And That's Just The First Few Drills!

Will Dry Fire Hurt My Gun?

Dry fire is the manipulation of a firearm with no live ammo present. You can do it with your carry gun, a blue gun, an airsoft gun, or other inert training tools that we’ll cover.

You can do dry fire drawstrokes all day long and you don’t have to press the trigger a single time. 

You can practice transitions between targets, acquiring your sights, and other visual drills without ever having to press the trigger.

You can practice reloads and malfunction drills (tap, rack, assess) without ever having to press the trigger.

But let’s move on to what you were thinking of…dry fire drills where you press the trigger and the hammer or striker moves forward.

MANY modern defensive pistols specifically say in the manual that you can dry fire them without a snap cap. Others don’t say, but when you call the 1-800 number on the front cover, they’ll tell you whether it’s fine and whether or not it’s fine for high volume dry fire or just low volume dry fire.

Here’s a general rule. If you use a snap cap that has a surface for the firing pin to strike, you can dry fire ANY firearm regardless of whether it’s hammer fired, striker fired, center fire, or rimfire.

There are some rimfires that specifically say in the manual that you can dry fire them. That’s rare. But ALL can be dry fired with a snap cap inserted or spent brass. The snap caps won’t last real long, but you can do it. Generally, .22s aren’t the guns that you’d dry fire for self defense practice.

Almost all centerfire pistols that use a hammer need a snap cap to do high volume dry fire training. Some will say it’s OK, but that’s rare. Using a snap cap with a surface for the firing pin to hit will do less wear and tear on your pistol than doing live fire.

Most striker fired pistols will say in the manual that it’s OK to dry fire them without a snap cap. Even so, I recommend using a snap cap with a surface for the firing pin to hit.

Will the drills work for revolvers?

The terminology used in the Pop-Up Target Drills are directed towards semi-automatic firearms shooters because that is what most people carry for self-defense purposes. Again, since the program is fundamental and not dogmatic, they will work for revolvers as well as they work for semi-automatics.  As a note, I am very pro-revolver and frequently carry a J-Frame.

Are you going to try to change my technique?

No. The training will not replace current techniques that you have. They are not dogmatic and if you’d compare them to a country, they’d most resemble Switzerland–everyone gets along with Switzerland.

The purpose of PopUp Targets and the included drills isn’t to teach technique, it’s to help you take the best technique that you already know and help you do training in a way that is more fun and more effective.

I'm a complete Newbie / I'm a career snake eater...will PopUp Targets help me?

PopUp Targets will help any shooter who wants to improve their speed, accuracy, and precision. One problem with traditional dry fire training is that if you do the same dry fire training all the time, the mind learns to filter it out and the neural pathways don’t translate over to live fire.

The variety of exercises you’ll get and the multifaceted approach means that your mind will get enough variety to be stimulated and for growth to keep happening.

PopUp Targets are designed to work best after a shooter has received SOME instruction from a qualified instructor…preferably an NRA, law enforcement, or military instructor with proper emphasis on safety and correct form.

This means that if you’ve trained at high end national schools like Gunsite, Insight, Suarez, Sig, Blackwater/Xe/Academi, Costa Ludas, Thunder Ranch, MAG, DTI, Rangemaster, or any of the thousands of elite local trainers across the country, these cards will help drive home the lessons you paid to learn. Put another way, they’ll convert the techniques that you paid to learn and know in your head into skills that you can actually depend on under stress.

Is Dry Fire Safe?

In this day and age, nothing is safe. If you try to eat The PopUp Targets, you could choke, get indigestion, or some other crazy problem. You could get a paper cut from the wrapping. You could get carpel tunnel syndrome getting to an email with your training. If you roll a target up, you could probably shove it in your ear and do some pretty good damage. I’m not joking with these examples—simply highlighting how warped our society has become in regards to “safety” and blame. In short, they’re not safe and if that’s a concern, you probably shouldn’t buy them.

Using PopUp Targets are another matter. By definition, dry fire training is responsible training with a weapon platform without any ammunition present or training, an inert weapon platform, or with a simulated weapon platform. You can still get hurt if you fall on it, trip and fall while doing a drill, etc.

But, if you have a negligent discharge during your training, then you weren’t doing dry fire. Dry fire is responsible training with a weapon platform without any ammunition present, an inert weapon platform, or training with a simulated weapon platform. If a live round of ammunition gets introduced into the mix, it is not dry fire and it is not an accident—it’s negligence and it’s your responsibility to keep it from happening.

Along with PopUp Targets, I’ll share a handful of quick resources with you for safer dry fire training, but it’s important to remember that the purpose of a firearm is to project massive kinetic force and penetrate objects at a distance and anything you do with a firearm includes a significant amount of risk.