There is a common belief among many shooters today that putting rounds downrange bears greater importance and productivity than dry fire practice with respect to fundamental marksmanship proficiency.

Based on our regular interactions with shooters, this belief appears to be largely based on their associating each expended round as an equivalent to some measure of experience and/or proficiency with the weapon they’re shooting and, therefore, any activity devoid of this cannot be directly translated to this same metric.

Sounds reasonable to think so, right? After all, you’re shooting real ammo through your firearm, feeling the recoil and seeing a hole in a target of which you’ve been taking aim. You’re trusting that the direct and immediate feedback received by firing each round either confirms your good fundamental skill or signals the need for corrective action, and you fire again and again with that same train of thought.

The reality here is that accomplishing technical proficiency concerning proper and effective fundamental marksmanship technique doesn’t require the use of live ammo. The actual skill is in the mechanics of the technique; whereas, the introduction of live ammo represents the practical application of those techniques.

Think about it. In many ways, mastery of the fundamental marksmanship techniques actually encourages practice without live ammo. Eliminating the actual ‘bang and recoil component’ enables the shooter to concentrate solely on technique, which is specifically why Marine Corps basic marksmanship training places significant emphasis and time on recruits ‘snapping in,’ dry firing at targets prior to any firing of live ammunition. Ask any Primary Marksmanship Instructor (PMI) or competitive shooter and you’ll hear the same words – dry fire promotes solid marksmanship skills; live fire is simply adding ammo to the equation, applying the technique into the intended application.

The following story best illustrates the merits of dry fire practice and its effect on marksmanship proficiency:

While I was on the Marine Corps Shooting Team, our team captain shared with us a story that illustrated the importance of dry fire practice.  He spoke of two Ivy League college NRA shooting teams that were selected to compete against one another.  Interestingly, both schools decided to perform an experiment that compared both teams’ preparation for the competition as well as their match results.

Initially, both teams were informed that they would be provided with enough ammunition and range time to gather data for the 600-yard, long range competition over a 2-day time period.  The actual competition, however, was set for one month after they began to prepare.

For purposes of the experiment, following the initial data shoot, one of the teams was notified that they would have at their disposal unlimited ammunition and range time to train with during the month long preparation phase prior to the competition date.

For the other team, after their initial data shoot, they were instructed that they would be afforded unlimited range time but no ammunition to train with.  Naturally, the team with the benefit of unlimited ammunition and unlimited range time used every round possible and they trained incessantly to preserve their school pride.

Not to be discounted by their imposed handicap, the team that was not allowed any ammunition with unlimited range time also trained with great intensity as they dry fire practiced across the entire length of the same time period.  Finally, on the day of the competition and to the astonishment of all present, the shooting team that was prohibited from practicing with ammunition handily defeated the other team and, not only did they rout their rival, they set new world records for that time period.

Yes, live fire is certainly beneficial to effective marksmanship training because it’s what shooting is all about. However, when it comes to developing the proper, effective techniques and skillset to fire accurate and, more importantly, consistently accurate shots, dry fire is king. So save yourself some hard earned cash and, instead, cash in on a time-proven training technique to make the most of your range time.

Train hard, train often