Favorite drills to reinforce safe handling?

[bradsteen]

Hey folks! What drills or techniques do you recommend to help reinforce safe gun handling with less experienced shooters? Some I've used include:

- Picking up the gun from a table and bringing it to a low-ready or Sul position. Drill is successful when the user ends with the weapon in a proper grip with the dominant hand (high on the beaver tail for pistol grips), weapon is pointed in a safe direction, and trigger finger is indexed.

- Malfunction clearing with a pistol. With an empty chamber and no magazine inserted, shooter assumes a firing stance, takes aim at a target, and presses the trigger. When the firing pin strikes the empty chamber, the shooter indexes, taps the bottom of the pistol grip where the magazine would normally be to simulate seating, racks the slide, reacquires target, and when ready squeezes the trigger again. Drill is successful when the shooter is able to manipulate the firearm while keeping the muzzle pointed in the direction of the target and properly indexed until actively firing.
Note: Can also be performed with a magazine w/ follower & spring removed, or with a magazine designed for dry fire.

Will post more, but starting with these.

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[aljames]

Keep your booger hook off the bang switch. Repeat.

 

[Nosferatu]

Keep your booger hook off the bang switch. Repeat.

I used to use blue guns for the intro classes. You don't get a real gun until you can show you can handle a fake one safely.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Not really a "drill"...more of an attention getter.

When starting out a new shooter :
After explaining how to safely work and handle the .22 rifle...
I shoot it first....usually at an apple.

Then I explain , again , while pointing at the apple remains , why it is important to :
Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot....
Always be aware of where your muzzle is pointing....
And that mistakes happen...mistakes with firearms however...can be life altering.

Andy

 

[WestcoastWes]

Jut my humble opinion. All guns are loaded. Everything begins with first keeping the finger away from the trigger and then learning how to see if the pistol, rifle, sledgehammer, slingshot, zip stick, CIA pen gun, etc etc, etc is LOADED or NOT. Step one, learn to pull the cylinder, learn to check the chamber, learn to eject the magazine. First drill then becomes, I pick up the weapon and see if it is loaded, then I close the action and hand it to the student. Then the student checks to see if it is loaded or not. Repetitive at first?? MAYBE, but not redundant. It teaches a person that the FIRST thing they do is see if it is loaded. At a gun show or range a guy might not check it first "knowing" it is unloaded, might just hand it over. This step one covers that base. The rules are generally written in blood gentlemen.