Dealing with Isolation

By Gary Prisendorf

As I am sure you have discovered by now, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought many things to a screeching halt. Many of us are stuck at home anxiously awaiting things to get back to normal.

Fortunately for all of us here at Sierra Bullets, things have been pretty much business as usual other than some new safety procedures and social distancing.

But when I go home at the end of my shift, I find myself in the same boat as everyone else. There are not too many things to do or places to go and boredom sets in.

I haven’t been able to get to the range and do any real shooting, but I have been occupying some of my free time doing what I enjoy most, tinkering with my reloading equipment and my firearms.

I pulled all the guns out of the safes, wiped them down with a thin coating of gun oil and meticulously arranged them as I tucked them away. I even got so bored one day that I disassembled my AR magazines and cleaned the insides of them.

Last night I pulled the desiccant canisters out of my safes and recharged them in the oven. It takes 2 hours, so while I was waiting for the timer to go off, I pulled out some of my old dummy rounds and decided to re-familiarize myself with my two carry guns.

Throughout my life I have literally been through hundreds of hours of firearms training. I have been a Police Officer, Armed Security, and I have attended many different classes and courses as a Firearms Instructor. One thing most of my training classes had in common was dry firing exercises and lots of repetition clearing stoppages.

So last night, while waiting for my desiccant canisters to finish baking, I did a little dry firing and practiced drawing from my holster and clearing stoppages with the two guns I carry most often.

These are great exercises to maintain your skill level and help retain muscle memory. In the event of an extremely high stress situation where you may need to defend yourself or your loved ones, you will always resort back to the training you have received and the muscle memory that only comes from repetition.

While you are home and bored, why not brush up on some of your firearms manipulation skills, whether you practice dry firing at the trash can or refresh your motor skills by getting your semi-auto back into battery. Who knows a little practice in the toolbox could possibly save your life.

Remember safety first, make sure your gun is unloaded and put the live ammo away. Don’t have any live ammunition around when you are practicing. Treat every firearm as if it is always loaded and never point it at anything that you are not prepared to destroy.