Why Is Dry Fire Bad for Airsoft

Some fourth dimension ago, I put out the hypothesis that using an airsoft pistol of the right design – meaning a gas-operated blowback gun, not a spring-powered Walmart special – is potentially a better dry out fire do tool than shooting your own gun.

So I bought one and started using it. I put in work, drawing and shooting the thing on a timer and with targets, in the hopes information technology would make me improve at shooting my actual pistols.

So…did it work?

Yes…

…simply not in the way I was hoping. However, I am absolutely convinced there actually is something here.

The Original Goal With Shooting An Airsoft Pistol

And so what I was hoping for was vertical progress or all the things you can measure getting better.

Reliable and regularly faster first shot times, faster splits, more accurate hits…but what it really did was reveal foundational weaknesses I didn't even know I needed to right.

To exist fair, some of that happened. I did decrease split times shooting the airsoft gun (my initial splits were 0.4ish, now I can get 0.2s with it) and if I subtract my accurateness demands…I can put a first shot on target from strong-side concealment in less than i.5 seconds. My fastest get-go shot, when warmed upward, was 0.96.

In live fire? I can hit a silhouette target in maybe 1.8. Peradventure 1.vi if I'one thousand good and warmed upwards and go lucky. Cold? About 2 seconds, which kinda stinks.

In doing so, I've glimpsed potential, which is vital to investing yourself mentally in whatsoever you're doing. All the same, what the airsoft shooting has Really done was show me where I was cocking things upwards.

Grip Issues Intensify

The more I shot, the more frustrated I got with accuracy bug until I started experimenting with how I was gripping the gun.

Now, before the comments department starts, in that location are scads, scores, and bounties of web log posts and magazine articles and videos that talk about gripping a handgun. Utilize lots of pressure, 80 percent this, and yada yada yada, merely few (if whatsoever) tell yous HOW to do it.

"Just grip the gun" is usually virtually it. THAT you should grip the gun, not HOW y'all should. And for someone trying to become better at something, that'due south of import data!

Where exercise you apply pressure? How is that pressure level practical?

Do yous wedge upward with the index finger of the support hand to go along the pistol stable, or apply a clamshell-like squeeze? Or both? Does it matter if your support-hand thumb is on the frame? There's the modern thumbs-forward grip that gets repeated similar a mantra, but you'll also find a lot of deviation from it too.

Occasionally, y'all will notice an instructor or video or article that gives you lot some of that, but they're few and far between. Almost of the fourth dimension, information technology's just "grip large of import" and that's it.

Here are a few of the nuggets I ran beyond trying to learn a bit more than on my own.

Brian Enos uses a thumbs-forwards grip but doesn't put his thumbs against the frame. He merely uses pressure from the fingers.

Massad Ayoob, forth with others, has talked about the importance of the wedge hold, pushing the support hand alphabetize finger up into the trigger guard to keep the hand stable. Or Pat Mac (briefly) talking virtually a clamshell grip on the gun.

The idea hither is that if you're trying to refine something, you lot need to acquire well-nigh all the different elements that tin be experimented with. Pressure, direction, position, etc.

Turns out that a lot of the higher up works actually well, especially the clamshell-like clasp with a wedge agree.

The point beingness, shooting the airsoft gun more and more immune me to get attuned to a lackluster support mitt grip. I also discovered squeezing the shooting hand little finger helps a slap-up bargain with keeping the gun steady as well.

Great, fine, some schmuck figured out he was doing stuff wrong, blah blah blah blah blah. Who cares? What possible benefit is this to anyone?

The Basic Premise Was Right: More Reps With An Airsoft Gun Is More Reps

My initial premise was spot on; shooting an airsoft pistol gives you more repetitions, at less cost, and with Mode more convenience than shooting live ammunition.

Shooting the airsoft pistol a agglomeration didn't get me the results I wanted with a real gun on paper or on the timer, or at least hasn't yet. What it DID practise was go me more trigger time and that much more than sensation of things I was doing wrong…and then now I tin can piece of work on them.

So would I tell anyone that airsoft pistols are the fundamental to getting meliorate? No, but it would appear that it is a perfectly valid tool that will probably assistance yous if you're trying to be a better shooter.