Is there a handgun or rifle target practice set-up for the home?
I want to learn target practice inside my house. The goal is to eventually use these skills in The Great Outdoors. I'm looking for:
a non-real (e.g. BB type) handgun or rifle that has realistic recoil (as close to realistic as possible, i.e.)
a laser target practice thing that I can attach to the said gun above (something like this)
a target suitable for the laser target practice thing in the previous bullet point.
not necessary but nice to have: if the handgun/gun is loud but has a silent mode (or a silencer attachment).
Something that combines this with this (recoil/blowback) and a silencer would be perfect.
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There are a number of aspects you need to train for shooting a gun. The specific scenario you are training for will change your choice of gear and approach. I have trained a number of people for defensive style shooting, such as that found in IDPA or IPSC competitions, or for concealed carry purposes. For indoor training, I use SIRT pistols from Next Level Training. With the SIRT pistol, you can practice almost all aspects of pistol craft except recoil management.
All of the recoil simulators I have seen have not done an adequate job of simulating any real recoil, so I have stopped considering recoil as something I need to train with. I use the SIRTs and various targets to train things like:
- Trigger mechanics (finger placement, follow through, finding reset)
- Proper eye focus on the front sight
- Target identification
- Shot placement
- Safe and effective draw mechanics
- Reloading
- Basic malfunction drills (Needs to be combined with time on a real gun)
- Safe movement with a pistol
There is a lot more you can do with it. If you combine with the LASR software, you can have your shots scored with a web cam pointed at a target and get very good feedback as well as a lot of fun.
You can do rifle with the AR-15 SIRT bolt option.
The advantages of the SIRT option over the LaserLyte or similar options that convert your real gun into a laser simulator is safety and convenience. The SIRT gun cannot fire a real bullet. The magazines are weighted to feel like loaded magazines but there is no need for real bullets anywhere in your training area. The RT part of SIRT stand for "Resetting Trigger" which means that the trigger resets much like a standard pistol, and continued presses of the trigger will result in more laser strikes, whereas the LaserLyte solution requires manually operating the slide to reset the striker before a second shot.
I have put together Powerpoints of targets I want to practice shooting, and using that as my training. I have a big deck of deer and elk that helps me identify and shoot the vitals quickly, or pass on shots that are not ethical to take. Even though I am a bow hunter, this has helped my hunting decision making immensely. I also have a Powerpoint deck of hostile and friendly human targets to practice similar skills.
If the SIRT option isn't going to work for you, then you are best off getting an Airsoft gun that is a replica of your real gun, and practicing in an area that the plastic pellets won't harm anything.
If you have great eye alignment and focus, and competent gun manipulations like drawing, reholstering, reloading, etc., then at the range you can work on recoil management and be much more focused. I go out and shoot a box of live rounds every once in a while, but I have found that most of my skill increases come in my house with laser trainer.
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My point of view will come from training for competition (eg, Olympics) since that is what I did. You won't find any non-cartridge BB/pellet gun that will simulate real recoil so I wouldn't bother. The closest would be the spring piston ones that were in use before CO2 and compressed air took over such as the Feinwerkbau 300 or RWS 75. I'm sure there were cheaper variants.
Second, I would focus on finding an area that you can shoot in your home rather than wasting your time and money on a laser system. I shot in my basement. I know many others that would shoot through living room, hallways, etc. All you need is 36' (though you could get by with as little as 20' if you scale down the targets). You can either make or buy a trap to catch the BBs/pellets.
You'll have much more fun shooting for real rather than watching a line squiggle around on a screen. Laser systems are great for certain things, but not something I'd invest in as a beginner though I can't speak to how useful the cheap ones would be. My quick glance at LaserLyte's site would seem they are made for real firearms (not BB/pellet) and they only show shot placement rather than the full trace of your movement so not much value.
If you're really set on not even shooting BBs/pellets, I'd be more inclined to find some lightweight laser to attach to whatever you get and then just video the trace at the target (note that it won't be aligned with the target you're aiming at, of course, but it's the movement and consistency that matters.)
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I recently ran into a mention of the Coolfire system: https://coolfiretrainer.com/
My understanding of it is that it attaches to a real gun and simulates recoil. I have no experience with it.
There are also cameras that attach to a gun and record what happens when you pull the trigger.
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Shooting is one of those things where there's a few basic skills that, if you don't have them, you will get very little value out of training more advanced aspects and it will be very difficult to ever get good.
One such basic skill is having a consistently smooth trigger pull. The goal is to pull the trigger in such a way that the barrel does not move at all as you do it. A lot of novices inadvertently push the barrel down as they pull, which destroys their accuracy to the point where training any other aspect of technique is pointless. I think a lot of amateurs ignore this, and still waste a lot of time and money training for more advanced things, when they haven't acquired this basic skill, and they never get anywhere. Well, to be fair, shooting real ammo is pretty fun.
When you shoot with recoil it is of course harder to keep the barrel steady. But actually, if you can pull the trigger well with no recoil (empty chamber) it's not that hard to adapt to recoil, at least with well-designed modern guns. Learning to pull the trigger properly is really the big hurdle. This is overcome with dry fire. In short, you aim the gun and pull the trigger with an empty chamber (or an inert, dummy round). This can take a lot of practice before you "max out" on it, so if you're looking for something to do at home, doing a lot of dry fire is probably the best use of your time. Admittedly, it's more boring than some alternatives, but it will provide the most value in terms of improving your skills.
You can add variations as you progress:
- Draw from the holster every time and dry fire as quickly as possible, to get used to the motion
- Try to dry fire rapidly
- If you have a DA/SA gun, fire it double action (don't cock the trigger) - this is harder because the trigger is heavier
- Practice aiming at various targets as you dry fire, to train your ability to acquire a sight picture quickly
- Practice quickly cycling dummy rounds and changing magazines as you dry fire
These are critical foundational skills for being a good shooter in various contexts (straight target shooting, practical shooting competitions, self-defense). It's a bit of grind, but you will eventually see a lot of improvement if you persevere.
It wouldn't hurt to occasionally visit a range and shoot real ammo, just to get used to the distraction of recoil and noise. But, for example if you go once a month and shoot 100 rounds, but dry fire the whole time in between those, you should see very obvious improvement in your shooting ability.
It goes without saying that you should pay careful attention to safety practices when you dry fire regularly. Since you would do it very often, there are many opportunities for accidental discharge. There are many excellent strategies, like keeping ammo out of the "dry fire room", elsewhere and I will not reproduce them, I'll instead leave it to the reader to be a responsible gun owner and research those on their own.
I would also recommend against firing any kind of real ammo inside a house:
- There are often laws against it, and you might get fined or have other legal issues
- People might hear it and assume a gunfight is happening, police can be jumpy (for obvious reasons) when responding to those types of calls
- Bullets fragment on impact and release lead particles, over time and many practice rounds this adds up and you end up with a potential lead poisoning problem. Real indoor ranges have to do a lot of extra work to deal with the hazmat disposal.
- Even blanks would release trace chemicals that are not super healthy to accumulate in your house.
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