In Marine Corps boot camp we spent a week snapping in on a white barrel with small silhouette targets painted on it. The entire platoon would gather around the barrel in either prone, sitting, kneeling or off hand position and dry fire on these reduced targets. It wasn’t as glamorous or exciting as a 30 round mag dump, but it helped you learn how to shoot.
Fast forward twenty years and I still conduct dry fire (or practice) drills before a match for any of the disciplines I shoot. For safety reasons, my backstop is always a thick concrete wall and I remove all ammunition from the area. I find these few minutes well spent. With a pistol or red dot sight these drills are easy to conduct, but when you introduce a magnified optic, you find you are unable to focus on the target at close range. This is where the Indoor Optical Training Aid (I.O.T.A.) can be of help.
The I.O.T.A. is a lens cover fitted with a lens that allows your rifle scope to focus on targets at a relatively close range, approximately 11 feet. This is a game changer for the precision rifle shooter who wants the ability to conduct dry practice indoors and develop a solid sight picture.
I tried my I.O.T.A. on a Nightforce BEAST and the device worked as advertised. It worked so well, that I was able to read small print at the advertised distance of 11 feet through my optic. By allowing the shooter to get into position and focus on the target, the shooter can focus on spending time fine tuning his position to make his time on the firing line that much more meaningful. Precision rifle users now have a way to snap in and dry fire without heading to the range.
For more information about the I.O.T.A. contact Chuck at [email protected].
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