5 Magazines At 25yds.

[JD45]

For some unknown reason, I began my last practice session on one IPSC target at 25yds.. The drill was to fire six A-hits as fast as possible. Unlike a Bill Drill, I forgot about the draw speed. I still drew fairly normal, but I was mainly focused on finding out how much sight picture could be traded for speed. Or, what I could get away with, vision wise.

After each run I would check the group and paste. Five magazines told me what I needed to know.

Next I repeated the same drill at Beno's "magic distance", 15yds. I have never in my life saw so much and been so relaxed and focused at that distance.

Then I tried it at 7yds.. Now, it seemed like childs play. It was almost as if I was waiting for the slide to close so I could see the next sight picture.

This was the best practice session I have experienced in my entire life! Less than 100 rounds total!!

My shooting is still at a level where I'm not good enough to be handing out much advice, but I think that the above drill will really open your eyes if you are in the early stages of learning.

I know it has changed me for good this time. I've crossed into a whole new world, and I'm not going back to the old one.

[wsimpso1]

Cool Biz!

Like you, the sessions where I have learned the most have been the ones with only one target! I recently got to the point where I am watching the gun return to the target almost like slow motion. I shall have to dry your routine now that I am waiting for the gun to come back to the target.

Billski

[glock17w]

Sounds like a great drill. I will add that one to my list. Thanks for the input.

[Walt S]

I'm a new shooter and started my practice at 3' and moved out to 6' then 12'. It worked well for me. HOWEVER, your suggestion has caught my attention. Think I'll try it this week before I compete on Saturday. Will look forward to reporting something good from that practice. Thanks for the idea.

[Mistral404]

I agree with you about the distance.

Some of my best matches have followed practices with the minimum distance of 25 yds for the targets

.

Actually, the most fun was shooting paper and steel at 40 yds for time and score during a practice session.

I experienced what you did, the 15 and 7 yds targets were huge during the match the next day.

I really like to do most of my practices at 23-28 yds.

[JD45]

The Triple Six drill is a great one, and you can do a search and see all of the fast times posted by excellent shooters. The intent of my post was to tell some lower class shooters something that really paid off in a practice session for me, and hope it will for you.

These are the things that I did:

1. Forget speed and don't use a timer.

2. Forget about draw speed.

3. Once you know what you must see at 25yds., then move to 15(it may take more or less magazines).

My practice sessions recently haven't broken any new ground until I tried this drill. I usually can shoot only a certain speed in split times at a given distance. If I shoot faster splits, hits go lower or somewhere they shouldn't.

This drill immediately helped the horrible low shots. It also taught me a great deal about my grip. At 25yds., I found that if I sort of forget about my strong hand, and just work the trigger, while my weak hand guides the gun, hits really improve.

The next step is to work on transitions at the same yardage and try to put it all together. If that works as well, then I'll be getting somewhere.

[Interceptor]

I taught a basic Glock school for some new recruits on our department. Towards the end, I had them shoot a steel IPSC size target at 15 yds, 10 rds slow enough to get ten hits. Most were about 60-70% successful. Then back to 25 yds, same thing. 35 yards, 45 yds and then finally 50 yds. It's great to watch the look on there face when they are ringing the steel at 50 yds, fairly consistently. I then move them all the way back up to 15 yards. Most comment that it seems like they are now shooting at a barn door. When they do shoot, it's DING, DING, DING ten times in a row and a lot faster then when they started. A real confidence inspiring drill. Shows them that it's the perception of the size of the target that changes, not it's actual size.

Edited September 29, 2005 by Interceptor