- Welcome back everybody, I'm Joe Farewell
of Farewell Firearms Training
and Team Atlas Gunworks.
And I know I said that this
was gonna be a 10 video series.
However, we have a bonus
video for you today.
I got Cody Axon of the GoFast
Podcast and Team Atlas.
And he's gonna bring
you some dry fire drills
to build on what Sean
and Lisa Burrows talked
about in the last video.
So, leave a comment with your
favorite drill down below
and I hope you guys enjoy this video.
(upbeat music)
- Hello everybody, my name is Cody Axon.
I'm a sponsored shooter
for Atlas Gunworks.
I'm a USPSA Grand Master
and I've been shooting
competitively for about six years.
One thing that I found,
through competing in USPSA
and all shooting sports,
is that the best shooters
are generally doing
quite a bit of dry fire,
or at least some.
Especially early on.
Dry fire is a really important part of
if you wanna get really good.
Something that doesn't cost you money.
Something that doesn't
cost you a lot of time.
You can do it in your living room,
like I am right now.
And probably a very large
amount, a very large majority
of my shooting skill has
been built right here,
in this living room, through dry fire,
without even having to go to the range.
(tense music)
Few things about dry fire
before we get started.
Obviously, the most important thing
when you're gonna be pulling
a trigger on a gun in a house,
is to make sure the gun's unloaded
and to make sure that we're safe.
So, I have no magazine.
(slide pulling)
Pull the slide back,
make sure there's nothing
in the chamber.
We're good to go there.
Second thing, I use magazines,
I've got three of 'em.
These are my designated
dry fire magazines.
You don't have to have
designated dry fire magazines.
Unless, you're gonna be dry firing a lot
for competition, like what I do.
But basically what I
have here is a snap cap.
So this is designed for dry fire.
It's a plastic bullet, plastic primer.
It's not gonna go off.
And then underneath there, I
have a full magazine of these.
Which are dummy rounds that has no primer.
That is an actual lead
bullet, it's the blue bullets.
It's an actual lead bullet,
I made these myself.
I use these to weight down my magazine.
That way my magazines
are the actual weight
that they are when I'm using them,
whether it be a stage or in practice.
And when the gun is loaded,
quote unquote loaded with these,
the gun weighs exactly what it weighs
when I'm using it in competition.
(upbeat music)
First one I'm gonna show you guys
is slow fire trigger control.
So for this, this is very
traditional dry fire.
When I first started
learning how to shoot a gun,
before I ever did anything
competition related.
I was told, point the gun at the wall,
pull the trigger straight
back nice and slow,
and have the front sight not move.
That was the only thing I was ever told.
So we'll start with that,
'cause that actually
is a really great drill,
especially when you're first starting off.
So all I'm gonna do, point
the gun at a blank wall,
and pull the trigger, push the trigger,
push the trigger, push the
trigger, push the trigger,
(clicking) nice and slow.
The hammer fell, right
when I wanted it to.
I just pushed the trigger
through nice and slow.
And the front sight didn't move,
that was exactly what I wanted.
That's gonna be a lot more difficult
when you're first starting off.
Or if you're shooting a
gun that does not have
the Ballard trigger, like
the Atlas Gunworks guns have.
If you are shooting a stock
gun, with maybe a six,
seven, eight pound trigger that's got
a lot longer trigger pull,
it's probably gonna take you some time
to get to where you can
do that without a trigger
or without the front sight
moving when the trigger
goes off and the hammer falls.
(upbeat music)
If you're a more advanced
shooter is I use a shot timer,
just like this one.
There's lots of different
versions of this.
You can also use an app for dry fire.
You can get those phone apps.
There's computer apps.
There's lots of things
you can use for this.
The best is get an actual shot timer
but all I really need from
this is a random beep.
So, I push the button and
the beep randomly goes off.
So my goal with this is
to do the same thing.
I'm gonna point the gun at the wall
but you focus on the front sight.
But when that beep goes off,
I'm gonna jam for that trigger
as fast as I can.
The goal is to get the shot to go off.
The quote unquote shot, the dry fire shot,
to go off before the end of that beep.
So, I'm gonna be kinda rushing
through that trigger pull.
But I'm going to do so in a way
that the front sight doesn't move.
This is simulating that
I'm shooting a USPSA stage.
Or I'm just trying to
shoot fast in general.
That's how I'm going to
actually pull the trigger.
I'm gonna jam through that thing fast
and the goal is to be able to do that
without moving the gun.
And have basically the shots
are still gonna be accurate
even though I'm pulling the trigger fast.
So, I'm gonna show you what
this is gonna look like.
So my trigger finger is not
gonna (beep) be on the trigger,
it's gonna kind floating in the trigger
and then I'm gonna slap
the trigger basically.
I'm gonna slap the trigger
but I'm gonna have the
front sight not move
and we'll see what happens.
(beep)
(gun firing)
Okay, so the front sight moved
on me a little bit that time
and that's totally fine
'cause that's the point of the drills.
I'm trying to fix that.
So let me try it one more time.
(beep)
(gun firing)
Alright, that was better.
I was a little bit slow on that one.
So if a full dry fire session
that is something I would
want to continue to work on.
I wanna be fast but I do not
want those sights to move.
That's something that you can get a lot
of good work on your trigger control
with just using that one drill.
(upbeat music)
The third drill I wanna show
you is just regular old draws.
So what I'm gonna do
here is I'm gonna set.
I'm gonna use the par
timer function on my timer.
There is again, there is
apps you can use for this.
Again a shot timer is
the best way to do it.
