Incorporating Accessories in Dry Fire for Home Defense Training

I think everyone can agree that dry fire is important to building your shooting skills, but have you ever put thought into incorporating home defense accessories into your dry fire routine to round out your skills?  In this article, we’re going to discuss a couple of home defense accessories that you may have in place as a part of your toolkit and how to incorporate them into your dry fire practice.

Safes/Retention Devices

One of the most commonly used accessories within the home is a safe or a retention device.  This goes along with one of the key safety rules of ensuring firearms are not accessible to unauthorized people.  If you do not store your gun in a safe or retention device to secure from those who are not allowed to use it, we would highly recommend that you do so to prevent unauthorized use!  

Why don’t we just call all containers that hold firearms a safe?  Some containers are not meant for long-term storage of a firearm and are more secure than others.  A safe is generally made of metal and is intended for firearm storage, preventing unauthorized access through more secure measures like locking systems that require a key, combination, or biometric access.  A retention device is more temporary storage, most of the time made from plastic and requires more attention to who might have direct access to the device as it is not as secure as a safe would be due to the material it’s made out of and a less secure locking system.  A retention device conceals a firearm and gives more security than just a standard holster would.

Most people invest in some kind of safe or retention device to secure their firearm at home.  These security devices are commonly accessed by a physical key, entering a combination code, or via a biometric reader, which requires you to scan your fingerprint to open.  Many safes have a backup access method via a key, even if it’s not the primary method of opening the device.  If the device utilizes biometric technology or a digital combination, then you need to ensure that you set calendar reminders to periodically check the batteries or charge the device to make sure it will work when you need it most.

One unique retention device that you may have seen advertised is the StopBox, which is a non-electronic storage device that is designed to conceal and prevent unintended access to your firearm.  StopBox eliminates the electronics by using pressure and mechanical switches as the locking mechanism.  Not only do they make retention devices for pistols, but they also offer non-electronic chamber locks for AR-15s and Shotguns, which are also very commonly used home defense firearms.

It’s important that you practice the steps it takes to open the device you use regularly as your safe or retention device at home and how quickly you can access the firearm or other tools inside, especially in the dark!  Have you ever practiced the steps and know how long it would take for you to access your firearm from its secure location under stress?  This is a process where you could use your MantisX to time retrieving a firearm from its secure location, but also show how well your trigger press is under stress.

Safe/Retention Device Practice 

First, as with any dry fire practice with a firearm, ensure that any firearm used is verified unloaded and all ammunition is removed from the area in which you are practicing.  This is also a great exercise to include another household member who can validate the firearms are unloaded, but they could also contribute by observing actions or filming the dry fire practice to provide feedback. 

You also want to ensure that other members of the household are aware of the practice and are excluded from all areas or targets that the firearm will be presented to during the dry fire practice scenario.  Consider hanging up a few threat targets, which could be as simple as a regular piece of paper, or there are many websites that offer free printable targets.  You could even use our free, downloadable Laser Academy Smart Targets.  You could also create “no-shoot” targets by putting a red X on them.  If you have another member participating in the training, have them hang the targets so that you do not know where they are to make your training more realistic and induce more stress.

Stage your home defense firearm in its safe or retention device with a MantisX sensor attached and paired with your phone or tablet.  It’s important to note that your phone or tablet must remain within bluetooth distance of the sensor, or connection may be lost during the drill.  Compressed Surprise Break is great for a scenario where you want to know how long (from beep to shot) something will take you, and it will also measure the score of the shot.  In the Drill Settings, make sure you set the number of Repeats to the number of times you want to run and reset the scenario, as once you press a shot off, that repetition ends.  You might also move up the Buzzer Delay time to ensure you have enough seconds to reset your firearm in your safe/retention device and get back into position to await the next beep.

Consider how long you ideally think it will take you to access your firearm and engage a target at the bedroom door from sleeping in bed?  Set that goal as a Par Time within the Drill Settings and see if you can achieve it and get a shot score of > 85.  Set the Buzzer Delay to give yourself enough time in between repetitions to stage the firearm back in the safe or retention device and get back into your start position.  

