The “5” Challenge

Recently, a discussion came up on a forum I frequent related to a test Gila Hayes developed years ago. The test is intended to begin from a ready position and the question came up as to whether it was better to run it from a concealed holster.

The test is pretty simple:

  • fire five rounds
  • in five seconds
  • at a 5″ target
  • at 5yd
  • repeat for a total of five runs (25rd)

Give it a try (from concealment if you can, from the ready if you cannot) and report your results on the “5” Challenge thread at pistol-forum.com.

For your convenience, here is a simple .pdf target you can download and print on any 8.5×11 sheet of paper: circle5inch.pdf

Train hard & stay safe! ToddG

10 comments

  1. I’ll have to try it, but 5 seconds for 5 rounds at 5 yards seem pretty darn generous. I think maybe Gila had newer shooters in mind or maybe developed it for her Women classes? And yes I know it sounds sexist but most women don’t go around trying to be macho ‘knowing’ they can do a sub 2 second Bill drill.

  2. E — I agree that it’s generous, but it’s probably not designed to challenge someone like you who can make it to the F.A.S.T. Wall in his sleep.

  3. Sounds generous indeed. I would think an accomplished shooter could do it around 2.25 seconds or so with a production gun.

  4. Todd,

    Doesn’t Ken Hackathorn do “the test” which is 10 rounds at 10 yards on a 10″ nra target? Seems I saw a youtube video on it but can’t find it. Also seems very similar to the “5” chalenge.

  5. have you ever thought about doing a ‘daily challenge’?
    Put up a drill of the day and have people post times in the comments section. If you make it to the range on that day, shoot the drill cold and post results up.

    I do Crossfit and they feed into the competative nature on crossfit.com….keeps the edge up and is a fun way to see where you fit into on the grand scheme of things.

    1. MikeMan — The problem is that there are too few decent drills to make it worthwhile. Every few weeks we’d be cycling through the same set of drills. Also, not everyone is equipped to shoot every drill. Some folks cannot draw from a holster at their range, others cannot set up multiple targets, etc.

  6. MikeMan: That’s a neat idea. the “DOD”, Drill Of the Day. (play on WOD from Crossfit of course)

  7. Use the 5″ circle target at 5 yards with a 3 second PAR time (adjust the PAR for your ability). Start the first string with 1 round fired. The second string fire 2 rounds. continue increasing the round count until you can’t keep all the rounds in the circle or you miss the PAR. If you can do 10 rounds you need to drop your PAR time.

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