Conventional wisdom

[okietool]

Train with your self defense ammo.
My thought:
Train with cheap stuff You’ll learn more, but do shoot enough Self defense to make sure it works for your weapon and you. Getting in the groove shooting may be as important as target practice.

 

[okietool]

Flame suit engaged.

 

[RETOKSQUID]

Get as close to the same weight and speed of the good stuff as you can get when buying the cheep stuff.

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

I thought that’s what 90% of gun folks did?

Practice with cheap FMJ majority of the time but run a couple hundred rnds of your defense ammo through a gun to verify good function

 

[Pstmstr]

I'd go a step further and say dry fire with no ammo to learn how to manipulate your firearm and learn trigger control. Then target ammo as well as running sufficient self defense ammo to see how it feels and functions.

 

[OKRuss]

And train with your off hand in case your dominate arm gets blown off! Oh, and how to make a tourniquet from a bandana is good to know.

 

[Snattlerake]

You can only rise to the level to which you have been trained.
Paranto

I can guarantee you will react to how you have trained.

EX: If you have always caught your magazines before they hit the floor upon emptying a magazine, you will do the same in real life.

Same with revolver shooters, if you have always caught your spent brass in your hand when shooting, you will do the same when in a shooting scenario. It's just human nature.

 

[Big House]

I used to practice putting my underwear on and jumping out the window too.

 

[SoonerP226]

You can only rise to the level to which you have been trained.
Paranto

I can guarantee you will react to how you have trained.

EX: If you have always caught your magazines before they hit the floor upon emptying a magazine, you will do the same in real life.

Same with revolver shooters, if you have always caught your spent brass in your hand when shooting, you will do the same when in a shooting scenario. It's just human nature.

Andy Stumpf frequently says when it hits the fan, "you will not rise to the occasion, you will sink to your training" when asked about "game time performers" who don't train. Considering that he was both a SEAL in combat and an instructor at BUD/S, he might actually know something about that.

To your point, a friend used to compete in SMG competitions. On one stage of a competition, the final shoot was a sustained burst into a target, getting a point for every round on the target. My friend had been trained by HK on the MP5 to fire only in bursts, so what happened when he got to that last target? His training kicked in and he fired three rounds out of a full 30 (IIRC) round magazine. They were all in the ten ring, but there were only three of them, and that made the difference between first place and third place.

 

[SPOONBILL]

I am ashamed to say that I dont practice near enough with a handgun at all. I do shoot rifle at least once usually twice a month especially match season. I always say that I will shoot it when Im done with rifle practice or a match but I never do anymore. Going to try to change that in 2024. Going to try to find a good instructor as well