Practice Makes Perfect
Anything worth doing in life is worth doing right. This is the general consensus among those that are somewhat perfectionists in nature but also subscribe to thinking about what they’re doing and taking thee steps needed to be successful in whatever task they’re involved in. Shooting is truly no different for the majority of people that I’ve encountered in my life time. I know people that shoot multiple times per week if they’re able to find the time and can afford to do so. On the opposite of the spectrum IU do meet people that might only shoot once per year and feel that’s plenty sufficient. Personally, I don’t care what your skillset is, but once per year is not nearly as proficient as one might think. They’re basically fooling themselves.
The majority of my ammo for live fire practice comes from the folks over at Brownells. It’s a couple of times per month that I place an order for some practice ammo. For 9MM I prefer CCI Brass and S&B. 115gr or 124gr it truly doesn’t matter to me so long as it’s quality and goes bang each and every time I pull the trigger. I’ve been regularly going through at least 1 case or so per month especially this past year with some new handguns I’ve been spending a lot of time with, not just for practice but also to help do a thorough review and evaluation of the firearm. As such I’ve been getting a lot more trigger time AND practice than I typically would and can definitely see the difference in my shooting overall as of late. For rifle ammo and more specifically 5.56 or .223 my go to has been one of the PMC varieties in recent years. Very high quality and the brass is good for reloading too. Brownells tends to have some in stock most of the time so long as there isn’t some sort of a panic ensuing. But I will say that I’ve been spending a ton more time pistol shooting rather than rifle shooting the past 6 months especially. It’s funny when I think about it since I’ve always considered myself more of a rifle shooter than a pistol shooter, but lately I’ve stepped up my game and feel much more confident as a pistol shooter. Interesting just how that’s been working out for me.
Now I saw all this not to discourage dry fire practice. Dry fire practice is definitely a tool to keep you proficient in sight alignment and trigger control. Mantis is a great company that offers a variety of dry fire and practice solutions that can help you get more time behind the trigger and also save a ton on ammo. But there’s still no replacement for live fire practice since you now have the elements and recoil aspect of shooting that you have to account for.
So what is the moral of this story exactly? Well the title states practice makes perfect and I’ve been able to experience this wholeheartedly. Make sure you find that time to practice and hone your skills whether it be with dry fire practice supplemented with live fire training or mostly live fire training which has been my preference lately.
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