The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Beginning Rifle

Art Eatman · August 13, 2013, 08:43 AM

Keep some empty cases to insert when dry-firing. .22 rifle firing pins can hammer against the barrel and deform.

Dry-firing is just like live fire--but quieter. The idea is to maintain consistency of sight picture while pressing the trigger the same way for each shot.

A couple of things to know and work toward as you gain experience: Olympic shooters press the trigger between heartbeats. Good health means a pulse rate down around 60 per minute, which is once per second. You can feel a heartbeat cause a very slight jiggle in the sight picture.

Another is the 0.2-second lag between the time your brain says, "Press," and your finger actually moves. Since nobody is a human bench rest, and there can be some very slight motion even with proper sandbags, you eventually develop the ability to forecast the perfect sight picture 0.2 seconds in advance.

Again, just something to keep in mind for "on down the road".

August 13, 2013, 08:43 AM	#22
Art Eatman Staff in Memoriam Join Date: November 13, 1998 Location: Terlingua, TX; Thomasville, GA Posts: 24,798	Keep some empty cases to insert when dry-firing. .22 rifle firing pins can hammer against the barrel and deform. Dry-firing is just like live fire--but quieter. The idea is to maintain consistency of sight picture while pressing the trigger the same way for each shot. A couple of things to know and work toward as you gain experience: Olympic shooters press the trigger between heartbeats. Good health means a pulse rate down around 60 per minute, which is once per second. You can feel a heartbeat cause a very slight jiggle in the sight picture. Another is the 0.2-second lag between the time your brain says, "Press," and your finger actually moves. Since nobody is a human bench rest, and there can be some very slight motion even with proper sandbags, you eventually develop the ability to forecast the perfect sight picture 0.2 seconds in advance. Again, just something to keep in mind for "on down the road".