Your Dry Practice Plan: Movement, Handheld Light, & 911
This month was rough. I missed three days of dry practice and broke my streak that was almost 140 days long - shattering last year's longest streak of 46 days. Still in the first five months of this year I have trained with my firearm all by three days. I'll offer you some ideas in this post to work some "advanced" skills into your dry practice routine.
Movement
I spent the first two weeks of the month working on movement. This was less about shooting on the move, and more about conducting basic tasks while moving: drawing, reloading, clearing malfunctions. I know there are some out there who will tell me this is unrealistic. I say to them, when you train every day, you can explore some unrealistic stuff. And is it really? I could invent all sorts of scenarios where I might want to keep moving while I draw rather than plant my feet and square up as if I'm on the flat range.
Instead I'll just say that sometimes being able to move - whether to seek cover, get to a more advantageous position, or just get out of the general area - isn't a bad idea. If you can optimize that time and get some other things done that need doing (like getting a fresh magazine in your gun), so much the better. You might need to reload or clear that malfunction AND move. But again, I'm just using the luxury of an every-single-day training regimen.
I did do some shooting on the move. I've taken (and passed) a number of qualifications that heavily valued being able to shoot on the move. Most of my movement was moving laterally across the target rather than forward or backward. I'm not going to get into too much detail here, but I'm using the same "heel-to-toe, isolate the lower body" technique that everyone else seems to do. Not much to see there.
Handheld Light
First, I've said it before and I'll say it again: I largely bought into the dogma that "it doesn't get dark." And truly, even though most shootings happen in hours of darkness, most places are decently well-illuminated. I bought into that until I moved to where I live. It gets DARK. I carry a light, and am considering moving to a carry gun with a weapon-mounted light.
In the meantime, I spent the second two weeks of the month (after a brief three days refreshing primary and secondary skills) working with a handheld light. There are a few big takeaways from that. First, your light is for more than just shooting.We (the firearms community) preaches "looking" the gun into the holster; a flashlight can help you do that. Even if that WalMart parking lot is well-illuminated, you may want a light to verify your holster is clear before jamming your gun back into it.
Note: the photos in this article were taken in daylight so you can actually see what's happening.
If you are a press-checker (I am, in certain contexts - more on that in the future) your flashlight can help you actually see what's in the chamber.
Calling 911
During both portions of the month worked on calling 911, post-shooting. I'll do a full write-up on this in the very near future. I'll leave you with some food for thought, though.
First, how do you carry your phone? Is it in a pocket that you can access with your gun in your hand? Mine is tough, so it's rearrange my whole pocket system or learn to reach across with my left hand (seems to work).
Let's look at one more little brain teaser that I came up with while dry practicing: if you have to use both your gun, and a handheld light, which one do you relinquish control of to call 911? Just a thought.
My Results
Below are my day-by-day results of the past month. I promise I'll do better next month!
January 1 - 15: 150 minutes, January 16 - 31: 160 minutesFebruary 1 - 15: 150 minutes, February 16 - 29: 140 minutesMarch 1 - 15: 150 minutes, March 16 - 31: 160 minutesApril 1 - 30: 300 minutesMay 1: 10 minutes presentation, movingMay 2: 10 minutes presentation, movingMay 3: 10 minutes presentation, movingMay 4: 10 minutes presentation, movingMay 5: 10 minutes presentation, movingMay 6: 10 minutes reloads, movingMay 7: 10 minutes reloads, movingMay 8: 0 minutesMay 9: 0 minutesMay 10: 10 minutes reloads, movingMay 11: 10 minutes reloads, movingMay 12: 10 minutes malfunctions, movingMay 13: 10 minutes malfunctions, movingMay 14: 10 minutes malfunctions, movingMay 15: 10 minutes malfunctions, movingMay 16: 10 minutes presentationMay 17: 10 minutes reloadsMay 18: 10 minutes malfunctionsMay 19: 10 minutes shooting with handheld lightMay 20: 10 minutes shooting with handheld lightMay 21: 10 minutes shooting with handheld lightMay 22: 10 minutes shooting with handheld lightMay 23: 10 minutes shooting with handheld lightMay 24: 10 minutes shooting with handheld lightMay 25: 10 minutes 0 minutesMay 26: 10 minutes shooting with handheld lightMay 27: 10 minutes shooting with handheld lightMay 28: 10 minutes shooting with handheld lightMay 29: 10 minutes shooting with handheld lightMay 30: 10 minutes shooting with handheld lightMay 31: 10 minutes shooting with handheld lightMonthly Target: 310 minutesMonthly Actual: 280 minutesCumulative Target to Date: 1,520 minutesCumulative Actual to Date: 1,490 minutes (24 hours, 50 minutes)Cumulative Actual w/ Carbine & Shotgun: 2,100 minutes (35 hours)Current Streak: 6 days (138 previous)Tobacco Free: YES
Next Month
Stay tuned!
