Practice makes better

I run three standard drills every time I go to the range; because regardless of whether I’m shooting at an indoor range or an outdoor range, I can set these up anywhere.  All you need is an index card and a stardard IDPA target; you can even buy paper IDPA targets suitable for indoor range use from TargetBarn.  Also, if we can convince someone to make a production run of the Pistol-Training.Com target, that would be PERFECT.  However, back, to the drills.  These are my standard drills, and I’ll fire them each week, three times to give you an idea of where I’m improve.  All drills below fired with the Secret Bianchi Cup gun.  All drills start from the holster.

  • Bill Drill: 6 shots at a single 8 inch target at 10 yards.  Yesterday fired in 2.53,  2.62, and new PR of 2.37.
  • FAST Drill: 2 shots at the index card/head box, reload and 4 shots at the body/8 inch circle.  Should be shot from concealment at 7 yards.  Last night was a 7.22, 6.83 and new PR for a gun with speedloaders 6.49.  I haven’t yet received my jetloaders for the Secret Bianchi Cup Gun, so those reloads were being done with Safariland Comp-I loaders.  My fastest reload was 3.51 seconds, of which I could EASILY shave 1.5 seconds by practicing and switching to a better speedloader.  The goal here is to complete the drill in under 5 seconds, which may or may not be obtainable for guys not named “Miculek”.
  • 6-reload-6: Exactly like it sounds – at 7 yards fire six shots, reload with an empty cylinder and fire six more.  I only fired this once last night with a total time of 8.33 for 12 shots.

I should note actually that if you buy a ream of legal sized paper then you can use this target for every single drill I’ve just talked about.  The goal to remember is that only hits count – if you miss a shot on any of these drills it gets thrown out.  If you really want to challenge yourself, reduce the linked target to fit on a regular sheet of paper – that should really be challenging!

7 Comments

  1. The range I shoot at technically has rules against firing too many shots in a quick burst. I’m not entirely sure whether it only applies to automatic weapons or whether I can shoot fast enough to break their rules with a revolver on a BIll Drill.

  2. “I can set these up anywhere….. All drills start from the holster.”

    Between starting from the holster, and the rate of fire, the only place you could do this in a 100 mile radius of me is a private club out west of here.

    So you’re very fortunate if you’ve been able to run these drills at every place you shoot.

  3. What laughingdog said: You can do these drills anywhere that allows drawing from a holster on the range. A couple of the public ranges near me don’t allow for drawing from a holster without a checkout process to make sure you know what you’re doing, and the others ban it outright except for LEO and military.

    I can see the wisdom of it, elsewise every CounterStrike kiddie on the block would be sweep the entire line, on the other hand, the only injury we’re had out my home range in the past year was when an LEO AD’d into his foot at a USPSA match.

  4. That said, you can still do all of these drills from low ready and get close to the same benefit, as long as you supplement with plenty of drawing dry fire practice at home.

  5. Yeah, most all of the public ranges around here prohibit any rate of fire faster than a geriatric’s constipated constitutional.

    I do have one question. I shoot a S&W Model 28 (Highway Patrolman) N frame .357/.38.

    HKS makes their kludgy loaders for it, and I have three Safariland #1 loaders for it. I actually found those on Ebay and had them shipped from Australia.

    My question is, what’s the state of the art in speedloaders these days? A secondary question would be, who currently makes loaders that’d work with the S&W 28/27 ?

    I find the right ones, I’m going to stock up on ’em.

    Jim
    Sunk New Dawn
    Galveston, TX

  6. “That said, you can still do all of these drills from low ready and get close to the same benefit”

    Uh, no you can’t. Every range here, except for one private club with a ridiculous waiting list to join, has rules against holster draws and rapid fire.

    One range allows exceptions occasionally, but only for the Spec War guys, and only if it’s slow enough for them to have a bay to themselves so the range doesn’t worry about the liability of squib rounds.

  7. If anyone is in the Seattle area and looking for a great place to practice from the holster, West Coast Armory in Factoria: http://www.bellevuegunclub.net allows draw from the holster after a simple certification process. If you aren’t certified they’re happy to tell you why and give you a second chance after some at home dry fire practice. Plus, it’s a safe and clean facility.

Comments are closed.