Drill to improve accuracy 15 yards and out

[midvalleyshooter]

As I transistion from my SASS guns with single action triggers ranging from 24 ozs (Rugers) to 2 1/2 pounds (97 & lever gun) to a production Glock 34 I find I need to work on my shooting beyond 15 yds. Can you suggest a drill to improve my accuacy at 15yds and beyond?

Thanks in advance,

Keith

[dirtypool40]

I use a three speed drill at 25.

Three targets. Shoot six rounds at each of three targets. (Later you can graduate to moving across the three targets, two rounds each.)

T1; nice and slooow. MUST be all alphas. No "hopers". Target is shot at slower than match speed but faster than shooting groups. Hit a clean draw and just work a nice pace until you have no doubts you are shooting a nice coffee can sized group all alphas. Don't sweat the time. Maybe 6-7 seconds is a good start, depending on your level. I go about 4.5 if I make a clean draw.

T2; Shoot at match speed. Whatever YOUR match speed is right now. Minor is allowed one "C", major as many as three. Still looking for all "A's" but if a "C" sneaks in now and then, not a big deal. Learn to see what you would see in a match, know when you shot a "C". Depends on your level but the times should be significantly quicker. If you were shooting T1 in 6 seconds, T2 should be in about 4.5. I am in the middle 3.xx's if I remember correctly (it's been a while).

T3; WARP speed, ANY six hits. The idea here is how fast could you go if you just needed hits not "A's". After the first two it is hard to speed up. After this it is hard to slow back down. I have shot some nice groups doing this target when the focus and grip were right. My average for six hits is down around 2.4ish, but I have had a 2.34 5A/1C in a nice tight ball, and things like that get more frequent as you practice the drill.

Work back and forth, speed up, slow down. For me the concept here is teaching yourself a.) What it is you need to see for desired results and then b.) learning to adjust the pace to get those results now that you know how.

just my two cents...

[Mistral404]

BE once said he used paper plates as a tool to improve his shooting.

TGO talks about the plate rack drill on his site.

My own eperience was that shooting a plate rack at 10, 15, 20, & 25 sure showed flaws in my technique.

Since then I try to incorporate shooting at paper plates a couple times a month.

If you have a target stand, use two pieces of string between the wood posts and use clothes pins to hold the plates on the upper and lower strings.

Drill 1

You might want to start shooting a one plate. When you get 5 or 10 hits consistently on the plate is is time to move back five yards.

Drill 2

Try to get one shot per plate - three plate minimum, six best. Repeat 5 times

Drill 3

Draw 1 shot on the plate. Repeat 10 times

Drill 4

Draw 1 shot per plate, mimimum of three plates.

You can use par time or just keep track. The idea is that it is Virginia count, a miss is no good. The string does not count.

The concept is to be accurate first, speed will follow.

ps: buy the plates and a bag of clothes pins a Walmart. I have shot more pins than I want to remember. I ususally do not tape the plates, sometimes I just stick on another paper plate.

[SRT Driver]

MVS,

Work on just one fundamental in this drill..Accuracy.

1. One target, start at 15 yards. Draw and fire 2 shots at the A zone. Then 2 shots at the upper A zone, No time limits. Check for a nice tight group.

2. Repeat at 25 yards.

3. Add a no-shoot covering half the A-zone. Repeat 1 and 2. Add variety different configurations and hard cover, no-shoot. Learn where the A Zone is and build confidence to hit where you aim and not fear the no-shoot.

Your group should be in the same spot in the A zone, not moving toward the center of the brown. Make the tight shots.

Once you feel comfortable with your abilty to hit difficult shots up to 25 yards and upper A zone then add the timer and start with a reasonable par time and work down until you cannot hold the Azone and upper Azone. Then you will know about how fast you can make a variety of different shots with confidence.

This is not a bill drill!!!

I start all of my practice sessions with 6 shots to the upper A at 25 yards and finish with the same drill.

[EricW]

Buy a bunch of either paper plates or Bianchi cup targets. Start off with anything outside the 10 ring being a miss. Once you get that, make anything outside the X ring a miss.

Doing accuracy drills on full-size IPSC targets is a loser unless you put them 50+ yards away. I guarantee you'll learn to shoot off a Cup target.

[benos]

As I transistion from my SASS guns with single action triggers ranging from 24 ozs (Rugers) to 2 1/2 pounds (97 & lever gun) to a production Glock 34 I find I need to work on my shooting beyond 15 yds. Can you suggest a drill to improve my accuacy at 15yds and beyond?

Shoot at a 9" paper plate at 25 yds, (stapled to the middle of an IPSC-type target. Start in position, sights lined up, but somewhat below the target.

a. Shoot 6 shot groups, slow fire, until you can consistently keep all the shots inside the middle, "flat" area of the plate. (Approx. 5" typically.)

b. Then do the same thing with a 15 second time limit.

c. Then repeat the same drill with a 10 second time limit.

Stick with "a" till you can repeat it consistently, and on demand. Then stick with "b" until you have no doubts about what it takes to do that, then move on to "c".

be

[dirtypool40]

I am hitting this again because I effectively have a "new" gun, and am getting zeroed again.

for me I shot partials so I have to force myself to "aim small". I find it hard after close up hosing to look at a paster and try to hit that instead of seeing the back of the gun cover cardboard and just snatch off a couple quickies.

Refine your vision, pick something small you want to hit, and then judge the results.

[XRe]

One other thought on small targets - cut the A-zone out of an IPSC target w/ a tortured A-zone. Place that over a whole IPSC target, but white/no-shoot side out. If you don't have paper plates on hand, or some other small target, this gives you a nice look at what an A-zone really looks like via color highlighting. Now, shoot 'em at 50 yards

[Nik Habicht]

Buy a bunch of either paper plates or Bianchi cup targets.  Start off with anything outside the 10 ring being a miss.  Once you get that, make anything outside the X ring a miss. 

Doing accuracy drills on full-size IPSC targets is a loser unless you put them 50+ yards away.  I guarantee you'll learn to shoot off a Cup target.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

EricW is right on on target selection here. I really learned what I needed to see to make shots at different distances from shooting a handful of Bianchi matches. Get some tombstones, or ten inch paper plates. Set four of them up in a line. Stand ten yards away from the first target. Set your timer for a par time of five seconds. Draw and fire six rounds without exceeding the time limit. Move to 15 yards away from target two. Set the par time for six seconds and do the same thing. Move to 25 yards from target three and set your timer to seven seconds. Draw and shoot six rounds. Move to 35 yards from target four. Take eight seconds to get your six hits.

If you need to initially use longer times, perhaps adding a second, or two or three to all the par times. As you become capable of hitting all tens most of the time, start shaving a second off from all times. You don't have to be blazing here to get your shots off ---- ideally you'd be using almost all of the time allotted, because this is more about learning what you need to see than about doing it really fast. On the other hand, you need the timer, so you're not taking ten seconds between shots........

Check the targets after each run --- so you can compare what you saw with what you achieved. Make sure to record your points and tape the targets after each run......

Shoot this drill eight times each practice session (that's 192 rounds and a good stopping point) for a few weeks and you should have a much better idea of what you need to see. Dry fire in between to get used to the Glock trigger......