A couple years ago when I first bought a SIRT pistol, I thought the main beneficiary would be my students. After all, I’m an instructor! I know it all, and I’m the best. But, when I got the thing in my hands, it was a bit of a humbling experience. Putting the shot in the X-ring consistently and out-shooting the rest of the instructors in the last instructor class I had taken had inflated my ego, but the laser doesn’t lie.
Every little twitch and every little jerk gets amplified when you’re shooting a laser across the room, so you get an opportunity to dial in your shooting if you’re honest with yourself. Then, add laser-spotting software like LASR-X, and you get a lot of accountability after every shot.
But, one thing I figured out pretty quickly was that I could put rounds on target a lot faster if I didn’t form a sight picture first. In law enforcement, I did this only at ranges of under a yard, but I knew that the cowboy action folks would quick draw and shoot from retention at much greater distances, sometimes 10+ yards if they wanted to impress people. But, developing that skill and dialing it in with live rounds sounds like an expensive skill to develop.
But, with the LASR-X software and the SIRT pistol that fit in my normal M&P holster, practicing point shooting at any distance was suddenly free. So, I started practicing and improving.
I started without any software, simply picking a spot across the room and seeing whether the laser landed on it after raising the SIRT pistol and firing the laser. With just a few shots, I started getting the dot on even small targets like a doorknob or a light switch pretty consistently. Then, I went back to the software to get a shot timer and designate targets. This allowed me to cut my time to first shot on target down considerably.
But, the time needed to set up targets indoors (or pick silly things like a box and a milk jug), aim the camera, designate the target in the software and get started was a little bit of a pain. So, I didn’t use it as often as I would have liked. But, the AceXR system and my Oculus Quest 2 improved the setup time considerably.
Like the SIRT, it has a realistic trigger and weight in the hand, but the range in AceXR is always ready to go and the targets set themselves back up. This not only means easy range time that’s roughly like shooting a .22 pistol, but it’s also a great place to improve times on a variety of free ranges and common timed drills by incorporating point shooting.
The only thing I’m lacking now is a holster for the AceXR handset rig. So, I’m probably going to get with a local custom holster maker to get some made so I can practice from the hip.