Ken Blanchard talked about this on his Urban Shooter podcast awhile back; I live in a university town and the nearest gun range is 13 miles west of town, out in the country a ways. I could probably set up a makeshift “lane” in the upstairs of my cramped apartment, as long as I set up a backstop so as not to annoy my neighbors. I guess it mainly teaches trigger technique and sight picture, though obviously only real range time can help you factor in recoil recovery, etc.
I spent some quality time with my Glock 23 over the labor day weekend at the regular range. Good times. Also shot with my new Mini-14 for the first time–not bad, not bad at all…except for inadvertently showering the kids with .22s in the lane next to me with hot brass 😉 and putting up with the guy with a scoped .44 mag revolver on my other side.
I guess any extra practice you get…airsoft, or other air guns (BB, pellet, compressed air or CO2) still counts for something.
Couple of points, 1) airsoft is great practice. There are so many options currently available you can get a very realistic airsoft version of almost any mainstream defensive pistol. My wife and I both practice with airsoft by using a U-Haul wardrobe box with teh front folded down and a paper target taped to it. This allows shooting in the house througha paper target and the box collects the pellets. The higher end guns can be customized as well. I have put replacement triggers in both my wafes replica Caspian and my replica SVI to match our real steel. 2) Aisroft offers an opportunity for advanced force on force training in a more realistic environment. See article http://www.krtraining.com/KRTraining/Archive/SWAT-Karl1.pdf
Otherwise, remember these things can do damage if used improperly and are not a complete substitute for live fire but are a valuable training tool.
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:16 am
Ken Blanchard talked about this on his Urban Shooter podcast awhile back; I live in a university town and the nearest gun range is 13 miles west of town, out in the country a ways. I could probably set up a makeshift “lane” in the upstairs of my cramped apartment, as long as I set up a backstop so as not to annoy my neighbors. I guess it mainly teaches trigger technique and sight picture, though obviously only real range time can help you factor in recoil recovery, etc.
I spent some quality time with my Glock 23 over the labor day weekend at the regular range. Good times. Also shot with my new Mini-14 for the first time–not bad, not bad at all…except for inadvertently showering the kids with .22s in the lane next to me with hot brass 😉 and putting up with the guy with a scoped .44 mag revolver on my other side.
I guess any extra practice you get…airsoft, or other air guns (BB, pellet, compressed air or CO2) still counts for something.
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:26 am
Couple of points, 1) airsoft is great practice. There are so many options currently available you can get a very realistic airsoft version of almost any mainstream defensive pistol. My wife and I both practice with airsoft by using a U-Haul wardrobe box with teh front folded down and a paper target taped to it. This allows shooting in the house througha paper target and the box collects the pellets. The higher end guns can be customized as well. I have put replacement triggers in both my wafes replica Caspian and my replica SVI to match our real steel. 2) Aisroft offers an opportunity for advanced force on force training in a more realistic environment. See article http://www.krtraining.com/KRTraining/Archive/SWAT-Karl1.pdf
Otherwise, remember these things can do damage if used improperly and are not a complete substitute for live fire but are a valuable training tool.