By Rob Morse
Louisiana- (Ammoland.com) I want to be safe, fast and accurate with a firearm. To get there, I need to practice away from the shooting range.
“Dry practice” is a firearm training exercise where you manipulate the gun with no ammunition in either the gun or in the room.
In fact, I can practice without using a firearm at all. I added a SIRT Pistol to my dry practice schedule. The SIRT training pistol is shaped like a Glock and acts like a laser pointer activated by the pistol trigger. I found it to be a useful tool for both new students and experienced shooters. I train with a friend.
It feels like we are discovering new ways to use this laser pistol each week.
For example, one of my friends had a terrible flinch. My friend thinks he is holding a steady point of aim but the web camera catches his shot diving for the floor as he presses the trigger. We moved him to the SIRT pistol and invented an anti-flinch exercise. On the SIRT pistol, we turned on the red laser that comes on as soon as he touches the trigger. Then we had him slowly point-shoot without using the sights at all. He could see where he was aiming by watching the red dot on the target. We slowly moved the firearm up into his line of sight. The webcam recorded his point of aim once the bottom of the target was obscured by the sights. That “see as you press” exercise ironed out his flinch.
On another day, we had to accelerate the training schedule for a new student. We put her on the SIRT pistol and had her moving by the second hour of training. We never taught her to present from a holster to a target while standing still. We didn’t want to form a deep training scar of keeping her feet still as she drew the firearm. One-on-one training and the SIRT pistol let us do that.
I come back from each class or competition with a new list of my mistakes. I often turn to the laser pistol to fix those weaknesses.
I am not a professional trainer. I’m only a basic pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor. To me, it feels like we are re-writing the instruction manual each week as we invent new training exercises using a laser pistol. I am impressed by this new tool in our training toolbox. I think the laser pistol will do for firearms what low cost simulators did for flight instruction.
Now we can crash the simulator in safety. Don’t try that at a live fire range.
I’d love to hear how other people are using these tools.
I have no connection to the company. I liked what their product lets me do.
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NextLevel SIRT Training Pistol can be ordered online through Amazon : https://tiny.cc/sb989x ~ AmmoLand
Rob Morse: Rob writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast and co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. He is an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.