Home made indoor range

[Red Leg]

Believe it or not one of the very best techniques is dry firing your actual weapon. Shooting off sticks takes practice and almost all of the muscle memory, breathing control, trigger release, and movement anticipation can be learned in your basement with your .375/.300/ or whatever. Army and particularly USMC marksmanship training entails hours of dry firing. I still do it. Particularly with a new rifle. It is important to follow through each shot and call it (where it would have hit). Do a few hundred serious shots like that over a couple of weeks and you will be totally comfortable with the sticks (and a better shot) before you hit the range.

One caveat - don't do it with a double. Nearly all break action rifles react badly to being dry fired. Not an issue with a bolt gun.

Also, triple check your rifle isn't loaded!

 

[BRICKBURN]

Believe it or not one of the very best techniques is dry firing your actual weapon. ................

One caveat - don't do it with a double. Nearly all break action rifles react badly to being dry fired. Not an issue with a bolt gun.
...........

Ok, I have always been under the impression that dry firing is not good for ANY firearm.
Educate me please!

 

[Red Leg]

Probably a point worth debating here. I have heard informed opinion on both sides of the issue. I have a Ferlach- trained gunmaker friend that has been building custom rifles for fifty years. He is certain and has convinced me no harm come will come to a centerfire bolt action rifle. Rimfires are theoretically a bad idea due to potential peening of the chamber - however, when I shot competitively, my Anschutz had tens of thousands of dry fire "rounds" with never a problem - same with the rest of our team. And in the Army, those AR's had bizillions through them - not a bolt gun obviously - but a potentially more finicky semi-auto. It is accepted that many break open rifles and guns have designs which can theoretically result in damage to the firing pin or face. A lot of people put fired shells in a weapon, but they do absolutely nothing - once the primer is dented the firing pin is firing into the air anyway. All of that said, I have had trained gunsmiths tell me that dry firing is equivalent to throwing a fine rifle into a trash compacter - or nearly that bad. It just doesn't bear up to any of my experience. Look forward to the dialogue!

 

[TokkieM]

@Red Leg I do agree with training with the weapon you will hunt with. I just dont believe in dry fireing. I use dummy rounds, they last around 700 full cycles in a bolt gun before the rim is worn down. I prefer a dummy round or 3 so I get to cycle the bolt and get some more practice on staying on target even if I reload and to get use to the bolt stopping just before it hits my face. I also advise everyone to finish a range session with a few shots using a dummy round.
I do believe dry fireing a rifle is detremental to the fireing pin. Most of them have been machined down and durring the machining process they get super heated, often seen on the pin as a blue/black colouring, this makes the pin brittle and it may last 1000 or 2000 dry fires, but not 10 000, that would be around 3 seasons worth of dry fireing for me.
Looking forward to someone who has more experiance in this replying.
Here with the ultimate dry fire training photo

 

[brushmore]

That's how I have been ending my air rifle practice, by dry firing from different positions what I am taking to Africa. I am using snap caps mostly to practice loading and the whole manual of arms. And believe me, I quadruple check that I am using just snap caps!

But speaking of dry firing, I have damaged an old Savage .22 pump by dry firing. I have an Anschutz in .22 that's older than me that has seen plenty of dry firing but never had an issue. Also, my Beretta FS-1 shotgun doesn't seem to like being dry fired because the firing pin sometimes gets stuck. So I really think it depends upon the gun if dry firing is bad but if in doubt I'll use a snap cap since I've been burned twice. Especially if I am doing lots of practicing.

 

[IronCowboy]

We have an indoor 100yrd rifle range about 2mi into town from our house, and a few indoor archery ranges, but my wife and I still do quite a bit of shooting in the basement. We have a 10yrd range set up for archery and BB guns, and I've refit the sights and scopes on a couple Crosman 760 BB guns to let us shoot similar platforms to our hunting rifles. Green Army Men are cheap at Walmart, and make for a fun reactive target. At our old house (~6yrs ago), I had an unfinished storage/utility room that was as long as the house, but only 8ft wide, I lined it with plastic and added a ventilation system, then used the Speer plastic bullets that are driven by primers only to let us practice with handguns in the basement as well.

My wife also appreciates having the range in the basement, simply because the more often we shoot, the cleaner the basement stays to keep the range clear! Win win!!!