Shooting Drills

I'm a shitty shot, so I'm usually at the target range twice a week. I fire about 170 rounds of 9mm each time. Glock, of course.

My typical starter is to put up a piece of 8.5x11" office paper and six 1.5" Post-Its for Torture Dots at 5 yards. 2 hits per Post-It. 2 mags.

Then I post up another piece of office paper and run the target out to 25 yards and try to get 12+ hits/mag. I usually throw a few. 2 mags.

Next I set up some "boxing drills" (2 hits left, 1 hit right; 1 hit left, 2 hits right, 1 hit left; etc.) at 5 yards using the wee Post-Its. 2 mags.

At this point I either practice 5 yard one hand shots (strong hand, support hand). 8" paper plate as the target. 2 mags.

- or -

Practice emergency reload drills by putting 1+1 in the gun and having a reload on my belt. 2 mags.

I always try to end with a feel good. I'll post a 8" paper plate at 7 yards and blast the center out of it with 3 round draw iterations. 2 mags.

...

What shooting drills do you do at the target range, TFP?​

...​

 

50 rounds, 30 minutes, good practice:

 

The first thing that comes to mind is that you should consider starting and closing each session with a little precision shooting to reinforce good habits initially and help break any new ones before calling it a day. It is real easy to focus on fast-fast-fast and slowly drift away from the fundamentals. Your dot drill sounds close, but you may be able to benefit from really, really slowing down occasionally. (I do).

I usually try to incorporate a little dry firing before and after also... But not nearly as much as I probably should.

Otherwise, avoid building muscle memory that won't be advantageous to you in a fight, since you will likely do whatever you have been practicing without conscious thought. If you *always* load two shots and then reload, you may drop your mag after your first two rounds when your adrenalin is up. It is good to vary the number of rounds somewhat during your drills. It is best if you load mags with varying numbers of rounds so you won't be able to anticipate the reload.

Likewise with the stupid shooting-school bullshittery of always re-indexing every single target in a very large and exaggerated manner after each engagement rather than simply looking around for the threat you haven't already seen and shot multiple times.

Ditto with shooting two shots and then automatically pulling the gun back to the ready. This habit is another good reason to vary your shooting strings when shooting rapid-fire.

Other good, fun drills:

Follow the shot: Put up a blank piece of paper at a comfortable distance. Shoot it. Then try to shoot your previous bullet hold. Repeat multiple times. Observe whether your rounds stay roughly in the same place or if they literally string along the paper... If this happens think about what you could be doing wrong, fix it and repeat the drill.

Put some old T-shirts over balloons... Hang them so they fall when shot, but don't stop shooting them just because they fall. Instead, when you shoot a T-shirt, continue to shoot it until it is all the way on the ground and you are certain it is no longer a threat... Then transition immediately to the next threat rather than simply staring at your 'work' or endlessly re-indexing like a fucking retard.

Throw the occasional snap-cap into your practice mags *somewhere* when loading them and then mix up your mags so you don't know when the 'malfunction' will occur. Get in the habit of simple immediate action. (look at the gun as you do this, screw the target awareness crap and get your weapon back up) Slap the magazine to re-seat and rack the slide. You can tilt the gun towards the ejection port slightly when you do this to help a stove piped round fall out without sacrificing much time at all. You *can* do this with a bladed hand across the top to get stove-pipped rounds, but you will probably just cut yourself the first time this actually happens and then won't practice it anymore. This is probably the best way to practice immediate action. Note: You should glance at your weapon as you start immediate action just long enough to determine if you have a simple malfunction or a complex one. If you have a complex failure you need to learn about it quickly so you can act accordingly. If you just 'tap rack bang' without paying any attention whatsoever to the state of your weapon, you will waste a lot of time if it is something complicated.... Another gripe about shooting schools. Ditto on reloads: If you have to glance at your gun for a second so you can continue to shoot people with it, then by all means do so. Just don't stare at it with blinders on for an extended period of time.


Other suggestions:

Buy or make a steel target and incorporate it. The immediate feedback is a phenomenal training aid as long as you can avoid peeking 'over the top' of the gun to see where you hit each time.

Incorporate a shot-clock. Aside from working basic good-habits, a shot-clock is probably the single best thing you can get to improve your tactical shooting. I love running drills against myself where I either line up steel plates/ pie plates, etc and then do some sort of drill. I vary it, but typically I will set a part time of say six seconds and I will load three mags with two rounds each. I will then try to shoot each plate twice and conduct two reloads in under six seconds. If I can do it consistently I will up the par time or incorporate an additional complexity (such as shooting a single shot at the leftmost plate, then the rightmost plate, etc. to force movement).

I will also use the shot clock to no-shit give me my draw times to draw and fire two rounds at a pie plate at a reasonable distance. If my time is under 1.5 seconds I try to increase my accuracy by backing up. If it is over, but I am not missing my shots I try to force myself to speed up and be a little 'sloppy.' If it is over and I am also missing I go back to the basics for a little while and dry-fire, practice the motion, and practice stringing the whole draw motion/target acquisition/trigger squeeze thingy together for a while, then I will start comfortably slow and try to get my draw/two shots back under the 1.5 second gold standard.

Drawing and firing the weapon entirely with the weak hand. It isn't fast, but should be a practiced motion in the event you are already injured before you realize you are in a fight.

Transitions. Rifle to Pistol.

Low light with a light. If you have a light mounted to your defensive weapon then good for you... Both for being able to actually carry it and for caring that much. But since most people who have to shoot someone do so at home, in the dark, at night (I don't actually know if it is most people, but it makes sense to me), it makes sense to practice with a light. Even if it is broad daylight at the range and you can see just fine, you will benefit from at least having to hold the light so you won't fumble around with two things when you are only used to practicing with one.

