A lot of people use dummy rounds in their dry fire training, but many don’t know that they can also use dummy rounds at the range.
In this article we’re going to take a look at some of the ways people can use them to train, with the end goal of elevating our gun skills.
What are dummy rounds?
Dummy rounds are inert, practice ammunition that cannot be fired. They are usually made from a one piece machined aluminum, plastic, brass, or utilize fired brass cases that have been de-primed with a fake projectile loaded.
Let’s discuss some of the ways these practice rounds of ammo can be used to elevate your skills as a defender.
Dry Fire With Dummy Rounds:
The first and most obvious way to train with dummy rounds is to do dry fire training. In fact, I always recommend for people who are afraid of damaging their gun during dry fire to use dummy rounds.
That way the striker hits something that is softer than it is, and it makes people feel better about not damaging their guns.
Dry firing won’t hurt most modern guns with the exception of rimfire. But I do get the point, which is why these are recommended for dry fire.
Practice Gun Handling Skills:
Sometimes for people new to shooting, practicing with inert rounds is a good idea. This goes outside of what I spoke about above with dry fire training. Sometimes learning how to load a magazine or do other gun handling skills is a necessity.
Or, heck, even just learning more about ammunition until a person is more comfortable. In other words, used as a training aid for newer shooters, from the instructor.
Live Fire Training:
This is where things start to get interesting and where utilizing dummy rounds really starts to make sense.
There are various types of training that you can do to elevate your skills as a defender. One of those things is something that people don’t do as often as they should, which is clearing your pistol when it jams.
Also known as: practicing how to properly clear a malfunction.
It’s very easy to do. All you need is to have someone else load a couple of dummy rounds into your full live fire magazine at various points to simulate a malfunction while you’re shooting.
You’ll need to clear this malfunction doing a tap/rack procedure, reassess your target, and then start shooting again.
This is a necessary skill for anyone who is serious about self-defense so you know how to do it in a real world scenario.
Conclusion:
The name of the game with dummy rounds is to get creative with your training. How do you utilize this tool in your practice? Let me know in the comments below.
