Racking for each shot? Turn it into a training moment!

Dry firing is an essential part of becoming a skilled shooter but many people have a hard time making it a habit.  There are various reasons people come up with like not having the time, too much effort to get the gun out, it gets boring quickly, how can you tell if you’re getting better, or racking the slide that many times is tiring.  

Does your gun need to be racked?

Understanding how your gun works dry is based on the type of action it has and tells you if you need to do an action to reset the trigger or not.  Most commonly, people are dry firing with a gun that needs to be racked, whether that is the slide on a pistol or the charging handle on a rifle.  Doing this between each shot is very different from the range, but it does not have to be seen as a negative or a training scar.

People new to firearms who don’t understand how they work may mistakenly transfer manual racking over to live shooting, but typically, once the function is understood, shooters can separate dry and live and don’t add the action out of habit.  Do they need to “be the bullet” or not?If you are worried about racking becoming a habit there are different ways to mitigate that.  Let’s take a look at a few ways to solve that.

Do you dry fire with or without a magazine?

There are several ways to incorporate racking into your practice as a movement that you would use at some point on range rather than just habitually yanking on it to get to the next shot.  But first, there is a condition that needs to be thought about, mag or no mag.

If you choose to dry fire without a magazine, unless specifically practicing reloads, then you take the complication out of it.  At no point will you inadvertently lock the slide back.  No issue with it, just know your gun will be lighter, which is a big deal for some and not for others.

If you choose to dry fire with a magazine, then you will want to make sure you don’t lock the slide back unless you mean to.  Which is just how the gun works, it is supposed to automatically lock back on an empty mag.  However, there are ways around this.  The first being only pull back the slide far enough to reset, or use a training aid like the Tap Rack Training Aid (TRT).  

Using dummy rounds alone means ejecting one every time you rack.  Does it work?  Yes.  Is it annoying to stuff dummy mags repeatedly?  Also yes.  So if you need the weight of the dummy rounds put a TRT as the top round and rack as much as you like the slide locking back.

Turn racking your gun into a training moment.

Clear a malfunction

Tap, rack, bang/go/roll/ready, immediate action or whatever you choose to call it is the automatic response to a click instead of a bang on range.  This makes it an easy choice as a purposeful and practiced movement for resetting the trigger.  

You get practice at the sequence, create an automatic association, and can get pretty quick at it too.  These are basically free reps.  Just decide before you start your drill in the MantisX app what type of imaginary malfunction you are clearing to determine which of the two main methods you will use.  Then shoot, clear, and repeat.    

Press Check

A press check allows you to pull the slide back a little in order to see if a round is in the chamber without ejecting the round.  Many people have a hard time when they start this.  They either pull the slide too far back and the round ejects or they don’t have the strength to control the slide and need the vigor of a full rack.

This method will reset the trigger if pulled to the correct distance and helps you get to know your firearm better.  It is a common portion of the make ready routine and is a useful movement to be able to execute properly.

This is a great option to use with dummy rounds as you will have something in the chamber to actually see and feel.  This can be simulated on an empty gun or with a TRT mag, but know that the space itself is empty, which is not great or recommended, so if no dummy round is available look for spent casing to put in the chamber.  Yes, this will fit with a TRT mag and can just be ejected out if needed.

Practice a reload

This one takes some imagination as the slide will not be locked back but can still get your hands flowing with the motion.  Having a quick reaction time to grab your spare mag and being able to efficiently exchange them can reduce the empty gun time drastically.

In shooting sports, reloads are typically planned so the gun doesn’t run dry but it still happens, and most shooters at the range shoot to slide lock.  If it even happens in a self defense encounter, you will be happy that one, you have a spare mag, and two that you can do this quickly and efficiently.  A few additional reps when possible stack up, so why not use some dry fire time for those free reps.

If you aren’t aware, our TitanX laser pistol is the only system that can actually measure how long the gun had no magazine in it.  A typical shot time just measures from shot to shot, but with TitanX you can see that plus the amount of time a single round or an empty chamber occurred during the reload.  This gets stressed by instructors, but has never been measured.  Just so you know, with an efficient reload, the well can be empty for just fractions of a second.

Pistol conditions 3 and 4

When staging a pistol for use, there are different conditions of readiness it can be in.  Three means mag inserted but empty chamber, four means no mag, empty chamber and hammer/striker down and safety on.  Some people choose to store a firearm like this in their home or if you shoot competition it might be a ready condition of 3 or 4 for a table pick up.

Both conditions require you to rack the gun to get a round in the chamber, so if you stage your gun this way or do competitions where this may be a starting option it would be valuable to practice it.  These are stressful situations so having that automatic response to this stimuli is helpful, you don’t want to just pick up an empty gun and try to shoot it.

The ready routine or “load and make ready” command

All shooters should have some type of ready routine, whether that be for donning your concealed carry or at the range during the “load and make ready” command.  Everyone has their own, and it isn’t just about your movements it is also an opportunity to prepare your mind.  Dry fire is a great place to figure out what this ritual should be, what makes you comfortable and ready to shoot.

For concealed carry purposes, shooters often get dressed and set up their holster then using an unloaded gun will check for printing and do a few draws in that day's outfit.  Maybe you need to adjust holster placement, clothing, or your dot.  It makes sure you have verified your carry for that day and primed your body. 

As you can see, there are numerous ways the rack can be incorporated into something beneficial during dry fire.  It’s important to keep this intentional and use your critical thinking mind regardless of which option you choose.  Feel free to mix and match these in any given session.

Is there a way I can skip the racking altogether?

Of course you can, technology has given us some great ways to do this.  Mantis has two such products that make it a breeze to dry fire, getting more reps in less time, while still giving the coaching and feedback a MantisX unit does.

Our laser pistol TitanX has a resetting trigger that emits a laser on each trigger press and has removable magazines, and is optic ready.  A great choice for those who want to do strings of fire or have a convenient, inert training option at the ready.

BlackbeardX allows you to use your own rifle, just drop on our bolt carrier group and insert the magazine, now your rifle will reset and emit a laser.
Both these devices connect to our MantisX Pistol/Rifle app which gives trigger press coaching and feedback, as well as dynamic shooting feedback to help with economy of motion across multiple shots and targets.

No need to worry about training scars

If you were worried about creating training scars hopefully this helped, you can use your thinking mind to prevent them and get more practice out of each session.  Switch up how you incorporate the rack and become a well rounded shooter, getting bonus reps on skills we don’t think of in dry fire.

Or get rid of them altogether with innovative smart devices from Mantis.  TitanX and BlackbeardX pay for themselves in as little as a day in ammo savings.  They make dry fire more engaging, and more like the range.