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Originally posted by fritz:

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Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
Do you have any tips for dry fire drills with scoped rifles? For instance, do you go into your backyard and practice dry-firing prone or do you dry-fire while at the range before live fire? Is it best to dry-fire at the same targets and distances you expect to fire at or will any aiming point make do for dry-fire?

Hopefully, offgrid will jump in, as he dry fires more than I.

You can dry fire without looking through the scope. Maybe not even being fully behind the rifle. This form of dry fire keeps your trigger finger used to the process. I often see offgrid do this in the morning before a match.

I prefer to dry fire while fully behind the rifle, looking through the scope, and in some kind of shooting position. Could be prone, kneeling, sitting, or from a tripod. If I'm in a hotel room at a match, my cross hairs are generally on a blank and blurry wall -- as the distance to the "target" is likely less than my scope's minimum parallax distance. While doing this type of dry fire, I try to grasp the rifle the way I would in a match -- loading the bipod, buttstock firmly into my shoulder, correct rear bag technique, etc. I also try to move the rifle to different "targets" between shots -- so I have to adjust bag position, bipod legs, torso position. Offgrid doesn't do this as much as I, but I firmly believe his technique behind the rifle is better developed than mine.

I don't think dry firing has to be done while shooting at targets that are the same distance as our live-fire targets. I do recommend dry firing at targets that are within your scope's parallax adjustment range. Thus, you can better determine if cross hairs are moving during the process of the dry fire.

As with live fire, dry fire should be "aim small, miss small". It's easier to see unwanted reticle movement if the aimpoint is small and distinct.

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Originally posted by sigfreund:

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Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
Are the dots close enough to each other at the distance you are shooting that you can establish NPA for each of them without breaking position?

Pretty much. I try to establish the best possible position for the first target and then adjust as necessary for the rest. Part of my reason for using the dot drill with a string of targets is to practice follow-up shots on different targets that are close together, but not at exactly the same location.

I have more trouble getting a good consistent head position and stock weld than positioning the rest of my body behind the rifle. I practice all that at home to include trying to develop and keep my body flexible. Often I will include dry firing as part of that practice, but I’ve found that detecting reticle movement during dry fire requires aiming at a distant target.Leaving the door open to make that possible is less than optimum in the winter. It occurs to me that I should practice dot drills by standing up and getting back down into position after every shot.

Another thing I sometimes do is dry fire a few times before switching to live fire for various purposes. It helps me remember what the trigger characteristics are like, especially if I haven’t shot a particular rifle in some time. It also seems to help me settle into position and do everything correctly when actually shooting.

As somewhat of an aside, that was something one of my agency’s snipers came away from an LE sniper course with, and he would dry fire a few times during the preparation period before a qualification. Although it probably benefited his marksmanship, especially because he did little or no training between qualifications, I found the practice questionable from an operational standpoint. My concern was that dry firing would probably not be desirable or even possible during an actual mission and therefore should not be relied upon as an aid during quals.

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Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
When you shoot dot drills, either dry-fire or live-fire, do you shoot the drill timed or untimed?