Were you able to meet your par time or get a shot score above 85?  If not, how much additional time would it take to settle your firearm more to get at least a score of 85?  Did accessing your safe or retention device take longer than you expected?  What can you do to optimize retrieving the firearm?  It’s important to know what steps and how long it takes to access your firearm quickly, as you may have to do this under stress at night.

Flashlights

What other items might you have stored in a secure location or handy for a home defense scenario?  It could be as simple as a flashlight.  A flashlight can be an important tool, especially at night outdoors, but they can also be helpful tools indoors when you cannot reach, or choose not to turn lights on when things go bump in the night.  If your flashlight is not mounted directly to your firearm, where is it located, and the million dollar question may be...will it turn on?  

Just as we need to remember to change batteries in our smoke detectors and charge our cell phone daily, we need to ensure our flashlights are always ready to go.  Just as you consider access methods into safes or retention devices, you might consider whether you want a flashlight that uses a battery or one that is rechargeable.  Either way, a calendar reminder will be imperative to help you remember to test/change the batteries or charge the flashlight so that it is always ready when you need it.

Another factor to look at for speed is how to operate your flashlight.  It’s not as simple as it sounds.  Some flashlights have the standard side switch for on and off, as well as different brightness settings.  More tactical flashlights may only have a tail switch and the switch may have different press combinations for on, off, and brightness, or it may have a momentary switch which allows light pressure to activate the light while engaged.  Some flashlights have both the side and tail switches for ease of use.

Although this article isn’t specifically talking about weapon-mounted lights, the same concepts come into play.  How does the light turn on and off, and does it need batteries or recharging?  Have you practiced quickly engaging it in a dry fire scenario?

If you plan on using a flashlight, do you know how to use a flashlight while moving with or shooting a pistol?  There are typically four techniques for using a non-weapon mounted flashlight with a pistol.   How does holding a flashlight change how well you shoot and is one method better for you over another?

Flashlight Practice

With the safety measure followed from above, run a Primary Hand Only drill in the MantisX app while employing each of the commonly taught methods of using a flashlight, noting each method in the Notes section on each session.  

This may require you to have to set down the flashlight to cycle the slide of your firearm for dry fire if you do not have a double-action trigger, a laser pistol, or a mechanism that resets your trigger.  Running this drill for this scenario is not about time, but about how well you can control your firearm during the trigger press while using a flashlight at the same time.

After running the Primary Hand Only drill for 10 shots with each flashlight technique, analyzing the overall score of each session, but also using the Movement Screen to look at trends through the session.  Was there a trend downward on score more quickly with one method over another?  Was that because one method was more comfortable or easier on your arms/hands versus another method?  Is the flashlight you used too large or small for your hands?  How well were you able to reach and use the switch?

Once you have narrowed down your one or two preferred methods, go to the range and test them in live fire, even if it’s not in a low-light condition.  You might also consider finding a local instructor that might host a low-light class that would give you the opportunity to experiment with all four techniques in live fire.  You might find that actually doing low light live fire work will help drive your technique.

Once you have identified your preferred technique, you should also dry fire practice in your home under different lighting conditions.  This way you will know how you will use the different settings of your flashlight and how much brightness the situation will warrant.  It will also tell you if your flashlight is bright enough to illuminate any threat at a distance or illuminate a room for loved ones.  

Conclusion

There are many other devices that you may have for home defense that are not covered here, but you need to ensure you are practicing with those tools as well.  They may be a rifle or a shotgun, which the MantisX is a great tool to time and assess shooting skills with.  Pepper spray is becoming more common in home defense models, but even consider practicing with inert units to know how to deploy and aim the spray.  Some people might even have a baseball bat or knife.  No matter the tool, practice will ensure that if you need to use them when half awake in the middle of the night, that you have the skills to use them appropriately.