Plastic Blue Gun Practice

[Kramer1113]

Those "Blue Gun" you see for holster demonstrations and some CCW classes are a little expensive.

For your consideration I submit the following:

Many inexpensive Air Soft guns are plastic duplicates of our every day carry weapons.

Get one and slip it in your holster, you may be surprised as to how closely it fits.

I submit this for those of you who do not get enough real time practice with your carry weapon.

Obviously there are some differences but you will be able to practice accessing your weapon.

 

[Kasper]

Those "Blue Gun" you see for holster demonstrations and some CCW classes are a little expensive.

For your consideration I submit the following:

Many inexpensive Air Soft guns are plastic duplicates of our every day carry weapons.

Get one and slip it in your holster, you may be surprised as to how closely it fits.

I submit this for those of you who do not get enough real time practice with your carry weapon.

Obviously there are some differences but you will be able to practice accessing your weapon.

Here is a thought remove the ammo from your daily carry gun and clear it then user it to practices with. 1. It is better then a blue dummy gun 2. you get to practice with the gun you will be drawing from your hoster

 

[wolf_fire]

The only reason I ever use my blue dummy gun is for when I'm training someone new and am not comfortable having the ammo out in the room with them yet.

However, the blue dummy gun does have an advantage over both an airsoft and your unloaded weapon. It is weighted as if it is fully loaded. It is great for holster draw drills since you are practicing with the same feel and weight as a loaded weapon.

 

[Bigcarlover]

Interesting idea, but I agree the weight differential is important.

How about this for a less expensive alternative. Snap caps.

1. Drop the mag
2. Clear the firearm
3. Remove all ammo from the magazine
4. Remove all live ammo from the room
5. Verify (again) magazine is empty
6. Load in snap caps
7. Verify (again) firearm is empty
8. Rack slide (if semi-auto of course)
9. Check that it's indeed a cap in the chamber

 

[jcreek]

Those "Blue Gun" you see for holster demonstrations and some CCW classes are a little expensive.

For your consideration I submit the following:

Many inexpensive Air Soft guns are plastic duplicates of our every day carry weapons.

Get one and slip it in your holster, you may be surprised as to how closely it fits.

I submit this for those of you who do not get enough real time practice with your carry weapon.

Obviously there are some differences but you will be able to practice accessing your weapon.

I see no benefit to blue guns except for very basic classroom demonstrations. If you're going to be demonstrating draw techniques or you don't want to be constantly worrying about flagging somebody (it can be difficult in a classroom) they can be useful. But for at home personal practice, use your actual weapon hands down. Way more realistic.

 

[thru]

for disarming practice, etc, you don't want your $1000 pistol being flung all over the room. Full-metal airsoft guns are at LEAST as heavy as the polymer framed "real" guns, too, and you get to see where the shot went. You also get to sting and mark up your training partners, learning things "man vs man" that CANNOT be learned with live firing. Mostly, you learn how SLOW you are.

 

[Bigcarlover]

for disarming practice, etc, you don't want your $1000 pistol being flung all over the room. Full-metal airsoft guns are at LEAST as heavy as the polymer framed "real" guns, too, and you get to see where the shot went. You also get to sting and mark up your training partners, learning things "man vs man" that CANNOT be learned with live firing. Mostly, you learn how SLOW you are.

The original statement was about "practice accessing your weapon" with a means cheaper than a blue gun. Now if you're going to expand it to "disarming practice" that's a whole new ball of wax. Not doing that with one of mine. Also if the premise was to be cheaper than a blue gun, once you go metal airsofts the cost will be same or a little more. But I agree, the metal airsoft has advantages (even at more cost) if you're going to practice disarming.

 

[thru]

uh, how do you tell if your shot was any good with a blue gun? and what do you learn playing man vs man, when they will just LIE about what happened, hmm? WELTS on them and you SEE them get hit, you know to get a new training partner, cause that one is no danged good. Why do you "think" I mentioned Craiglist and ebay, hmm? That $125 retail guns is $50-70 if you look around a bit, cause somebody needs some beer money, etc.

 

[Kramer1113]

Sometimes in a defensive situation the first round fired is with the weapon fresh out of the holster not raised for a sight picture.
Those little airsoft guns allow for muzzle direction training. The development of muscle memory is very important.
I guess I'll experiment with adding clay to the inside of the airsoft to negate the weight concern.
I agree with snap caps and the like if all I want is to pull and get a sight picture. But that's not all I want.
Ask any fast draw shooter where the shots come from, you sure don't look for sight picture.

 

[Bigcarlover]

uh, how do you tell if your shot was any good with a blue gun? and what do you learn playing man vs man, when they will just LIE about what happened, hmm? WELTS on them and you SEE them get hit, you know to get a new training partner, cause that one is no danged good. Why do you "think" I mentioned Craiglist and ebay, hmm? That $125 retail guns is $50-70 if you look around a bit, cause somebody needs some beer money, etc.

If this was directed at me, I was agreeing with you, that once you expand beyond the OPs original requirements (which is what you did), then yes, the metal airsoft is a good idea. My point was, my first post was in response to the original statement of only practicing accessing the firearm.

And someone would have to "think" you mentioned "Craiglist" and ebay, because you didn't actually mention either in your previous post:

for disarming practice, etc, you don't want your $1000 pistol being flung all over the room. Full-metal airsoft guns are at LEAST as heavy as the polymer framed "real" guns, too, and you get to see where the shot went. You also get to sting and mark up your training partners, learning things "man vs man" that CANNOT be learned with live firing. Mostly, you learn how SLOW you are.