In some previous posts, I’ve discussed the progress of VR firearms training. Not only has VR hardware improved drastically over the last few years, but we’ve also seen specialized training software and hardware emerge. We’ve really reached the point where shooting in VR is realistic enough that it’s a lot like shooting a .22 LR at the range.
But, since writing those articles, I haven’t had a lot of spare time. I’ve only fired a few tens of thousands of virtual rounds in simulators like AceXR, and haven’t been able to do any real A to B testing with VR and the range. So, it could be argued that the realistic simulator’s ability to give you real skills you could use on the range hasn’t been thoroughly tested.
Fortunately, someone else had more time for this than me, and he’s shot more than 170,000 rounds. Then, he took his brain and hands to a competition to see if that practice has led to any real-world improvements in shooting. Check out the video and then read on…
Before getting into AceXR, he had only previously done one competition. So, he was at least able to compare the experiences from those. Then, instead of putting in a bunch of real-world range time, he went into the virtual world where ammunition is free and the range is only a few steps away from your living room. Then, he went out to a second match to see whether VR shooting helped, hurt or didn’t make any difference.
He then went through his match stages after training in VR. One thing he noticed right away was that the red-dot experience was realistic enough in VR that he was able to spot his mistakes and correct for them faster in the real world. Ideally, he would have gotten it right the first time, but being able to salvage the match and shoot a better second stage is better than not knowing what went wrong.
On the other hand, virtual competition software can’t give you the same benefit of experience that you might gain from talking to people at competitions. When there are complex stages, knowing what order to take the stage in and how to best manage time and accuracy/speed balance is something that you can’t naturally acquire shooting by yourself. So, he did identify one area where VR doesn’t prepare you (at least not yet).
But, on simple courses, he felt like Ace had prepared him fairly well. When facing a simpler “stand and deliver” stage, like the ones he’d spent a lot of time on in AceXR, he did his best performance of the day, moving up from 15th out of 60 to 7th out of 60.
What We Can Learn From This
At the end of the day, it’s not really possible to come up with a technology that completely ends your need for live-fire training. Things like dry fire and more advanced VR shooting are extremely useful and can greatly accelerate your progression as a shooter, but you need to at least mix in some real shooting to keep the training grounded in the real world.
What Controlled Pairs is doing here is basically what you want to do. Get some real-world training to get grounded, do a mix of real and VR training, and then test it in the real world to see where you’re still coming up short. Getting better at anything is a process, and you can’t do it all in a day, but doing a mix of different things to get in more training time can be great.
For the first shot absolutely, once recoil gets involved it varies. Overall if it works the fundamentals it will be as useful if not more so than dry fire.
Feel the need for defensive capability on private property? Never shot a gun?
Learn the laws applicable to your situation.
Buy a quality 357 revolver, holster, whatever the manufacturer recommends for extensive dryfiring and 1 box of 20 defensive shells.
Dry fire a lot, to include all aspects of proper handling.. Don’t forget to clean it after each session. Keep it loaded when not dryfiring.
If you have to defend yourself or yours against one home invader, you will still have 19 cartridges left. You won’t miss, because you haven’t yet acquired a flinch.
Gonna carry in public? You need lots of training and education and practice and insurance and special equipment, etc, etc, etc, etc…
But defending your Castle is not that complicated.
While I am sure someone will take issue with this I have to agree for the minimalist home defense oriented gun owner this would handle most realistic issues outside of a few outlier locations/scenarios and is an excellent starting point.
“But defending your Castle is not that complicated.”
Ya ever had to actually ‘defend your castle’ from bad guys shooting at you?
I have, and outside the ‘castle’ in public places too, it can get very complicated real fast.
What, you mean I gotta clean my piece after dry firing too? Ugh
Lookout for our follow up piece: Does jackin’ it make you better in the sack?
And we’ll interview a first-time competing skateborder who hasn’t ever actually set foot on one but has thousands of hours into Tony Hawk Pro Skater
But first, we’ve mobilized a force trained entirely on Call of Duty in the battle for Ukraine independence. Let’s see how they’re doing.
I think they’re the guys flying drones over there, so… potentially pretty well.
napresto that made me laugh outloud for real. I bet most of the best drone pilots have more hours on Xbox then real pilots have in a classroom, a simulator and real flight hours combined
@safe
Yep, eventual ownership of target ammo, targets, membership in a club, electronic practice equipment, hearing/eye protection, chronograph, reloading gear, not to mention multiple guns, etc, etc, etc is damn near inevitable. But it is a great start. And nothing inspires a thirst for recoil and muzzle blast like dryfiring over and over and over and over…
But it is likely, IMO, you will actually be a better shot BEFORE you start live fire than after…
And it is the first shot that counts.
Anything that needs to be shot once deserves to be shot again and again and again and again until click. Then reload and repeat as necessary.
Should be fine in Missouri but may not be as effective in after action issues in other states.
Shotgunners Save the 2024 Olympics for the USA Shooting Team > https://www.shootingnewsweekly.com/2024/08/05/shotgunners-save-the-2024-olympics-for-the-usa-shooting-team/
“Does VR training…” Not for me. I’ve been through video training. Screen as big as a wall. I mean everything is life size. I forget the acronyms. It was fun, but it’s not real range work.
VR “training” makes about as much since s claiming to be pro-2A, then voting democrat. Something the writer of this article knows all about
Even after the inflation by design to cover the cost of caring for millions of illegals and other costly biden disasters like cackles harris you may be surprised to know there are lots of pathetic gun talking freeloaders who are full of excuses for not getting off their worthless butts to vote TRUMP/VANCE 2024
Makes no difference who wins the election this time around…America still looses either way, and will remain a global laughing stock.
It’s sad that the American people have such limited opinions when it come to leadership decisions.
Who cares if losers or retards laugh? Pretty sure they will have my more than enough drama without us anyway.
…in Minecraft.
While the noise and recoil of real firearms cannot be duplicated by VR, If VR simulation training works for the Military, then it should work for anyone. One difference is that the Military uses simulators to help troops develop a “feel” of what happens in the real world, but still follows up with actual field exercises or flying real aircraft. Problem is that there are too many “games” that use firearms in their role playing, without any realistic gun facts or proper gun handling. Using the proper VR training should be almost ideal for anyone, and a great fill-in for those days when you can’t get to the range. Should be easier on the ammo budget as well.
ACE absolutely works very well, and noticeably improved me as a competitive shooter (and I was no slouch beforehand). It’s dry-fire with accountability, and that’s huge. I do wish it had some dedicated modes for simpler Anderson-esque drills, but what it has is good enough.
People complaining about recoil need to remember that recoil is actually just not that big a deal to manage in a 9mm.