Video and painted backgrounds for US trap shooting
Bob Ridge, DryFire's distributor in the USA, has produced a great web site for American shooters complete with an excellent introductory video. Much of the material relates to ATA trap shooting but will be of general interest to all readers. Bob also offers some superb canvas backgrounds in a variety of different widths.
Winter season - ideal DryFire weather!
Cold, wet, floods, windy, dark, miserable - snow and ice to come - it's winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
Believe it or not, this is perfect DryFire weather. Don't pack your shotgun away for the winter - take advantage of the bad weather for some serious practice with DryFire - in the warmth and comfort of you own home.
Over the winter you could probably shoot ten/twenty times as many targets with DryFire as you did during the competition season - and, as we all know, practice makes perfect (well, if not perfect, then at least "better".)
Don't let yourself get rusty, be prepared to start next season as a winner!
Installing under Vista and Windows 7 - and 64 bit Windows
DryFire works fine with 32 bit Vista and 32 bit Windows 7.
The only negative about Windows 7 is that it does not follow the "normal" procedure for installing drivers when a new USB device is plugged in - hence the need to use a special procedure via Windows Control Panel. You can understand why software developers love Microsoft!
DryFire does not recommend the 64 bit versions of Vista or Windows 7.
The 64 bit versions of Windows are notorious for driver problems and they (sometimes) do not support 32 bit drivers - so DryFire may or may not work with them. If you do not need more than 4GB of memory (who does?) you do not need 64 bit Windows. Having said that, DryFire does work on a (very cheap 1GB) desktop PC we have in the office running 64 bit Windows 7!
"I am over the moon with it! I shot over 900 targets using DryFire then went out to do the real stuff on the Skeet range. I was smashing them dead centre all over the place - it was fantastic! I was very sceptical about the system before I bought it - it is almost impossible to explain to someone why it works. However, it does work and I am absolutely delighted. Trouble is, I have now decided to upgrade from the single head to the double!"
"Wow! Dryfire totally exceeded my expectations. I couldn't imagine it working very well... so when it worked brilliantly, it was a bit of a suprise! Awesome product - amazing coding! Practicing skeet with full chokes makes it seem a breeze to shoot a perfect round once you open up to cylinder and stick a number 9 cartridge in each barrel!! My new laptop is an OLD laptop off ebay - 100 quid got me an XP machine with 1gb ram which I've stripped right down and uninstalled everything. I've switched OFF access to the net or any auto-updates and it runs like a dream.
Thanks again for such a great product! - My wife may disagree... I don't know... I never see her!"
"Got it up and running last night and my instructor came round. My weakness is on Skeet crossers, stations 3,4,and 5, and we put over 1,200 shots at it during the evening! Fantastic! The lead was spot on. My instructor stood behind me, called the shots and then we looked at the screen - it was accurate every time! Brilliant!"
YouTube video of DryFire
Our UK dealer, JustCartridges, has produced a video on DryFire.
Try the software on your own PC
Please visit the download page to download and try the software on your own PC - no simulator required.
Please visit the support page if the software does not run on your PC for any reason.
Australians trained for the Olympics with DryFire
Please click here for a video of Australians training with DryFire for the Beijing Olympics. (Thanks to Nick Sanders, the Sports Scientist who uploaded the video and worked with the Autralian team to set this up.)
Important note: the text mentions a projected image of a shooting range - this was produced using a separate PC projector. DryFire does not project an image of the shooting range - it produces a moving laser dot representing the clay. Click here for more details.
DryFire's US distributor moves into mobile unit!
Bob Ridge, DryFire's distributor in the USA (www.DryFireUS.com), based in Dallas, has found a unique way to promote DryFire.
DryFire requires subdued or artificial lighting - because the sun is a major source of infra-red light - used by DryFire to detect your shot.
Bob (the guy in red in the second photo) has come up with a brilliant solution - a mobile unit as used on building sites - you can see it behind the DryFire sign in the first photo. Bob makes arrangements with the nearest local supplier to drop off a unit at the start of a shoot and to pick it up afterwards - this particular shoot was at the Silver Dollar Shooters Club in Florida. The unit comes complete with security on the windows and, because it is the USA, air-con!
The units are just the right size to do a presentation of DryFire and to allow shooters to have a go. The wall width (8 - 10 feet) is ideal for ATA trap shooting - the most popular discipline in the USA. We would recommend a width of 12 feet, or slightly more, for disciplines like sporting and skeet which require wide crossers.
Bob's son Tom is an artist and paints/sells backgrounds for use with DryFire - you can see one on the wall with a 3D trap house in place at the bottom of the painting - ideal for getting the right hold point before calling "Pull". The guy with the orange baseball cap is standing in the position normally taken up when using DryFire.
"Really neat stuff, Bob" - as they say across the pond. (In England we would say "Not bad" or, if we were feeling wildly enthusiastic, "Nice!")
No guarantees - but that's the sort of thing that happens when you use DryFire!
Intensive practice with DryFire helps you climb beyond those annoying plateaus as your shooting improves.
250 shots after work and before dinner, every night of the week, is totally realistic with DryFire - how much would that normally cost you in cartridges and range fees?
All this in the comfort of your own home, in the warm and dry, 365 days a year!
The photo shows DryFire Version 3 with dual heads and with a single head - both systems support doubles.
Both are about 185mm x 140mm x 110mm (About 7.5" x 5.5" x 4.5")
DryFire in a nutshell
DryFire lets you practice clay shooting in the comfort of your own home.
You use your own shotgun - the DryFire muzzle insert pops into any 12g, 20g or 28g barrel - S/S, O/U or single barrel.
You have total freedom of movement - no wires from your shotgun.
You use your choice of chokes and cartridges.
It supports all clay disciplines - skeet (English, American, Olympic), trap (DTL, ABT, UT, Olympic singles/doubles, American) and sporting.
It works in front of any wall (bedroom, study, living room, garage) 3m (10ft) or more wide. Please avoid brick, stone or rough walls - the laser gets lost.
You call "Pull", acquire, swing, fire and follow through exactly as normal.
You must allow the same amount of lead as when outdoors.
DryFire shows you exactly where your shot string went in relation to the clay - to the nearest centimetre (1/2").
Do it wrong, or drop your concentration, and you will miss with DryFire - but at least you will know where you missed.
How does it do this?
DryFire software runs on any Windows-based PC. (Note: we do not support Apple Mac.)
The simulator is connected to the PC with a USB cable.
Each simulator head contains a laser to generate the target and a digital camera to detect your shot.
You enter your gun, cartridge, choke and personal details into the PC.
You select your discipline and target using the PC.
On the call of "Pull" the simulator launches a laser dot across the wall in front of you. The dot represents the leading edge of the clay.
The laser dot follows exactly, the same angular trajectory at exactly the same angular speed, as the real thing.
You acquire, swing and fire, exactly as normal - the muzzle insert sends a beam of invisible IR light towards the wall.
The digital camera in the simulator head picks up the IR shot, the software does its calculations and the PC screen shows you the result.
Two hits on Skeet station 4
Please click here for more details on the way DryFire reports hit/miss information.
