Disclaimer: I don't work for either of the companies whose products I am about to talk about, nor do I get any sales commissions. I just think they are great products that provide for serious training opportunities.
Serious, no joke, this is the best combination of training products I have run into in a long time and they've changed how I train and how I do my instruction.
The first item is the SIRT pistol from Next Level Training:
Right now they make two models, the 110 and the 107. The 110 is the original model and emulates a Glock 17. The 107 is a brand new model just entering the market and it emulates a M&P. Both of them are the same dimensions as the firearms they mimic which means that you can practice with your carry holsters, lights, lasers etc. The model 107 even accepts the M&P interchangeable back straps. Both of them have two laser units in them. One laser activates during the trigger take up so that any muzzle wobble caused during the tripper pull is very obvious. The second laser activates at the trigger break so that you can see where a shot would have landed. There is a switch to deactivate the take up laser so you can train with only the impact laser if you want. Even with just the impact laser you can still easily see muzzle movement because the laser mark will look like a dash instead of a spot. Both models can have the sights replaced with any sights made to fit their real counterparts, so you can practice with the same sights on your carry gun. Especially for newer students, the feedback from dry fire practice with the SIRT pistol has been amazing for improving sight alignment, sight picture and trigger control before you get to the range and start with live fire.
On it's own, the SIRT is a great training tool, but it really shines when you combine it with
LASR software. LASR uses a webcam to capture the laser pulses from a SIRT pistol and displays them back on a computer screen for you. At it's lowest level it is a good tool for showing a student how a string of shots would have looked on a real target, but it's real power is in the customization settings that allow you to vary your training scenarios. For example, the software can have multiple targets designated and be told to deactivate a certain target after a number of shots, so target transition drills can be done. The way I have it set up right now for my personal training is; Three targets that it randomly calls, left right center. It is set to deactivate a target after a random number of hits between three and eight. It will also randomly call for a reload every seven to ten shots.
This screenshot is from the company website, but is very similar to how I'm using the system:
You can see that the system started the drill and the shooter put the first round on target at 1.47 seconds (nice), then after the first shot the system called for a reload and the shooters next shot on target was at 2.95 seconds for a 1.48 second reload (nice). Then they system decided that target was out of the game, but the shooter pulled the trigger again (welcome to real world shooting). Then the system called another target and I guess the shooter was distracted because he took 2.3 seconds to transition to the new target.
The program has a variety of feedback and interaction sounds. For example, you can make it sound like you are shooting steel plates, so any shot that hits a target area makes the pling sound metal would. It's good positive reinforcement for new shooters so they feel a sense of accomplishment in their new skills. It also has standard scoring timer start sounds and an assortment of standard range commands so that if you are practicing for IDPA or something similar you can train to the right cues. You can even set it to do a random timer start so that after you hit the program run button you don't know when the start cue will come.
And now for a cheating tip. The system was designed for you to hang up some real targets and point the webcam at them. We have found through experimentation that the system also works with targets projected from a Power Point projector. I now have a library of target images that I can project and since they are computer images, I can re-scale them as big or little as I want for the shooter.
Seriously, no joke, best training tool I have seen in a long long time.
We sleep peacefully in our beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf
Seriously, that's a good looking gun.
