We’ve had a bunch of mini-conversations about dry fire practice throughout the Community so far.
How do you set up your dry fire training area?
I check my gun, unload a magazine, put it in the firearm, check that I don’t see nickle or brass and practice drawing and firing pointed at a window. Behind that window is a wooded swamp.
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I never dry fire any of my front line or EDC firearms. Just my opinion as a machinist it does produce stresses on the workings of the weapon. I have purchased cheaper used firearms that I use only for dry fire. As a retired owner of a home improvement company I would keep old doors, windows and build walls making Hollywood type buildings and then call my friends. We would come up with all kinds of scenarios and have a great time yet learning and retaining new skills. With a lot of my friends being LEO’s, first responders and military it gets powerfully real fast using loud music war sounds and believe me we are drained physically and emotionally. That’s the biggest task can you complete the engagement to its end. It’s harder than most believe. If you don’t understand how to practice dry fire ask questions for it is truly a good way to build your skills and build the muscle memory you need.
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I drop my mag, rack the slide to eject the chambered round and place all mags and ammo in my safe. As a side note, anytime I rack the slide after catching the chambered round, I rack it at least three or four more times.
I’ll then reholster the weapon and do a series of draws and aiming, a bunch of times just for sight acquisition, then move onto scenarios. I’ll also draw single handed, both dominant and non dominant, and will transition from two handed dominant to two handed non dominant on the move. Using empty magazines, I’ll do reloads both hands, then single handed.
I’ll also do wall drills dry firing and I actually will dry fire at the TV with something on. It helps maintaining sights on a moving target.
All this is done with a safe backdrop involved and no one who could cross in front of me. I often find that even after preparing for safe dry firing, the first time I go to pull the trigger I rack the slide one more time, just for good luck!
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Just some a interesting side note, do you know why people are taught to rack the slide a 3-4 times to show clear? Because even with a broken extractor, you can still generate enough pull to force the casing out of the gun. I just learned that the other day. I don’t know if it’s basic info or not, but nobody ever told me.
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I was not aware of that. Good to know.
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I mean I guess that might not be the only reason, but it makes sense.
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I purchased a laser cartridge. I love the feedback you get seeing a solid steady dot flash vs. a streak if you have bad trigger and grip control. I load the laser cartridge and manually press the switch in the chamber to see the laser flash and verify it is a laser cartridge. I started tieing a yellow ribbon around the grip to signify a cleared weapon as well. I have some targets that I Downloaded from Sage Dynamics to practice hitting the cranial vault and major organs that will stop the threat as quickly as possible.
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Basement - concrete walls, nobody around, no live ammo. Few environment scenarios - silence, background music or action movie from TV to create extra distraction.
I use laser cartridge and laser target to practice accuracy, follow up shots and shooting on the move.
I practice speed and tactical reloads, malfunctions clearing with dummy rounds (ST Action Pro are the best ).
I do these with my both pistols - EDC and range one.
Sometimes I’m thinking this is better than range 
I have airsoft guns that cost as much or nearly as much as the real thing, that I have used to practice draw and fire and to teach my son gun safety, handling, breakdown and maintenance while he was younger and I was not comfortable with him handling the real thing, but want him to learn safety as early as possible. He is now very serious into modding his own NERF guns at the moment, his latest being a KRISS VECTOR build.
This is something I’ve been thinking about. My process is to unload the gun and make sure the ammo is either in a separate room or locked up. I then do dry fire practice towards my closet. The exterior wall of my closet is brick, and beyond that brick wall is my backyard. That way if I do mess up (which I do not intend to, the round will not be able to travel to a neighbors house. I have considered moving my dry fire practice to the garage and face a brick exterior wall there, BUT There is not as much space between my house and the neighbors house. I may be over thinking this, but I like the extended space I get between houses in my backyard.
I have a basement gym with a Bob punching dummy and some targets on the walls. I leave my EDC Glock and extra mags in another room and use a SIRT pistol in my EDC holster and SIRT mags in my EDC mag holder. This gives me a 360 degree training area with multiple targets. I can practice in the concealment clothing I am currently wearing and do just about any drill I can think of.
I know this is an older post but people are always new and looking for ideas on here.
I love dry fire. I’ve bought the full Mantis system for use at home and since I just started shooting 2 1/2 months ago I’ve gone through there Marksmanship, Advanced Marksmanship & the Elite Marksmanship courses. If you love shooting I cannot recommend enough the value you can get out of the Mantis training systems. The Mantis X elite is a great start to help you learn everything about how you are handling your handgun, rifle, shotgun & even Bow. I got the Laser system and that has become my favorite thing to do all day long when I get a break. Running both the laser & the X elite at the same time really show how you need to improve your skills when you are shooting under a time constraint and still having accuracy. Then the Blackbeard X is the best of both worlds with an AR-15 platform. It even resets the trigger for better dry fire practice. I can’t wait to get the coolfire system for my pistols next to have the same benefits. I wish I was a sponsor for Mantis, I would love for them to give me discount codes for all the people I’ve introduced the system.
I have a Sirt and the lifetime license for the cloud version of LasrX app. Very good tool.
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Best marriage ever 
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My Man!
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the only difference - I’ve got the first LASR Classic license. 