What people ask a lot
of times with dry fire
"well how do I, how do I time
myself when the shot timer's
not gonna pick up the shots
like it would if I was
actually shooting the gun?"
Well by setting a par timer.
I set one for one second
so here's what happens.
(beep)
(beep)
So that first beep is my command to go.
So, I'm gonna start the draw.
The goal is to be aimed at a
target, to have a sight picture
that I'm happy with and have a good grip
where I'm ready to start shooting
by the time that second beep hits.
So one second is pretty
sporty but it's not
not crazy for somebody
who's been practicing
and doing this a lot.
I'm not gonna pull the trigger
because if you are doing a one shot drill
your tendency is gonna want to be
to race that, that second beep.
So what somebody might
do is whip the gun out,
just pull the trigger as fast as they can
and say okay I'm good.
The goal is, instead,
to not pull the trigger
but just get a good sight
picture that I'm happy with.
And do that all within
that tight par time.
So here's what I'm looking for.
(beep)
(unholstering gun)
(beep)
So that was good.
That was right what I wanted.
Let's try it one more time.
(beep)
(unholstering gun)
(beep)
Also good.
So you can do that in any variation.
I mean, if you're doing defensive shooting
maybe you wanna do like
some sort of fighting stance
and then you go to your gun.
That works too.
You can do wrists above
shoulders depending on
what shooting sport you are trying to do.
You can do all kinds of stuff.
But hand to sides is really
probably what we do the most of
in USPSA, so that is what I usually do.
(upbeat music)
The fourth thing I wanna
show you is reloads.
So everybody loves a good reload.
They look great on Instagram.
They look really cool.
If you wanna be a grand
master, quite frankly,
in USPSA you have to
have good, solid reloads.
So, I'm gonna use that
same one second par time.
And this time what I'm going to do is
I'm going to have the gun.
I'm gonna start with the gun in my hands,
finger on the trigger but not pulling it.
When that par time,
that first beep starts,
I'm going to reach for my first
mag on my belt, right here.
Drop the mag that is (magazine
releases) in the gun.
(magazine reloading)
And reload the gun.
So my goal is to get all that process done
and then I'm gonna aim back at the target.
My goal is to have all that process done
within that one second time period.
Again, if you're first starting off
it's gonna be way longer than that.
You probably don't even
want to use a par timer
when you are first starting off.
But that is eventually
where you wanna end up
is about a one second par time.
1.1, 1.2 somewhere in there.
That's gonna give you
a pretty sporty reload.
That's gonna enable you to do
pretty well in competition.
So let's give this a shot.
(beep)
(magazine reloading)
(beep)
So that was good.
I don't wanna try it again
'cause I don't want to
screw up my second one.
So that's what I'm looking for though.
Basically replace a new mag in the gun
and it's ready to go and that's it.
(upbeat music)
The last one I wanna do is
gonna be a multiple shot drill.
The first multiple shot
drill we've done here.
Which is gonna be draw, fire.
You'll dry fire two shots on the target.
Reload, dry fire two shots on the target.
So we're kinda putting
all that stuff together of
what I just did.
First question people usually have
about dry firing multiple shot drills is
"well the trigger's not gonna
reset so how does that work?"
So that is one thing that
an Atlas Gunworks pistol
or any kind of double stack 1911
or single stack 1911
style pistol does for you
is this trigger.
So you pull it, hammer falls,
but the trigger still moves
all within the same range of motion.
So I can just keep pulling
this thing when it's dead.
All day and it gives me
basically the same effect.
It's not exactly the same.
It's not perfect but it's
pretty close to perfect.
Other guns, you might
have to work through it
in different ways.
But for these types of
pistols, it's very easy.
(gun reloading)
So what I'm gonna do, is
again draw, fire two shots,
reload, dry fire two shots.
I'm gonna do a two
second par time on this.
Which again, that's a
pretty good par time.
You're gonna wanna start
out way slower than that
when you are first starting off.
But that's that's a pretty good par time.
I'm gonna go for it here.
(beep)
(unholstering gun)
(gun firing)
(gun reloading)
(beep)
Okay, so I didn't quite make it.
I was a little bit slow on the draw.
I'll try it one more time.
(beep)
(unholstering gun)
(gun firing)
(gun reloading)
(beep)
That was a little bit better.
Again, still a hair slow
but I'm trying it cold.
So not to bad.
So that's it.
Those are five dry fire drills
to kinda help you get started.
Whether you be a, whether
you are a new gun owner,
whether you're a new competition shooter,
or if you're just interested
in getting started.
Those are all great reasons
to do these types of drills.
Again, remember those safety
tips from the beginning.
Safety is obviously the
most important thing
when we're dealing with
real-life firearms.
Once you have done some of this stuff
or if you're interest in doing this stuff
and maybe your a little
nervous trying on your own.
It's always good to seek training
from qualified individuals.
Whether that be a competition shooter.
You know, take a conceal carry
class, a gun safety class.
Those things are always good especially
when you are first starting off.
And then, once you get
comfortable come out to a match.
3-Gun matches, USPSA
matches, IDPA matches,
Steel Challenge.
All those matches have great people.
You get to meet new gun owners
or other gun owners that are
more experienced than you.
And just kind of, people are
good about sharing the love,
sharing the love of firearms,
of our second Amendment rights
in the US, and your gun rights
in other countries as well.
Everybody's always welcoming
and wants to get to know more people.
So go out to a local match,
even if you're nervous about it.
It's always good, it's always a good time.
And you could like just end
up falling in love with it
like I did.
And basically devote six
years of your life to it.
And spend a whole bunch of money on it
because it's a lot of fun.
(upbeat music)
