Laser or no laser?

kbrock69 said:

My fiancee' wanted me to learn while using a lazer, I told him no way. I want to learn under the worst, hardest, most extreme circumstances, because if I ever need to use my gun, I want to be able to use it under any circumstances. Just like using a telescope on our rifle, nope, told him "I'll keep missing until I can hit it"...and now I can Besides, I like the challenge, I like to see how good I can get on my own, old school. I was scared to death of guns until a few years back. Now. I don't know what I was thinking.

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MamaLiberty said:

So glad you have joined the people of the gun! I do hope you will reconsider at least some training aids, however. Learning how to function under stressful and less than ideal circumstances is truly important, but a lot depends on what you are shooting at... and why. If you need to hit something several hundred yards away, a scope is almost priceless. But if you never used a scope, never practiced with it, you would not be able to make that shot effectively.

Most of us don't get as much range time as we'd like, and dry fire is an essential part of handgun practice anyway, so I've found the laser to be a great way to verify my aim in practice. I don't use it all the time, and I don't use it for live fire, so I don't build bad habits with it or count on it for my aim.

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kbrock69 said:

as you know, it's very expensive for both range time and ammo.

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MamaLiberty said:

Range time doesn't have to be expensive.There is no rational reason to fire that much ammunition, unless you just want to.

I do dry fire at least twice a week. I keep a journal of what I am working on and dry fire results. When I go to the range (at least weekly), I usually fire only a dozen or so rounds, very deliberately and ONLY to verify my dry fire practice. If I discover that I'm not getting the effectiveness I expected after a few rounds, I quit shooting and work on something else or do more dry fire.

Learning a skill involves repetitions of perfect or near perfect technique. If you fire off a box full of ammo without good technique... or without knowing one from another... what's the point? If you practice bad habits with those hundreds of rounds fired, it's even worse. A net loss.

Spend quality time in dry fire and other drills. Spend as few rounds as necessary to verify the effectiveness of that practice. If you just want to plink... buy an air rifle/gun and shoot pellets. Lots of fun. Good practice too, if you concentrate on your technique.

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