Target Sports

PRODUCT TEST: PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Created on 14th May 2009

It's claimed that the Dryfire training aid will improve your shooting. RICHARD ATKINS visits dealer Just Cartridges to put the system to the test

THIS WAS not my first experience of the Dryfire concept, as I'd seen it demonstrated some years previously. It looked to have potential then, but after that initial launch little was heard of it.

Now Charles Bull, MD of Just Cartridges, has taken on a dealership for the clever device developed originally by software designer Mike Lake - and his marketing enthusiasm and expertise could well help more shooters to discover what the system has to offer.

So what is Dryfire?

Dryfire is basically some rather complex software that has been developed to enable a wide range of simulated shooting scenarios to be set, with a bright red dot projected onto a suitable surface giving the target's trajectory. Senders set into your gun fire a shot at the target and a digital camera collects the data as to where your shot landed. The software then tells you, very precisely, whether your shot was a hit or miss, and exactly where it went.

Just about every conceivable aspect of the ballistics side has been considered, from the velocity and shot size of cartridge to be used to the choke in the gun it's fired from, down to details that we seldom even consider ourselves, such as wind strength and direction or even altitude above sea level! The finer points can be omitted if you prefer, depending on how simple or complex you want to make it.

Target size, speed and direction can be selected to give the user almost infinite variety. Shooting style covers all the established clay disciplines such as Trap, Skeet and ABT, Double and Single Rise, plus the Sporting layouts. The choice here is as wide as your imagination, with options that include every incomer crossing, going away, rising or falling target and at every distance and angle that you might wish to simulate. It will even allow the Olympic version of Skeet, with the random delay of up to three seconds to be selected once you have mastered the English version.

In this way you can tailor the set-up to allow you to practise any type of target. Whether it's a ‘bogey' bird that too often defeats you or just a selection of targets that you would like to get more consistent with, all can be set to race towards you, away or across in front of you, at very close quarters or alternatively set at almost impossible distances.

Indeed, so clever is the software that if you should set yourself the task of shooting a 55yd midi clay edge-on and going away with a Skeet-bored gun loaded with No 9 shot, it will also tell you that the combination you have chosen won't break that target!

Dryfire in use

So what do you actually get with your Dryfire unit? There are three main components: the software, the projector units and the sender unit that fits into the barrels of your shotgun. There are two options at present: one with a single projector/receiver unit and another with a double head for projecting simultaneous targets. These comprise small projector units just a couple of inches square that are mounted on a metal box containing the electrics and drive motors; the projector units can tilt and swivel, being powered by micro-servo motors. The units project a laser red dot onto a wall, sheet or other suitable backdrop and are controlled by the software so that the target flight and characteristics you've set are precisely projected onto that surface. The point at which it is set from the wall (typically 3m) is also fed in so the swing speed is also accurate to the actual target.

The other really clever part of the inbuilt digital camera system that reads the shot placement precisely where the pattern arrives in relation to the target. You can see exactly where your pattern struck or missed and you can even tell how a more open boring might give you a tail-end chip when a full choke missed. It really is that precise.

You can get into a rhythm and start smashing target after target. If you let your concentration slip, you'll miss - it's every bit as unforgiving as the real thing. I can honestly say I was quite impressed; indeed, though I don't quite know why, I liked it more this time than the first, even though the basic principle and functions are, so far as I could tell, little different from those of the original apart from being more developed and refined. Not surprising, then, that 2006 Mitsubishi Series (a top clay shooting competition held each summer at Countryman Fair events) winner Anthony Poolman is currently working with Dryfire. At around £575 for a base single-unit model (perfectly adequate for most of us), Dryfire isn't cheap. But when you consider that professional-grade simulators to provide similar information can cost in excess of £20,000, it seems a remarkably small price to pay. In fact, in real terms the retail price has come down and the cost of cartridges and clays that would otherwise be used in training has increased in price. The economics have therefore swung quite markedly in Dryfire's favour.

You may well still feel the need for some coaching to help tackle really troublesome targets; indeed, that's sensible if you seek to achieve your maximum potential. But with a Dryfire unit at home (or in your clubhouse), you can really get to grips with what you have been taught, time and again at virtually no cost, at the perfect time to suit yourself.

That's more logical than you would think - so ground owners, shotgun coaches and cartridge makers need not feel threatened by Dryfire; far from reducing their business, it could well improve it. Come to think of it, if that was not the case then why would a successful cartridge supplier take on the sales of the Dryfire system?

PRODUCT TEST: PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

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PRODUCT TEST: PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

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