit about my mindset for the morning.
“Can I challenge you? Are you ready to take the next steps in your firearms journey? Make a commitment to yourself to start a dry fire routine for just five minutes, three days a week. Be honest with yourself. Keep a simple journal. “
I always dry fire in whatever I’ll be wearing that day. During the cold months here in Florida, I will wear the jacket, sweater, or hoodie that I’ll be wearing to work. It’s important to me to dry fire and practice my draw as I will be dressed.
I have created some of my own drills for dry fire. “Don’t Drop the Baby” is a one-handed draw for when you have a baby/toddler in your arm that you’d rather not drop to get a two-handed draw. I also practice that one simulating holding a loved one back, out of the way. Conversely, my “Drop the Phone” drill is done by having a toy phone at my ear and at the sound of the buzzer, I need to drop the phone and proceed to a two-handed draw.
There are many different things that can be practiced in dry fire, and they all have one goal: to see the results in live fire. Live fire validates the work that you have done in dry fire. When I go to the range for some live fire time, it is rare that I use more than 20-25 rounds of ammo. I like to practice my DTFS – Draw to First Shot in live fire at the range, checking my results against my dry fire.
Can I challenge you? Are you ready to take the next steps in your firearms journey? Make a commitment to yourself to start a dry fire routine for just five minutes, three days a week. Be honest with yourself. Keep a simple journal. When you see how easy it is and when you see the results in live fire, increase your commitment. Maybe that means four days a week, or a few extra minutes.
Do mornings not work for you? No problem. Maybe you carve out your dry fire time in the evening after dinner. I have found that consistency is the key. Take the steps to turn “I know I should dry fire practice” to “I dry fire practice” and then watch your progress. You can do this!!
Dry fire is life!
About the Author
Susan Smith is an AWA volunteer chapter leader in Florida with the Port Charlotte and Nokamis Chapters, as well as serving as the Florida AWA State Leader. She has multiple instructor certifications and is a student at heart, continually learning and training.
If you’re looking for more resources and are an AWA member, please log in and visit “Member’s Only Resources.” There you will find tips on getting started with dry practice, membership discounts and links to some of the books mentioned in this article.
