Consistency is the holy grail of shooter development. Working to forge repeatability into each subcomponent of the shooting process contributes to overall consistency. One of those subcomponents is the draw stroke, another is the follow-up shot and yet another is the placement of multiple, accurate rounds delivered in a compressed time frame.
Our drill this month trains you to build repeatability into your shooting fundamentals. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to successfully fire 15 consecutive rounds without a single miss and delivered in a timely manner across five stages of fire. This drill helps develop your ability to stay visually and mentally focused enough to maintain vital, repeatable shooting mechanics such as grip, hold, press and recovery.
Here’s the Drill
Set up an “A”-box-size piece of steel at the 15- or 20-yard line. Shooters seeking more of a challenge may increase target difficulty by either reducing target size or increasing distance (or both).
Set your point-of-aim as well as your point-of-impact to the visual center of the plate. The goal is to advance through all five stages—firing a total of 15 rounds—without a single miss. Note: this is not bullseye shooting, so there needs to be some alacrity to your performance. You stay in the game as long as you are successful, and you get kicked to the curb with any misses.
Stages of Fire
Stage 1: Fire one round from the holster. If you miss, start over. If you hit, stay on the target after the shot to confirm recovery. Following confirmation, return to the holster.
Stage 2: Fire two rounds from the holster, note realignment after the second round and return to the holster. Cease fire on the first miss. If you miss, reholster and go back to stage one.
Stage 3: Fire three rounds from the holster, note realignment after the third round and then return to the holster. Cease fire on the first miss. If you miss, reholster and go back to stage one.
Stage 4: Fire four rounds from the holster, note realignment after the last round and return to the holster. Cease fire on the first miss. If you miss, reholster and go back to stage one.
Stage 5: Fire five rounds from the holster, note realignment after the last round and return to the holster. Cease fire on the first miss. If you miss, reholster and go back to stage one.
Fifteen consecutive hits over five stages of fire—sounds easy, right? Although a great drill for solo training, it’s also a useful and fun competition (as it adds a little pressure) to run this with two or more shooters.
When running it with two or more shooters, if a shooter misses, they lose their turn and the next shooter steps up to the line. If they miss, then the next shooter steps up and so on. If you want to take it to the next level, you can set par times for each stage.
The purpose of this drill is for someone to discover what it takes visually, mentally and mechanically to remain locked on (in the zone, fully focused, etc.), and through that endurance develop the essential repeatability needed for consistent on-demand performance.
