How To Get A Faster Draw???

[PistolPete]

I'm curious if anyone has any tips on getting my draw times lower. Here is currently what I do... I start from a surrender position bring both hands down at the same time. My right hand grips the gun as my left hand is palm down near my stomach. I pull the gun from the holser bringing it up and then towards my left support hand all while the muzzle is facing ahead. I raise the gun towards eye level, release the safety get my eyes on target and sights aligned and break the shot. I practice almost every night with my draw speeds in dryfire but when I get to the range my average time is around 1.5 seconds. I would like to shave at least .3 seconds consistatly with accuracy.

Anyone have any tips. My guess is just keep practicing and practicing. This is what I've been doing and it is def. helping. Just wondering if anyone has any tips.

Thanks,

Pete

[Steve Anderson]

Hey Pete,

This is one for the search function. There is a s-load of info about this topic... Tons.

SA

[mcoliver]

With your hands already set in the gun, what's the time difference between a draw with your hand somewhere?

I found out my reaction time depends on when I hear the buzzer. With the timer on my belt, I'm a few tenths slower than when somebody holds it near my ear.

Break down your draw actions and get your times on each part. Try doing the "jelly draw" (some call this the "full ape mode", read about it here somewhere) using only enough muscle to lift your hand and support your gun.

HTH.

[vincent]

For me one of the big time savers was reducing the amount of time I spent "getting the grip" on the gun in the holster. This involves not "pushing down" as much on the backstrap when drawing and not spending as much time getting everything perfect. I now try to snatch the gun out of the holster and work on being able to make some fine adjustments as my hands are coming together.

Also try the Matt Burkett tip of practicing your draw stroke "backwards". This helped me see things that I hadn't noticed. Start with the gun with a perfect grip about half way extended and just "slide into the sight picture". Then go from"high ready" and move through the end of the stroke ( I personally think this piece of the draw is the most important component of a fast draw AND an accurate shot). Then go back to getting the weak hand on the gun and into the perfect grip on through the end of the stroke. Continue back through the draw steps until you are doing a full draw stroke. Changing the order it seems to make it easier to concetrate on each step. I don't know why. I also tried to break it down into more steps so I could concentrate on a smaller amount of motion at a time.

Good luck.

[Bear1142]

Pistolpete,

It sounds like most of your draw mechanics are good. Try spending a little time working on your buzzer reaction time. When I do personal instruction I find most people don't make a concerted effort to jump the start buzzer. I've noticed some people don't even start moving until the buzzer stops sounding. Start by using the random start feature on your timer and going from hands at side. Put the buzzer on your belt near the location of your pistol. When the buzzer sounds, move your hand and smack the buzzer. Most buzzers will register a time with a moderate smack. This time is your reaction time to the gun. Do this ten times and get an average as a starting baseline. Work on starting your movement the instant your hear the first sound the buzzer makes. See if you can reduce your reaction time. After a while, see if your overall draw times improve. Hope this helps.

Erik

[PistolPete]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I noticed last night while shooting a match I asked someone to track my first time shot. My times were much lower around 1.35 seconds. I believe this was because it was a steel match and the first shots were all large targets as oppossed to the plate rack. However, I want at least this time or lower even on more difficult shots.

[shred]

Think "Get your hand on the gun before the buzzer stops buzzing". It's a good mental cue that works for me. Easier with a CED timer..

[Matthew_Mink]

I knocked .20 off of my draw times just moving my hand as fast as possible to the gun, then getting a good draw from there. I reviewed some videos and noticed my hand was just kinda lazily going down to the gun. Now I move it at warp speed, and presto!, .20 sec off of the draw.

[MattBurkett]

Here is a tip off my site (listed at the bottom) on how to check your reaction time.

Reaction To The Buzzer

I have found that a lot of my students have been losing

significant time on their draw just by having a slow reaction

time to when the buzzer sounds from the timer. How do you find

out what your reaction time is and more importantly how do you

improve it?

Try the following out:

* NEEDS: gun, ammo, and timer

* Set timer for a random delay between 4-8 seconds

* Load and make ready

* Hit go on the timer

* Gun out in the shooting position

* Visual focus on the target

* Take safety off

* Place finger on the trigger and take up the slack (Don't AD!)

* Tune your audio focus to listening for the start of the tone

* When buzzer goes, fire a shot

* Check the clock for results

* Repeat, trying to react as fast as possible

Most likely your first reaction times will be .30 or longer. Work

on the exercise until they are consistently under .20 and you

will already have removed a minimum of a tenth of a second from

your draw!

(A reaction time of .16-.20 of a second is optimum. My personal

best is a .11 at Shooters World in Phoenix during a class with

Chris Dysart. Chris went from a .34 to a average .18 of a second.

That was a savings of .16 or in other terms it moves a one second

draw down to an .84!)

Good luck everyone!

[Garfield]

I found out my reaction time depends on when I hear the buzzer. With the timer on my belt, I'm a few tenths slower than when somebody holds it near my ear.

Must be because of the slow speed of sound which needs to travel further from your belt to your ear than when directly near your ear

[Flexmoney]

Something else that we haven't touched on...

Along with speeding up the draw, if you want to hit the target...

Index (or some variation of the concept).

If you do some practice draws with the eyes closed...first, the sights sould be properly alinged...second, they should be on target (when the eyes are opened).

If you aren't properly lined-up on the target for the draw, then you will have to muscle the gun onto the target during the draw. This takes up time.

Note:

Some stages...you might be better lining-up on the hardest target of the shooting position. Then, keeping the feet lined up on that hard target, bend the knees and pivot so that the upper body is lined up on the start target. You give up a bit in draw speed and gain it back on the tough transition...or not. (But, hey...that is not what this thread is about.)

[benos]

A visualization "trick" that helped me in the "later days" (after I'd practiced every individual, specific technique for years) was to - (as I was receiving the commands), Forget everything, and only hold the image of a perfectly aligned, stopped sight picture on the center of the target in my mind's eye as I was waiting for the buzzer. Then allow the buzzer "to replace" the image with the real thing.

be

[spook]

Something that has helped me was watching Saul Kirsh draw his gun. First of all, his reaction to the timer is fast. And when he draws, the part to where the hands meet is really fast. It's like he gets his hands there as fast as he can and doesn't worry about perfecting his grip until he gets both hands on the gun and extends.

I started working on this myself, and my draw times went down dramatically.

[mcoliver]

Recently got a versa-hanger type holster and I've been fiddling with the gun position for the most tension-free draw (damn these types of holsters with so much position combinations.) Settled on a position with the grip slighly twisted away from the body. The beavertail just a tad over the top portion of the belt (so the gun is relatively low).

Dry fired for about 2 weeks with it. Draw is relatively smooth but I noticed 3 things:

1. I can't "seem" to find the gun fast enough. Probably need a new index point while the arms are hanging down. No problem with hands above shoulders, why?

2. I can't "seem" to pull the gun up fast enough to punch out solidly. (Timed myself yesterday and draw was hovering at 1.01-1.1sec, 8yrds, A-hits. But felt that I was struggling. Pushing a .8 was really a struggle for me.)

3. I'm getting muscle strains in another part of my shoulders that I haven't gotten before. So much for tension-free draw.

I was thinking about it while driving back home. I realized that I've been using an Uncle Mikes kydex for several months. Maybe I got used to the gun being positioned higher in the waist? Or the extra retention that the UM provided w/c made me feel that I can grab the gun as aggressively as I want?

Hmmm...

These things can really drive you nuts! But, heck, it's fun...