dry-fire drills on airsoft?

[choochboost]

Still saving up to buy a gun, I shoot (rent) at least once a week, I'm on TFL all the time and improving because of it, but I want more. What about getting myself a BB or pellet gun to dryfire? While you are all sitting on your couches dryfiring your 9mms, .40s, and .45s every night, could/should I be doing the same thing with airsoft?

[Mikeyboy]

I see nothing wrong with airsofts. Especially now that they have ones that are replicas made gun manufactures themselves and ones that have simulate the blowback of the slide. Of course firing an airsoft is nothing close to firing the real thing. I admit I have one. It is cheaper and safer than a regular BB or Pellet gun, and is perfect tool to teach someone how to aim and shoot. My wife hates going to the gun range, however if i'm messing around with the airsoft pistol (again the same size and shape as my handgun including the cheezy AA battery blowback, all for less than $20) she doesn't mind shooting off a few rounds at a paper target or some cans. Gives me some piece of mind.

[chrisandclauida2]

the exact replicia air soft or movie guns will be excellent for drills of muscle memory such as learning to draw with your selected ccw rig/'rigs bringing the weapon up and sight asllignment ets. but unless the trigger pull is the same dry fire drills wont be exact. if you have a flinch or pull probklem yopu can work it thru this way

[Lycanthrope]

Dry fire is excellent.

Want to get practical? Look up Steve Anderson's dry fire drills.

[exoduster16]

I practice dryfire drills on my Airsoft. There is something semi-wrong with it though (it works when it wants to). It tends to fail to chamber a round, double feed which leads to the slide not being able to go back forward. But I'll tell you one thing: when it came to helping a buddy unjam his pistol (safely), I was golden. This is some of the best training in clearing a jam I have received. And all of it without the danger of live rounds. Hurts like hell when you shoot yourself in the foot once, though. Anybody who says these things can't hurt is lying. Any gun can hurt somebody, Airsoft is no different. Just follow the 4 rules with any gun and you have no need to worry, Well except for worrying about those that follow the four rules.

[springmom]

Is there a link for the drills by Steve Anderson? I'd love to see them.

Springmom, who loves going to the range except when the .50 calibers are going off right next to her (LOUD!)

[281 Quad Cam]

I have some airsoft stuff - the problem I see with it, is that the trigger is more of a switch - and bears little to no resemblance with an actual trigger. A potential problem could be becoming too comfortable with pulling the trigger of a "loaded" "anything" in a casual context.

I mean... Ofcourse none of us are idiots, and I've never had the pleasure of an accidental discharge... But I can just see a slight danger with the mindset that this "weapon" is loaded - and is therefore OK to pull the trigger at home. Just speculation - I'm sure it probably won't cause any problems.

I've thought about getting a Glock 19 version to practice with... However I've had trouble paying more than a K31 or makarov on another pellet gun.

[Eisande]

The Anderson website seems to be down.
I bought a Sig 226 airsoft by Tokyo Marui. The levers and action is identical. Slide locks back after the last BB is shot. decock lever works, etc. Trigger is probably too easy, but I think it is great for some practice work. I mostly got it for practice with the wife in our house working out self defense scenarios. It is a good way to put the gun in various places and see how hard/slow it is to lay in bed, or wherever, and retrieve the gun AND then shoot at the target.
The target is sometimes me with a face mask and heavy coat on, those BB's really hurt.
The gun looks SO real that I am careful not to have any windows open where a neighbor might look in and get scared.

[seth]

My old Tokyo Marui airsoft Sig Sauer P226.

After firing the real one (which looks and feels identical) the main differences I identified was that the real Sig's trigger was MUCH grittier and tough than the airsoft one. also, the 9mm Sig recoil was about 5-6 times more than the 6mm BB version

All in all, the airsoft helped my real-steel shooting when it came to stance, sight picture, and breathing, but not trigger control (I had trouble with the real Sig in the beginning)

[warwagon]

WallMart is carrying a Walther PPK bb pistol(made by walther for crossman) that is very good for training. Although a steel bb, and not truly airsoft, I have found the heft, and recoil to be helpful ininitiating the inexperienced to the feel of live fire.
The controls are not the same as the real steel,and it is single action(why, I don't know) it still may be useful to you.
And the price is right at around $60.00 as I remember. Hope this is of some help!

[Lycanthrope]

Here's a link for Anderson's dry fire book.

http://andersonshooting.com/

[npcolin]

why not? I'll even do holster and presentation drills as well. Maybe even room clearing tactics if I still have time for it.

[MartinR]

Choochboost,

I like the idea of practicing indoors with an airsoft, pellet, or BB pistol. As mentioned before, there may be some differences, but it can certainly help develop shooting skills.

Just be aware that some of these pistols should not be "dry-fired" to minimize the chance of damaging some of the internals.

[n3twrkm4n]

Some airsoft weapons are equipped with 'blowback' which simulate the real slide action of a authentic pistol. I recently did a lot of research wanting to get into airsoft since it is more realistic than paintball and provides a better user experience.

www.redwolfairsoft.com

is a great place to look up some 'guns', the site is somewhat difficult to navigate at first but once you get the hang of it, it's great.

Good luck