Author Archives: nickspreparedness5277

Should I Be Doing More Dry Fire Practice Than Live Fire?

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What’s more fun than an afternoon of blasting at the range? Well, not much that we can discuss on this blog, however just dumping ammo down range to hear the noise isn’t helping us become better prepared if we need to defend or feed ourselves with that firearm. As I am going through this journey, I become more aware, almost daily, that sometimes we are bound heavily by time and finances when it comes to our abilities to prepare. Shooting practice involves both. I hope this article gives everyone a good option to help stay sharp with less expense. If you want some information to help you avoid some first time gun buyer pitfalls, read my post here.

How Much Does Shooting Cost?

As I am writing this post in the fall of an election year with an air of apprehensiveness about the future we as gun owners face, shooting is certainly not a bargain. Not only have people been scouring the country for ammunition and firearms to stock up on in case of any executive or legislative actions after the election, Covid-19 has had many manufacturers closed or at least reduced in staff and production. The combination of the two has left shelves bare and allowed supply and demand to increase prices as the market trends into scarcity. With the cost of guns and ammo moving up we have to also consider the time we have to invest into shooting well. Very few of us have the luxury of an at-home range to shoot at. We usually have to travel to a designated range and that often comes with a fee or membership that we have to pay. Both of those are costs to us. With all of these costs being drastically variable for each of us, I believe we can still agree that a way to reduce them is worth considering.

What is Dry Fire Practice?

Dry fire practice is the action of using your firearm to simulate a shot at a target but without having a live round in the gun. This requires some care and mindfulness to perform safely, but can be very efficient as well. First we need no ammunition. That saves us on the financial end. Also, we don’t require a designated shooting range. For most pistol and close quarters long gun practice, we can dry fire indoors. That saves us driving time and the money we spend on fuel as well. In addition to the savings, dry firing also helps us perfect muscle memory and smooth out fundamental aspects of shooting and gives us some feedback that we often can’t get with the noise, flash, and recoil of a live round firing.

A Word Of Caution About Dry Firing Practice!!!

As part of the cardinal safety rules of handling a firearm, we are taught to treat every gun as if it is loaded. To begin dry fire practice, we must assume that the gun is loaded and clear it as if we were planing to clean or repair it. We should point the weapon in a safe direction, remove the magazine and open the chamber. We must then follow up by both a visual inspection and a tactile inspection to see and feel if there is any ammunition in the magazine or chamber of the weapon. Because we are not at a designated range and likely do not have sufficient backstops in our homes, an accidental discharge could have catastrophic consequences. Once the weapon has been cleared and inspected by both visual and tactile means at least twice, then we should remove all ammunition from the room, or clear the weapon and move into a room with no ammunition present to start practice. While it seems like this should be a given, an honest survey of seasoned shooters reveals that more than a few have had a negligent discharge during a dry fire training session when they have had a mental lapse or interruption. If you follow the steps set forth, you should be very safe in your practice sessions, but complacency can creep in, so stay alert to your own mindset. Please read my post about the four cardinal rules of firearms safety Here.

Watch This Video To Get Some Important Information on Prepping Your Gun for Dry Fire Practice:

How Should I Dry Fire Practice My Shooting?

As I have mentioned before, I am not a firearms trainer, so the drills and details you need to do to improve your shooting skills should be based on your training experiences. I simply wish to outline a way to safely perform dry fire practice that can be adapted to your skill level and proficiency goals. A good way to start is to click the picture below and get some dry fire training cards.

Step 1, Clearing the firearm: As I mentioned in the paragraph on safety, the weapon must be cleared and inspected by sight and feel at least twice each before each dry fire session, regardless of how you “know” you left the firearm. This practice will remove the bulk of the risk of negligent discharges during practice.

Step 2, Enter the Dry Firing Area: With your weapon cleared and inspected multiple times, enter the area that you wish to practice. there should be no live ammunition in this room or area. Now you have a cleared weapon and no ammunition. This should effectively eliminate the hazard of a negligent or accidental discharge.

Step 3, Hang the Target(s): This is part of the mental safety preparation of dry firing. if we don’t hang the target until we have a cleared weapon in an ammo-free area, then we are less likely to have a slip of the memory and aim a loaded weapon at our target. You can also get reactive targets if you want to add the visual confirmation of your hits. It isn’t an absolute necessity to build the fundamentals you need to shoot well but it does give you the positive feedback of knowing you hit the target. If you want to give them a try, click the picture below.

Step 4, Declare Aloud “I am now beginning dry fire practice”: This sounds corny, but it affirms to our mind that we are dry firing. At any point during our routine, we are interrupted, we should begin by rechecking our weapons and surroundings for ammo and repeat this declaration out loud.

Step 5, Begin practice: Remember from the video above that almost all weapons besides revolvers and some true double action pistols require the action to be cycled to fire a second time. This means cycling the slide on pistols and pulling the charging handle or opening the bolt on rifles as well as pumping a shotguns action. This often limits us to one shot, but we are still able to gain a great deal of benefit by practicing our draw and first shot on target repeatedly without the expense of live rounds. Some manufacturers offer inert training pistols and rifles that simulate our real guns and allow us to practice without having to reset the action. Click the picture below to see one made by laser lyte company. The one shown is supposed to be similar in feel to the Glock 19 pistol, so you can search for your particular gun model once you connect through the link and look in the laserlyte amazon store.

Step 6, Remove the Target: Upon completion of our drills, we should remove the target. This removes the mental cue to shoot if we become distracted and forget that we reloaded our gun.