Long range shooting with the pistol. I will occasionally shoot at steel targets 50-250 meters out. Beyond about 50 meters I am doing it solely for fun and bragging rights, but 50 meters is still 'doable' with most mid-size and larger pistols. If I I am ever in a really bad situation and I get the chance, I am going to put distance between myself and my assailants on the theory that I am likely a better shot than them (different from initial aggression and distance closing).

Work on the 'oh shit I screwed something up' stuff. Such as: You weren't paying attention and are already getting the tar beaten out of you by someone who has closed distance. How will you get to your weapon or employ it? Will you even try or will you use another tool to create space first? etc.

Multiple targets at varying distances to force you to automatically adjust your speed to match. I.e. a pie plate at 25 meters, one at 10 meters and one at 5. Three shots in each as fast as you can. Repeat.

Rhythm drills. Best on steel plate racks but you can do it with static targets also: Shoot ten rounds as fast as you can with as steady a tempo as you can. Transition to a different target each shot. The tempo should vary with distance/size of course.
--- merged: Mar 31, 2012 5:25 AM ---
Oh, the snap-caps randomly loaded in your mags thing is a great way to see whether you are flinching, etc. When the gun jerks all over the place even though you didn't 'actually' shoot, it's time to slow down for a bit.

 

I agree with all of what Snake Eater had to say, although I always try to conclude my shooting sessions with weak-hand pistol drills because that is where I am weakest.

-----------------------------

My new favorite pistol/rifle drill focuses on driving the gun and acquiring new targets. Put two IDPA targets a few feet apart at 10 yards. As quickly as possible, put two rounds in the body of the left target, one round in the head of the right target, two rounds in the body of the right target, one round in the head of the left target. Vary your starting points and the direction of travel to avoid complacency.

Once you get that down, set up two 55 gallon drums at the firing line, about three feet apart. Start position is standing in the middle. On the buzzer, draw and engage your targets as stated above, but move in a figure 8, weaving between and around the barrels while firing. Stay as close to the barrels as possible and focus on your footwork without falling on your ass.

If you want to get fancy, have your buddy yell "shift" or something equally cool while you're moving and shooting. At his command, transition from rifle to pistol (or visa versa) and engage your targets while moving in the opposite direction.

 

Another no-shit-huge-revelation-ya-dumbass thing I've been focusing on is to remind myself that follow-up shots are totally a good idea. The correct answer is always "as many as it takes." If I decide that three to the chest is the magic number for that day, any round out of the A zone (or C zone, depending on what I'm doing) warrants an immediate follow-up shot. Training scars caused by schools that want you to fire a certain number of rounds on a target (either end of the spectrum; too few often causes you to go off target too soon if you miss or too many causes you to get into the habit of sending so many you get tunnel vision) need to be avoided by being realistic with your own training. Nobody counts rounds in the real world.

 

Hey people, new to the site but been shooting for years.. one drill Snake Eater mentioned.. Low light or flickering lights, anything involving duck cover and fire as well.. Hard to simulate adrenalin so some type of activity that leaves you pumped or winded would also be a realistic drill. You never know what conditions will be like and being prepared for any possibilities can only one up you in the long run.

 

what you want is react to the timer's beep, ccw draw and hit the chest at 10 ft, in less than 1.0 second. Longer ranges are for swat cops and they normally get to bring longarms. If you are serious enough to always carry, you shoulld also be wearing a vest. It's legal everywhere and all the time, and vests save 100+ cops per year. they also save cops from car and motorcycle wrecks, guys. Also, have your earplugs with you. if you set it up properly, you can plug your ears (doubling your effective range) as "fast" as anyone can ccw speedload a revolver while under combat stress (ie, 4-5 seconds). Simply have a "coin purse' type plug case, in front pants pocket, and lanyard the case to belt. jerk on lanyard, out comes the case, Best to be moving to cover as do this, of course, perhaps firing as you go, if you are TRULY skilled at such shooting while moving.

Once behind solid cover, stuff gun in belt, get plugs into hands, then into ears, then draw gun and keep "peeking" (at different places) arouhnd cover. do NOT fire at enemies also "peeking", unless it is shtf. Noise from the shooting is bringing HELP for you, while he has to flee or kill you. So all you need to do is prevent him moving to outflank your cover. If he tries that, you have a fully exposed torso, for 1 full second or more, not a bobbing head, 1/2 second at a time. So don't waste your ammo on the latter, or your range time trying such baloney. you won't be able to pull it off, except by pure luck, especially not without ear protection.

 

Seriously?
When I'm deer hunting, which involves some adrenaline at the time of shooting but nothing like being in a fight, I don't even notice the sound of the gun going off.
The whole idea sounds absurd, but specifically, how would putting in my ear protection at that very moment help me be more accurate with the revolver?

 

you aint rapidfiring a pistol at a deer, in fear of your life. the comparison is ludicrous. Do even know thaat flinching is a SUBCONCIOUS reaction to your ears being hurt? whether or not you 'hear" it, it's making you jerk. Do you even know that most shots in pistol combat, at an average range of 10 FEET, TOTALLY miss the man? It's even worse, of course, for getting GOOD hits. Noise/flinching is the main reason this occurs. you want to be silly and risk your life over not carrying 1 oz of gear, go for it.

 

---

-+-{Important TFP Staff Message}-+- How about you dial down the snark before you get in trouble for flaming? We expect you to be respectful when you disagree with someone.