Who doesn’t love going shooting and sending a bit of freedom down range?

Hitting the range is easily my favorite pass time. There aren’t many outdoor ranges in my area, I spend the majority of my time behind a gun in an indoor climate controlled square range.

I may not be able to “Run and Gun” on a range like this, it’s also a tad bit difficult to induce stress, but I’ve come up with a few drills that I like to run to make the best use of my time and ammo on the range.

I see plenty of people on my range doing the same thing over and over and over again. Never pushing themselves to improve. They buy a man-sized silhouette target, place it no further than 7 yards, then dump 50-100 rounds into it. They are happy as long as all their shots are on paper.

To me this is a waste of time, a waste of money, and a waste of ammo. I don’t like to be wasteful.

This is the warm up I do with my carry gun each time I go to the range, it’s nothing ground breaking, nothing that hasn’t been done before. The great thing about this set of fire is it can be done just as a warm up or if you cannot afford to run though more than 50 rounds per range session then this will give you the most bang for your buck… Pun intended.

Things you will need.
– A Gun… That should go without saying but, these days who knows.
– 2-4 magazines
– 50 rounds of ammo
– Targets any silhouette target will work but you will need something to make an 8 inch circle and some 3×5 index cards. Index cards are cheap and easy to keep track of to see your progress over time. After each session I write the gun that was used and the date on each index card along with the distance it was shot at. For 8 inch circles you can use 8 inch shoot n see targets. I buy them from Amazon. If you would like to go the cheaper route you can buy a whole lot of 8 inch paper plates and use them as your center mass targets. No shame In being frugal.

I really like these silhouette targets. They provide a lot of different things to shoot at including an 8 inch center mass and a 3×5 head shot zone.

Okay let’s get to it.

First. Dry Fire… Yes Dry Fire on a live fire range. It’s free, it’s not against the rules, and you’re not wasting ammo getting re-acquainted with your sights and trigger.

Check and clear your weapon. Start low ready or if your range allows you to draw from the holster start with your weapon unloaded and holstered.

Check the following

Grip – Making sure your fingers are where they are supposed to be, thumbs pointed forward, using every inch of your hand to cover as much of the frame of your weapon as possible.

Stance – Knees slightly bent, weight on the balls of your feet, strong side foot slightly behind the other.

Sight Picture – Nice crisp front sight focus.

Sight alignment – Equal height between the front and rear sight and equal daylight on both sides.

Trigger press – Slow and controlled straight to the rear of the gun

Follow through – Hold trigger to the rear after shot breaks, rack the slide and release trigger to reset.

Repeat 10-20 times or until you no longer feel yourself flinch.

Now that you are acquainted with the way your sights look and the way your trigger feels and breaks let’s move on to live fire.

The first drill will require 2-4 mags.
– Load 5 rounds into each mag.
– Target should be placed at 3 yards.
– Draw and slowly fire 5 rounds onto 8 inch center mass target.
– Reload when you run dry.
– Search and Asses your surroundings by bringing your gun in close for retention and looking left and over your shoulder and looking right and over your shoulder.
– Repeat at 5, 7, and 10 yards
– 20 rounds total
– Try to keep all 20 rounds on the 8 inch circle

If 5 or more of your shots are outside of the 8 inch circle it would be best to repeat this 20 round sting of fire. If you were able to keep 80% of your shots or better in the center mass circle it’s time to move on to something more difficult.

This next drill is a direct replica of the previous only changing your target area from center mass to head shots being 3×5 index cards. Making the target smaller will cause you to focus more on your fundamentals.

Same as the first drill, will require 2-4 mags.
– Load 5 rounds into each mag.
– Target should be placed at 3 yards.
– Draw and slowly fire 5 rounds onto 3×5 inch head shot target.
– Reload when you run dry.
– Search and Asses your surroundings by bringing your gun in close for retention and looking left and over your shoulder and looking right and over your shoulder.
– Repeat at 5, 7, and 10 yards changing out the index card at each distance
– 20 rounds total

This drill will help refine your accuracy and push you to your failure point. Connecting with all 5 rounds at 3 yards is simple but as you push the distance the level of difficulty increases. If you can consistently keep all 5 rounds on each index card try starting out further maybe 5 yards then moving to 7, 10, and 12 or 15. Find the spot where you can no longer keep all 5 shots on the 3×5 and push past it.

These two drills will do a few different things. First it will help you focus on your fundamentals. Force reloads, break focus from target by doing the search and asses, boost your confidence in making center mass shots and also push your failure point with head shots showing you at what distance your accuracy begins to fall apart.

At this point you should have 10 rounds left time to have a bit of fun. (As if the two previous drills weren’t fun) I like to take those last 10 and work on target transitioning. Because I suck at it.

This drill only requires 1 mag, Unless your mags hold less than 10 rounds.
– Load 10 rounds in 1 mag
– Targets are 2 separate 3×5 index cards placed 12-18 inches apart.
– Draw fire 1 round on each card
– Search and Asses your surroundings by bringing your gun in close for retention and looking left and over your shoulder and looking right and over your shoulder.
– Alternate from going left/right to right/left
– Repeat on same cards until empty
– Distance is up to you, I like to challenge myself with this one and place it at what ever distance I am struggling keeping 5 shots on from the previous drill.

Try these out next time you hit the range and over time you will see improvement far greater than if you were just wasting your ammo poking holes in the same silhouette over and over again.

You will have shots out of center mass, you will defiantly have shots off of the 3×5’s. All of us miss shots, we all have failure points. You can never grow as a shooter if you do not discover your failure point. Find it, address it, push past it.

Train often, carry always, search and asses.

-Staysuspicious.