​Dry Fire Practice – Shot Tracking

Those who shoot firearms get a thrill from the noise, the smoke and for some even the recoil. The pinnacle of the shooting experience is hitting the intended target. Most of us know the thrill of hitting and seeing a glass bottle give us the feedback of an accurate shot. As we grew, we may have started hunting. The thrill of the glass breaking was replaced by an accurate shot that minimized the suffering of the harvest. We may have taken up skeet or trap shooting where the reward was and exploded clay. Or, maybe we gained a love for the sound of projectile hitting the steel targets.

My posts are from the perspective of self-defense. Here the reward of a successful deployment of your firearm is your bodily fluids remain in your body, and you survive another day.  From this perspective the dry fire practice with a laser cartridge or pistol only rewards us with a microsecond duration red dot on the target. Then it is your memory that reinforces being accurate or not.

There are better solutions. I’m not saying your memory isn’t trustworthy, just that there are many solutions that will track that red dot for you.

The simplest and cheapest (as in free) are smartphone apps. They use your phone camera to track where the dot lands. Pew Pew Tactical did a review (https://www.pewpewtactical.com/best-laser-training-apps/) on several laser training apps.

I have several starting with iTarget.

iTarget (https://www.itargetpro.com/) from Train Smart Inc. not only tracks your shots it tracks your progress. The basic version tracks and reports shots on a target.  After each round the target is saved for review. There are two more modules that can be purchased and several other training tools on their web site.
laserHIT (https://www.laserhit.com/) , like iTarget tracks your shots and saves the results for analysis. It has several modes with the ability to train from 10 to 100 yards and out to 1600 yards using a scaled target. Two modes are in the free version, Free Target Practice and Black Steel Practice. Other tools such as Top Score and Quick hit require a purchase.

Strikeman (https://www.strikeman.io/) is an app that is part a training system. While the app is free to download it is part of the Strikeman system and looks for their target for calibration. However, any target can be used. This is a comprehensive tool that allows for many training scenarios and competition.

In addition to those, mostly free, apps I use Lasr X (https://www.lasrapp.com/) which is a comprehensive training system. It uses a camera on your phone, tablet or laptop to view the target area. The system can run various drills to include competition with others. They have targets (additional purchase) that can give you the opportunity to do drills in your home that simulate action shooting with multiple targets at multiple distances. It also does analysis to help the shooter recognize muzzle movement during firing.
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Any of these tools can give you feedback on how well you are employing your training and where you need improvement. Dry fire does not replace live fire training. However, it can help us ‘sharpen the saw’ without breaking the bank in ammunition and range costs.