DryFire: an overview
Practice improves skills - but practice costs money (clays, cartridges, travel, time).
DryFire provides intensive practice, in your own home, in the warm and dry, at any time, using your own gun.
DryFire provide feedback that is impossible to get outdoors - to the nearest fraction of an inch.
The very short video below shows the DryFire simulator in operation displaying Skeet station 4 doubles. If you look carefully you can see that one hole in each moving head is showing the target as a red laser spot. The other hole in each head holds a camera which detects your shots.
Accurate feedback and cost effective
The spreadsheet below takes into account the cost of cartridges, clays and travel and assumes you shoot two rounds during a visit to the shooting ground and that you could shoot 100 targets every evening with DryFire.
Dryfire pays for itself in under two weeks in terms of the number of practice targets you could shoot.
DryFire also shows you exactly where your shot string went after every shot - hard to do outdoors!
DryFire:
- provides instant and accurate feedback.
Error: how far the centre of the shot pattern was from the centre of the clay at its closest point.
Left/Right: how far the centre of the shot pattern was left or right of the clay.
High/Low: how far the centre of the shot pattern was above or below the clay.
Range: distance of the clay from the shooter when the shot pattern reached its closest point.
Time: time from clay release until the shot pattern reached its closest point.
- is very cost effective.
Outdoor shooting is becoming increasingly expensive with rising costs for travel, clays and cartridges.
Becoming a good shooter, let alone a competitive shooter, takes time, a good instructor and lots of practice. DryFire cuts the cost of practice by providing feedback from hundreds of targets every week.
DryFire prices start at under half the price of a new Beretta O/U in the UK and in the USA. DryFire is a lot less than an entry level Perazzi or Krieghoff and is on a par with the cost of a decent Turkish over and under.
Click here to download (and edit) the spreadsheet which shows that DryFire can pay for itself in days.
"Over the last few years I reckon I've taken over 100 DryFire targets for every outdoor target - I've saved money and my scores have gone up!"
- requires exactly the same skill and movement you use outdoors - the same target acquisition, mount, swing, lead, trigger press and follow through.
- displays all types of targets: starting anywhere, going anywhere, at any speed/angle and with any type of clay (standard, midi, mini, battue, rabbit ...).
- follows the rules for disciplines defined by the ISSF, CPSA, ATA, NSSA, NSCA, FITASC and other shooting organisations.
- provides practice for disciplines that are too expensive for most shooting grounds to operate - like Olympic Trap and Universal Trench.
- supports all types of sporting targets - and allows you to define your own sporting layouts!
- operates in the comfort of your own home - all year round, in the warm and dry!
- uses your own gun - the same one you will use when you transfer your skills outdoors to break even more clays.
- is "wire free" - no cables between your gun and the system - allowing you full gun movement with no risk of tripping over wires.
- is convenient - you can shoot at any time: before breakfast, at the office, after work, evenings, weekends - any time you fancy a spot of intensive practice with no need for increasingly expensive travel.
- is perfect for the instruction/practice cycle. After a coaching session you can spend a week of evenings consolidating what you have learned.
- is ideal for shooting grounds and coaches. It can provide safety, gun handling and instruction indoors before moving outdoors - maximising the chances of visitors/pupils breaking clays and becoming life-long shooters! It also provides shooting sessions when the weather outside is foul!
- is great for overcoming plateaus of achievement - where you get so far and can't get any further. DryFire allows intensive practice on the specific targets that are causing you problems.
- provides a quick and easy way to overcome eye dominance by switching shoulders. One week's intensive practice with DryFire will have you shooting accurately from the other shoulder - a process that can take months if done outdoors.
- is flexible. The laser version works anywhere with a blank wall about 10' (3m) wide or more. The projection version adds photo-realistic backgrounds and clays using a PC projector and screen.
- is fun! Get your friends round for a competition. Practise trick shots - like shooting from the hip.
DryFire versions
DryFire comes in two versions - both support singles, on report doubles and simultaneous doubles:
- The laser version.
This is the original DryFire system with targets appearing as moving laser spots on the wall in front of you - the spot doesn't change shape or size with distance but represents the leading edge of the clay.
DryFire laser takes up very little space in kitchen, dining room, study, utility room, sitting room, spare bedroom, attic, garage or den.
It will operate against any plain or wallpapered wall that is 3m (10') or more wide. To shoot you will need to stand back about 2.5m (8') from the wall and the simulator should be on a horizontal surface or tripod about 1.5m (5') from the wall. If you don't have a suitable horizontal surface we provide plans for a very easy to make DIY DryFire Shooting Stand.
- The projection version.
This is a fantastic optional upgrade, if you have the space, because you see everything in front of you against a photo-realistic background.
