You can’t buy skill, but you can buy the gear necessary to build your skill. If you’re going to spend time training, you should be as effective as possible. To help with that effectiveness, we’ve put together four pieces of essential training gear outside of ammo.
Shot Timer – The Most Essential
If you only buy one piece of gear to practice and train with, then make it a shot timer. Shot timers are made by various companies, and I’ve had great luck with the Pocket Pro 2 and the Pact Club Timer. The most high-tech option will be the Shooters global shot timer, which interfaces with your phone and allows you to use video to record your shooting with time overlayed. The SG time even works for dry fire.
A shot timer is essential because it provides a second source of objective data. You win a match and a gunfight by being both accurate and fast. We can judge accuracy by looking at our targets; we judge speed via a shot timer. A shot timer and a target give you two forms of objective data.
Shot timers aren’t cheap, and the Shooter’s Global’s advanced version costs $300. A cheap shot timer is at least a hundred bucks, but it’s worth not buying that next gun to have one.
Electronic Ear Protection
There are lots and lots of reasons to invest in electronic hearing protection, such as better situational awareness or the ability to use Bluetooth to pump Wu-Tang while you shoot. It’s also critically useful for training purposes. If you are training and taking a class, you are paying someone to run their mouth and teach you what they know.
Electronic ear pro allows you to hear your instructor. Most instruction will be done off the range, but not all. You could be shooting a string, and the instructor could give you instructions on fixing your grip, stance, and more. I’ve been in more than one class where an instructor has corrected something while others are shooting.
This piece of essential training gear allowed me to hear the instructor’s feedback and make those corrections. Proper hearing protection for training means it’s electronic and can cut off loud sounds while allowing conversation-level discussions to occur.
Dummy Ammo or TRT Devices
Dry fire is one of the most important things you can do to improve your skills. Dry fire training is the cheapest way to get better at shooting guns. Almost anything short of recoil control can be trained via dry fire. To make it even more useful, you can mix dummy rounds and TRT devices or a mix of both.
Dummy ammo is essential for practicing realistic reloads and malfunction drills. It also allows shooters to practice the most basic firearms handling skills, like loading magazines. Dummy ammo is widely available for more calibers than I’ll ever own.
TRT devices press the followers down and prevent them from engaging the last round bolt hold open on rifles and pistols. They are available for various 9mm, .40 S&W, and larger magazines, as well as AR magazines. These are super cheap, easy-to-use devices that make reload training easy and quick.
B8 Targets
B8 targets are four things: cheap, compact, common, and useful. The cheap nature of the target makes them a great choice for stacking up on. Hell, you can print them. Compact makes them easy to store inside a range bag—just toss them in and forget about it. Common means you can find them anywhere, referencing the ability to print the target.
How useful can a simple Bull’s eye style target be? Impressively so. The B8 target replicates the heart and lungs as well as the head. These are the lethal zones you need to be able to hit. B8 targets are perfect for practicing all-important shot placement. They even make for great dry fire practice.
B8 targets are a must-have in every range bag. I keep a stash if I forget any other target I want to work with. There is no reason not to stack up on B8s for all your training adventures, as they are essential for the range.
What’s Essential
When it comes time to train, you must stick to what’s essential. The four pieces of gear we listed above are must-haves and make a massive difference when it’s time to train. Don’t get caught slipping.
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