TargetTalk

[peterz]

Is there any way to dry fire with a classic springer such as the FWB 300 series?

I have one I beautiful mechanical shape from PilkGuns; now I want to get better, and I think Dry fire would help.

Thanks!

--Pete z

[Bowman26]

why dry fire? I dry fire my Anschutz 1712 .22 and Rem 700 6.5x47L I use for silhouette but when it comes to airguns I shoot pellets. That is the whole beauty of the air rifle, practice with live rounds on the cheap when compared to quality .22LR and Hand loaded high power rounds.

you might not be able to shoot at all where you live inside or out. So that is going to make it hard for you to get any practice in without being able to dry fire. The newer air rifles like my Walther LG300 and Anschutz 8002 onward all have a switch to flip for dry firing without having to release any air and totally silent, you just hear a click.

Hold drills are good also but dry fire would be better since so much can go wrong with that little movement of the finger.

Bo

[peterz]

I have always felt that it wasn't possible to dry-fire springer, and I've also wondered a lot why one needed to dry fire any airgun. After all, pellets, especially something like RWS Hobbies, are incredibly cheap. And also, the recoil from a gun like an FWB 300 is fairly minimal -- that from a gas gun is even milder -- so flinching is not quite as much of an issue as it is with small bore.

Don't worry; this isn't my first FWB 300; it won't be dry fired.

pz

[Richard H]

Dry firing isn't about saving money on ammo, it's about learning things about your hold and triggering without the distraction of actually firing a shot.

[peterz]

No kidding, Richard.

I understand dry firing and do it with PCP guns. I simply asked if I had missed something with the FWB300 and whether or not there was a hidden way to dry fire. There isn't.

I would, however, like to have somebody explain what the benefit of dry firing is with a PCP gun given that the behavior with pellet is virtually identical to that w/o.

[RandomShotz]

Dry firing is nearly, but not quite identical. Physically, only part of the firing mechanism is tripped, so there is less vibration going on, and psychologically there is no target. That is, fry firing not only uses no pellet, it may also use no target or a training target of a vertical or horizontal bar. As has been discussed here recently, a focus on getting the sight picture in precisely the right relationship with the target is a distraction that can actually make a shooter shoot worse than if he focuses on sight alignment and trigger control.

Granted, it is not as much fun as actually shooting the target, so patzers like me don't do it nearly enough. But (I've been told) all serious shooters use it as part of their training routine.


Roger

[Guest]

[GaryN]

The firing of the gun can create just enough distraction that it can distract from practice and analysis.
Example, I was pushing my shots to the left and I could not figure it out. I then started dry firing with an old Daisy 747, as my Pardini K58 does not have a dry fire switch. With only the hammer falling, no discharge of the gun to distract me, I discovered that my trigger finger was pushing the pistol to the left.

[Bowman26]

Yes dry firing can be very good at helping diagnose any issues and also to help build the muscle memory for better consistency to repeat that when there is a round going down range.

I know of one female shooter that has been the National Champion is Smallbore Silhouette several times over and once a Olympic level 10m running target shooter. She says that her practice usually consists of 8 rounds of dry fire for every 2 live rounds. So she is only practicing with live ammo 20% of the time.

That is a lot of dry firing as a percentage and especially when you consider she is a sponsored shooter and sells Eley ammo. So she probably pays little to nothing for the good ammo at that, yet still dry fires.

If you have seen the shirts from Eley that say "Shoot Like a Girl" shes the girl they are refering to lol.

I am off to dry fire now lol.

Bo

[peterz]

Gary, Bo,

Thanks. This I understand.

..pz

[pilkguns]

Dry firing of normal spring piston airguns is not recommended. However, the 300 series is recoiless spring piston, as is the RWS 75, and either are OK to dry fire according to their respective factories