Clay images travel along the same angular trajectory, and at the same angular speed, as real clays outdoors and they change shape and size depending on their angle and distance. Targets fit within the boundaries of the projection screen or wall.
The projection version requires a PC data projector (not supplied by Wordcraft.)
Aislin Jones - world champion and DryFire user
In 2016 Aislin Jones became the youngest woman to win the Australian National Championship, she was the Oceania Region Junior Women's Skeet Record holder and in 2018 she became the Junior World Skeet Champion.
You don't get to be a champion without good instructors and lots of dedicated practice - the sort of thing DryFire is designed for. Aislin used the laser version of DryFire to practice in her parents' home.
An example of feedback provided by DryFire
The example below shows two shots taken at the same target.
- The first shot was high and to the left - as shown in the left hand result box. Note the green line at the bottom of the box - this matches the border of the circular image of the shot pattern shown in relation to the clay's trajectory which is displayed as a dashed yellow line.
- The second shot, with the blue border, was very low and to the left - it was also taken very late with the clay over 52m from the trap.
DryFire in action - a round of trap
The video below is from the DryFire USA web site and shows Tom Ridge, our US distributor, shooting a round of American Trap followed by a few skeet targets. Tom is using Version 4 of the DryFire software - the current release shipped by Wordcraft is Version 5.
If you look carefully during the video you can just make out that Tom has mounted his DryFire unit upside-down on the ceiling (the DryFire software allows for this) and he has placed his laptop to his right to show the results of each shot.
Tom is changing his position between stands but this is not normally necessary because DryFire always brings the targets to you so you see them exactly as you do at the shooting ground.
Note how the DryFire software provides audible messages about stand changes.
Tom is using a painted canvas background and a polystyrene trap house to make the experience a little more real - these items are available from the DryFire USA web site. DryFire supports an optional "projection mode" which works with a PC data projector to display backgrounds as well as a variety of targets including clays and game.
Tom has the advantage of a very wide wall (he built a room just for DryFire!) but DryFire works with any wall from 3m to 5m in width.
Benefits of DryFire
- Intensive shooting practice.
- Practise indoors, anytime, in the warm and dry.
- Covers all key aspects of clay shooting:
- setup,
- hold point,
- call "Pull",
- target acquisition,
- gun mount,
- gun movement,
- lead,
- shoot,
- follow through,
- relax.
- Builds muscle memory ready for shooting outdoors.
- Improves concentration - if you don't concentrate with DryFire you will miss - just as you would miss outdoors.
- Presents the full range of clay targets: trap, skeet, sporting, FITASC.
- Targets travel through the same angular trajectories, at the same angular speed, as real clays.
- Detailed hit/miss information showing exactly where the shot pattern went in relation to the clay.
- Huge saving in travel, clay and shotgun costs - shoot 100/200 targets every evening!
Key features of DryFire
- USB connection to a Windows 10 or Apple Mac PC.
- Software available from the support page.
- A wide range of optional-add ons.
- Displays single, simultaneous doubles and on-report doubles.
- Covers all disciplines: trap, skeet, sporting and FITASC - including American and Olympic versions.
- Allows for wind direction and speed.
- Supports all types of chokes.
- Supports all types of cartridges.
- Laser version can be used against any plain wall - 4m to 5m wide.
- Projection version can be used with a PC data projector against a wall or screen.
- Projection version projects real-world backgrounds and computer generated targets.
- Universal Gun Assembly is battery operated - recharges from a USB connection to a PC or charger.
- Built-in microphone for you to call "Pull".
- Detects when you shoot and provides detailed feedback on where your shot went.
- Rubber feet to protect surfaces it is placed on.
- Tripod bush for mounting on a photographic tripod.
Sample setup screens for Version 5
Initial setup:
Basic gun setup:
Chokes setup:
Cartridges setup:
Point Of Impact setup:
Flinch
Flinch is the anticipation of recoil which causes the shooter to tense shoulder muscles, push slightly forward and possibly close both eyes at the same time as pressing the trigger. Flinch is a bad thing and can result in the shot string going lower than anticipated. Losing control of gun movement for a fraction of second is not a good idea!
The bad news is that, in our experience, almost everyone suffers from flinch to one degree or another.
How do wo know? Simple. We watch people shooting with DryFire for the first time.
In almost every case we see the movements associated with flinch. In some extreme cases we have seen people forced to step forward after shooting because the anticipated recoil didn't happen and they overbalance.
Apart for clearly demonstrating that DryFire is so realistic that shooters believe they are taking real shots, it also demonstrates that flinch is more widespread than most people believe.
In itself DryFire won't cure flinch - but it can help. It diagnoses the problem and allows you to take hundreds of shots without recoil until flinch goes away completely while shooting indoors. The first time you go outdoors your flinch will certainly be less than before and you know you have to keep working on it.