Good dry fire gadgets are well worth their initial cost. Things like the Mantis X10 aren’t cheap, but they provide a ton of training capabilities, even when the upfront cost seems rather high.
Revolutionizing dry fire isn’t easy to do, but occasionally someone finds a way. Today we are talking about the DryFireMag from a company called, well, DryFireMag.
Those of us who are part of the DA/SA master life know not the troubles striker fire pistol owners face when it comes to dry fire. Having to constantly work the slide to get a single shot of dry fire in is fun for about two whole minutes. So to solve this problem, DryFireMag created a magazine insert that allows you to replicate a trigger pull without having to constantly work the slide to reset the firing pin.
Installation is just shoving the magazine into the pistol grip and calling it a day. Well, ensure the striker is cocked prior to practice. Then toss it and pull the trigger. The initial trigger will be heavy because you are using the striker and the DryFireMag. After the first trigger pull, you‘ll also have the ‘clicks’ you want without having to cycle the slide.
How the DryFireMag Works
If you notice, the DryFireMag has a bit of a dongle at the top. The entire setup does not reset or release your striker. Instead, the Dry Mag Mag only contacts the trigger bag and simulates a fired trigger. The firing pin isn’t affected by any particular shot. What you might be saying is close is the DFM to my actual trigger pull?
Well, it’s as close as you want it to be. When I got mine out of the box, it was a little heavier and longer than my normal trigger pull. The trigger is my P320 is a little better than average, and I needed to tune the trigger to make it more like my actual trigger pull. A little screw in the front of the magazine can be turned slightly to lengthen or reduce the trigger’s travel before it breaks. With a little practice, I got it as close as I possibly could to my stock SIG P320C trigger. Additional spring packs allow you to add or reduce trigger weight as well.
The click sounds differently but feels identical to the trigger breaking when dry firing. It’s much more clicky and sounds almost like a pen clicking more than a striker dropping, and being able to constantly practice makes dry fire training so much more efficient and fast. The DryFireMag makes 15 minutes of dry fire practice seem like 20, and that’s a good thing!
What I mean is that I’m doing a lot more trigger presses per practice section since I’m not working the slide to cock the pistol. Efficiency is nice, convenience is nice, and also not doing non-typical movements while training is nice. Zapping through a few dozen perfect trigger pulls is quick and easy.
Interaction With Other Dry Fire Accessories
You can guess that this doesn’t work with your typical laser devices that require the firing pin to strike the rear of the device. However, it will work with the Mantis X10..most of the time. There is a SIRT/DFM mode that works well, and setting a profile with a higher sensitivity seems to work even better. I’d say 90% of the time the Mantis X10 catches the ‘trigger’ breaks and functions without issue.
This also isn’t a tool to work reloads with. DryFireMag advises that the DFM hitting the ground can damage it, and it will not drop free due to the design’s interaction with the trigger bar. It’s purely a traditional dry fire tool. If you want a reload tool check out the Rogers Shooter School TRT devices.
Design and Look
Mistaking the DryFireMag for a real magazine is downright impossible. It doesn’t look like a magazine at all, and the bright orange baseplate is also a dead giveaway. Additionally, the magazine is weighted to give it a more realistic feel.
It weighs almost as much as a full magazine, and that’s a nice touch for shooters out there training. I appreciate the gun feeling like a loaded pistol. I’m not sure if this is beneficial, but it’s certainly not a downside.
The DryFireMag is available for Glock medium and Large frame firearms, the SIG P320C, the Springfield XD, and the S&W M&P series. I really want them to bring out a P365 model, but I’ll keep waiting and practicing with my P320 variant. The DryFireMag retails for 99 bucks without the spring kit and 105 with the spring kit.
From a training perspective, the DryFireMag is pretty dang beneficial. You can train safely at home, adjust the mag to fit your gun, and don’t have to be part of the awesome DA/SA world. The DryFireMag is a luxury item, more or less, but it also makes training more efficient and much more enjoyable.
Difference between spring kit and no spring kit is what?
Aside from the $6 price difference, I believe the spring kit gives you more options to match the trigger force of your handgun.
Saying it another way, if the stock spring in the dry-fire practice magazine is too light (even after twisting the adjustment screw to maximum adjustment), you can install a stiffer spring to match your handgun’s trigger pull. (Or it could be that you install a lighter spring to match a lighter trigger pull.)
As long as the device stops the striker from slamming into the slide it is otae buckwheat. Poor newbies paying for a “looks good” firearm that’s never had a round through it but was dry fired 5000 plus times.
Great idea, but I don’t own any of those guns. I guess there’s always hope for the future.
I like how you casually badmouth striker-fired guns as if anyone ever actually needed a hammer or a safety. I guess my trigger being exactly the same every time is a bad thing, or I should just “grow up” and wish I had to cock a hammer to avoid a 10lb trigger.
You a boomer, a fudd, or both?
Wow aren’t you sensitive one.
It’s the sensitive ones that require crutches in order to survive in the big, bad, mean world. Those incapable of mastering (or comprehending the superiority of) DA/SA are provided a dumbed-down, semi-cocked, no safety action designed to allow them to be minimally competent- hopefully without shooting themselves in the process.
They are of the same ilk as drivers who would be completely helpless attempting to stop a car in an emergency situation without ABS.
There was a time when incompetency was shameful- not something to openly brag about. But, to each their own…
Peter Gunn,
“They are of the same ilk as drivers who would be completely helpless attempting to stop a car in an emergency situation without ABS.”
That there was funny!
I tip my hat to you fine sir!
Sensitive, I’d say a red flag candidate.
Wow, did mamma not bring the lucky charms down to the basement fast enough for you this morning Mr. Nope?
Way to get triggered!
Get it? Triggered? Because you got triggered over triggers?
Seriously though, we care about your feelings. We’ll all try very hard to make sure you feel safe, happy and loved while shieldiing you from reality so this never happens again. Here’s your obligatory box of puppies and rainbows. If someone dares to say anything that upsets your feelings you just let us know and we will be mean right back to that meanie and make sure he never upsets your feelings again.
@ Nope…..So where do you fall in line!
Lost Generation 1883-1900
Greatest Generation 1901-1927
Silent Generation 1928-1945
Baby boomers 1946-1964
Generation X 1965-1980
Millennials 1981-1996
Generation Z 1997-2012
Generation Alpha 2010- mid 2020’s
If they’d develop a laser insert to work with it, they’d have a real winner.
Too expensive, I’ll keep racking thank you. I’m getting tired of paying premium prices for things that are just going to end up in my stuff pile.
I’ve got one striker fired pistol, I keep it hid away from the hammer fired gunms to keep it from getting beaten up.
I learned my lesson the hard way when I put 8 .45acp’s in with a box of 9mm’s . The .45’s killed all the 9mm’s, I should have told them the war was over. Oh well, to late now.
this post is peak boomer
Looks like they only make it for plastic guns – and TBH racking the slide isn’t that much of a chore.
I do not own one of these due to the price tag. It may be worth it, but I’ve just not been able to bring myself to spend the money. I did, however, use my 3D printer to print out the dryfire clip for my Glock 19. It clips to the back of the slide and has a pin that slides in that doesn’t allow the trigger to break. You can buy the clip for $20 or do like I did and print it for free. It doesn’t give auditory or tactile feedback, but it keeps from having a “training scar” from racking the slide every time. I still dry fire with a laser cartridge occasionally though.
None of my pistols are on the list. Who knows when they’ll expand it? A year from now? 3 years? 10 years?
Real firing practice is the key!