I’m not a fan of dry fire, in my experience it doesn’t cure anticipation.
Watch the video and weigh in.
I dry fire religiously, anticipation/flinch is only one problem, even the best of us can always improve our technique on the trigger.
I keep one gun simply for training with a barrel block in it to shot it’s always unlaoded that I use pretty well daily shooting bad guys on TV or shooting specific targets I have on the wall.
Even without a dry fire laxer attachment by paying attention to the movement of your sites relative to the target if you have the proper relationship between finger and trigger and have a smooth press, release, and exactly where your reset point is.
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It’s not a fix-all but I find it highly useful. Has definitely improved. my trigger control, my anticipation dive, and my site picture acquisition speed.
I use a SIRT type gun as well for the same drills.
Dry fire with a nickle on the barrel also very useful in detecting and fixing all sorts of minor movement errors.
At home, we practice with a mix of snap caps and live rounds, very illuminating.
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in your opinion what does cure anticipation ?
I am a big supporter of dry fire, not to fix anything, but to set muscle memory. I practice more with a unloaded firearm than with a loaded one and I think that that dry fire practice has helped me just as much, or more than live fire.
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A while back @Steve-G posted this video… I think its brilliant. It’s an alternative approach to just dry fire repetition that really gets to root cause of the problem. I am working on this technique as well.
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Thousands of rep’s doing it right particularly in maintaining consistent grip pressure throughout the cycle.
Dry fire is very good for this.
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Yes. It helped my trigger control with a new weapon, and, my grip on said gun. It also helped “break in” the trigger and took some of the grit out of it.
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I use dummy rounds to help with diagnosing a flinch. It works for me because you don’t know for sure if it’s going to go bang. It also helps with practicing clearing malfunctions.
As far as fixing a flinch. For me it was range time and a dedication to fixing it. It’s still a work in progress but I’m much better now and am excited about taking a class and having an instructor fine tune my marksmanship.
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@Jacob2 I’m with @Sheepdog556 dummy rounds, range time, and quality coaching with a good instructor.
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Dry fire conducted properly is vital. There is no better way to hard-wire correct procedures and movements into your skillset than with dry fire. You would be hard pressed to find any top competitor who does not dry fire frequently, and most daily. I like Michael Seeklander’s dry fire routines, which can be found for free on the web.
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Dry fire training, properly executed, can help to identify and correct a myriad of grip, trigger control, and sight alignment issues. It also helps by permitting the shooter the opportunity to run “what if…” scenarios safely. I do it daily.
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Here’s a thread about fixing flinching. It’s on the range, not dryfire, but it may help.
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Dry fire is at least as good for working on grip issues as live fire. You’re more able to pick up on the flexing and errors it induces when you’re not worrying about hitting the target, flash/blast, and recoil.
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I’ve used dry fire practice in the past but not consistently and not with anything that was able to give me really good feedback. I just bought the MantisX system and am now using it with dry fire during the week to work on trigger and grip control. I’m taking what I learned during week to the range on the weekend to transfer to live fire training. It’s only been a few weeks and I can see a definite improvement.
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How are you liking the system?
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I actually really like it… gives you instant feedback on what you are doing wrong with a little pic or video clip on how to improve. Lots of different skill levels, tracks dry fire and live fire drills separately. With the adapters it’s really easy to use it on different firearms that I own. I’ve definitely seen an improvement at the range after just a few weeks of using it. I’ve bought several cheaper laser trainers in the past and the MantisX is by far my favorite now.
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Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. I’ve been considering buying the system for students that seem to have difficulty with maintaining a consistent grip and/or trigger finger placement, trigger control issues.
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I’m considering a MantisX - one of my buddies has one, he loves the instant feedback.
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I’ve got a MantisX - and I love it for precisely the reasons listed above. My only complaint is that it doesn’t work with a SIRT pistol… yet. I saw a YouTube video where the people at Mantis put the guts of their system into a SIRT pistol, so maybe they’ll work with Next Level Training to come up with a joint product venture. For now, I use my carry pistol with a laser round in the chamber and the Mantis unit attached. A bit clunky, but effective! And using it with live-fire training is a dream - great feedback!!!
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I have been reading about the MantisX System for a few weeks now. I am so glad you guys posted about it. One question I have is how does it handle racking to reset the trigger if that has to happen? Example, in a dry fire scenario with a Glock. You pull the trigger and must rack, not fully, to reset the trigger. So I am curious as to how the Mantis system might handle that.
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