Dry firing at a blank wall

I do this most everyday, anywhere between 5-40 minutes.  The goal is to develop trigger skills, pull the trigger straight back, have the hammer drop without disturbing the sight picture.   I also practice holding drills with a goal of minimizing my wobble.   Why use a blank wall?  Its impossible not to wobble and when looking at the dot I can see my wobble.  My mental focus is slower, smaller, slower, smaller. Most of time I’m not even aware that I’ve begun to engage the trigger.  With a blank wall it’s hard to be confident in the size of my wobble.  Is it 5 ring or 9 ring?  What’s wrong with taping a .75 inch circular Avery label to the wall and using that as an aiming point?

The idea of the blank wall drill is to take the focus off of the target. No target means "no target fixation." This should allow for better trigger control. We see the same thing sometimes shooting blank target and getting tighter groups than seen with a bullseye. 

No one will make you do anything in this sport. But some people much smarter than me have convinced me that blank wall drills bring results. You can also conduct vertical or horizontal holding drills, or practice the holding drills as described by Keith Sanderson. 

But the blank wall drill is an excellent method of practicing trigger control.

I do both. The blank wall is great for iron sights. You really need to focus on sight alignment and maintaining that alignment as you pull the trigger. With a dot, I don't spend a lot of time on the blank wall. A black paster works, but it doesn't give you anything to focus on if you normally focus on the target. I printed some reduced targets, about 2.5" high for dry fire with a dot.

I spend 80 percent of my time dry firing dot on blank white wall. It allows me to regine/perfect gripping and trigger pull. I find it to be the most valuable time spent when dry firing. The other 20 percent I will use a target of some sort to verify what I've mastered on the white wall.
Jon

For iron sights it helps to train you to keep your focused attention on the front sight only.  This way when you aim at a target you will keep your focus on the front sight and not the target.

You know.... this is one more of those things that as a newbie it just doesn't make sense... but then after you do it for a bit it just clicks, and you get that "Ahhh Haaa".....  Ive learned that its best to listen to the advice given, and even if it makes no sense to you just try it for a bit.... 9 times out of 10 it will click.

s1120 wrote:You know.... this is one more of those things that as a newbie it just doesn't make sense... but then after you do it for a bit it just clicks, and you get that "Ahhh Haaa".....  Ive learned that its best to listen to the advice given, and even if it makes no sense to you just try it for a bit.... 9 times out of 10 it will click.

A common statement you will see/hear is to, "align the sights and cause the hammer to fall without disturbing that alignment."

In my travels along my personal path, the above has led me to several, "Oh!  That's what that means!"

And each understanding was different from the previous.

I can strongly recommend the blank wall for iron sights.

Ages ago, it was even combined with the nickel on the front sight thing--supposed to not have the thing fall when the hammer/striker drops. 

Hardly ever did the nickel thing (impatient with putting it back on after cocking the action...), but blank wall steadied my sight alignment a huge amount, and once the sight alignment was boringly consistent on the blank wall, adding an aiming dot then reduced my wobble area.

Success can be partially measured if it becomes EASY to call your shots by scoring ring and position on the paper during live fire. I ya want to really put your head into the game, "call" your dry-fire shots and compare those imaginary scores with what you shoot the next time with live fire. I used to also write down my score call during live fire.

Recently took up blank wall dry fire with a dot, and it does seem to be helping with the nasty, twitchy wobble I see...