Step 7, Declare aloud “I have ended my dry fire practice session”: Again, this sounds silly but it helps flip that mental switch that complacency can muffle over time.

Step 8, Conclude The Session: Leave the dry fire area and return your firearm to the condition you keep it in (i.e. loaded and ready).

Final Thoughts on Dry Fire Training

Anytime you handle a firearm, you are undertaking a great responsibility. This post may seem wordy and redundant in some paragraphs, however the benefit of dry fire training to our abilities as shooters is huge, as are the financial and time savings involved. I have heard instructors say that a 1:5 to a 1:10 ratio of live fire to dry fire shots is probably the most beneficial to a shooters ability. Keep that in mind when you can’t make it to the range!

Disclosure: I am an amazon affiliate and may make money on qualifying purchases.

What Knots Do I Need To Know As A Prepper or Homesteader?

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I had the fortune to grow up around men and women who were used to working with what they had. All of my grandparents and a host of great uncles, aunts and family friends were born during or just before the great depression that crashed into the United States’ economy during the 1930’s. One of the first things I noticed when I was around them on the farm, shop, or hunting club was the way they seemed to be able to secure anything with some form of rope. I have seen a friend of my father bind down a bale of hay to a flatbed seemingly as tight with just a trucker’s hitch in a rope as i could have with a chain and binder! With that in mind, I’d like to share a few knots we should all learn as well as some general rope information and links to where we can learn much more that I have room to offer on this blog. One place that knots and cordage can be key to our survival is constructing shelters. Take a look at my blog post on it Here.

Since I was only briefly a Cub Scout and never reached the levels of knot tying skill that the Boy Scouts are expected to learn, I’ll start the discussion off with some basics that I needed to learn first. This may be remedial information to some, but for those of you like me, well, we need to catch up on as much knowledge as quickly as possible.

What Rope Should I Use?

When preparing this post, like many other topics, I opened a can of worms that i wasn’t considering. While it adds length to the post, it also lets me share more information on topics we might not have considered. Awareness is a large part of prepping because we don’t have to know everything, but it helps to be aware of variables in what we know. With that said, here is a quick list of rope types that we may encounter and use with some pro’s and con’s of each.

Polypropylene: This rope is often used around water or around electrical lines due to its floating and non conductive properties. It is basically strands of plastic that are woven together making it durable in wet environments and a safer alternative if you have to tie something near electrical lines. The negative aspect of this rope is that it is easily damaged by heat or friction and must be closely inspected for melted strands. A neutral aspect is that it usually has a bit of stretch which can be good or bad depending on use. Click on the picture to get some.

Manila: Manila rope is woven from natural hemp fibers and is often seen around landscape and home decorating uses as well as some commercial use. It has a lower stretch than polypropylene and resist snapping due to the tight weave. The negative aspect of using manila rope is the lack of UV and water resistance. This rope may rot and deteriorate when left exposed to the elements for long periods of time making it less suitable for suspended loads outdoors. Click the picture below for some.

Nylon: Nylon rope is one of the most commonly used types of cordage or rigging we use these days. It’s readily available at most hardware and home improvement stores and offers superior strength to size. Its smooth surface and abrasion resistance makes it easy to tie as well as thread through pulleys. It can, however, become waterlogged and lose strength as it gets soaked but it is only a small change and nylon is still used in marine applications on a regular basis. Get some by clicking the picture.

Polyester: Polyester rope is very similar to nylon but may feel softer to the touch. It has many of the same properties as nylon and makes great all purpose rope. One negative is that polyester rope is that its less chemical resistant than nylon. Click the picture to purchase.

Rope Terminology

Standing End: The part of the rope used to pull or lift

Working End: The part of the rope use to form knots.

Bight: A doubled section of rope.

Turn: When a rope goes around and object. A round turn is the act of making a full wrap around the post or object.

What Are The Most Important Knots To Know?

Bowline Knot: One of the most valuable knots known is the bowline. It creates a fixed loop at the working end of a rope that won’t slip or tighten up on itself and its fairly easily loosened when it is time to untie it. It can be handy to loop rope back through to use as a choker or as a way to attach hooks or other implements to the rope that need to move freely in the loop.

Trucker’s Hitch: This knot is used to make a pulley system of sorts out of the rope itself. By pulling the working end around the tie down point then back through the truckers hitch loop, we are able to double the amount of tension placed on the rope with the same effort.

Half Hitch (and Double Half Hitch): A simple knot for a variety of purposes, the half hitch is quick to tie and untie. It shines in situations where attaching things then pulling or lifting them and disconnecting the rope is done repeatedly. Doubling the half hitch makes the knot more secure and reduces the chance of a slip.

Clove Hitch: Another quick method of attaching something to a round object is the clove hitch. It relies on the tension of the rope around its end to secure the knot. The anchor point must be larger in diameter than the rope and round for the clove hitch to be effective.

Cleat Hitch: The cleat hitch is used mainly for mooring and dock lines for boats, however it can be very handy around the homestead and farm as well. Cleats can be purchased at almost any store that sells marine supplies and can be fashioned by connecting wood or metal pieces in a crossed pattern. The cleat hitch is a very quick way to secure the standing end of the rope when used to hoist something on a rack with a pulley or a turn around a smooth object.

Where Can I Learn Other Knots?

There is almost no limit to the varieties and uses of knots so the only practical way to be able to reference all of the knots you may need is to get a guide and practice the ones that seem the most applicable to your likely scenarios. Click on the book below for an excellent knot tying guide.

Or for a more portable guide, try out these pocket cards and rope practice kit.

Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate and make money on qualifying purchases.