Thanks again to Bryan Williams, first winner in our Design a Drill of the Week contest, for bringing us Triple Six last week. We’ve been getting some outstanding drills and we’ll be unveiling one a month.
One thing that Triple Six showed us is that quite a few folks were really struggling with the long shots. Come on, guys! Marksmanship fundamentals are the foundation for all handgun shooting. Being fast is great, but being fast without being accurate is a waste of time and bullets.
As a reminder for those who may not have read it in a while, we highly recommend Larry Vicker’s article Tactical Tips: Accuracy here at pistol-training.com.
And as punishment reinforcement, this week we’re going to shoot some nice, slow twenty-five yard groups.
You’ll only need your pistol, a box of ammo, and ideally some kind of rest like sandbags or a formal pistol rest. Set up a target at 25yd and fire five of the slowest, most precise, most perfect shots you’ve ever produced, using the sandbags or pistol rest to support the gun while you’re sitting. Retrieve your target and put up a fresh one. Shoot another five, nice and slow working only on your sight picture and trigger press. Do this until you’ve got five targets, each with a 5-shot group.
Next, measure the groups. You do this by taking the two holes that are farthest apart in the group and measuring them from the closest edge of one to the farthest edge of the other (inside edge to outside edge). That’s you’re group size. Take your five group measurements and average them to get an idea of how you, your gun, and your ammo are doing.
For a lot of people, this can be a mentally exhausting drill. You really need to break each shot as perfectly as you can. If things start to feel wrong, if you begin to see your sight alignment shift or your trigger finger feels like it’s not moving smoothly, stop before you break the shot, rest for a moment, and start again.
Once you’ve shot your groups, come back and share how you did with us. If enough people report their results, next week we’ll step up to something a little faster. Otherwise, it’s more punishment motivation on the slow accuracy stuff!
Training with firearms is an inherently dangerous activity. Be sure to follow all safety protocols when using firearms or practicing these drills. These drills are provided for information purposes only. Use at your own risk.
This is a great idea. I try to shoot groups everytime I practice, and I always learn something each time I do.
Shooting 5 of these to get an average isn’t real easy either – All it takes is 1 or 2 missed opportunities on the trigger and the group won’t be so much of a group anymore.
I’ll play…
I watch a guy shooting at a steel target (8″ circle) bolted to a 2×4 at about 18 yards in an IDPA match yesterday. He emptied his .45 four times before he sawed the 2×4 in half and the steel fell to the ground. As you know, steel tends to pull your eye off of the front sight. I felt sorry for the poor soul, he was really frustrated.
Very nice! Think of what it would have been without that low-left.