Posted: 8/2/2007 2:01:47 PM EDT
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Yes, everyone should take some sort of formal training if they are serious about firearms. Yet sometimes time and money don't always allow that when we want... I though this might be a good place to compile some good ideas for more advanced techniques than "affix target, try to hit center"  Please share your favorite range drills, tactics, exercises, games, whatever helps you become a more proficient shooter! |
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The old shape and color drill, helps with basic target discrimination. Paint, stick, draw etc a green circle, red triangle, and blue square on a target (make them large enough to acquire quickly, but small enough to be a bit of a challenge). Works best on a target at least about 3' tall, and 1' wide, to help in keeping up with where you're hitting without hitting the other shapes. Have a partner call out red, blue, green, triangle, circle, or square. Come from the holster, low ready, or what have you, acquire the appropriate shape or color, and shoot it. Try to work on your speed, but keep up the accuracy. It helps build a basic level of target identification and acquisition. Of course, any colors/shapes will do, this is just an example. Blow up a picture of a populated public area, such as a park, street, mall, etc, and paste pictures (proportional to the area picture size) of guns, knives, what have you to various pictures. Start from the holster, low ready, what have you and engage the "threats" (people with weapons affixed to them). I haven't tried this yet, but I imagine you could get it done at Kinko's, Staples, etc, but don't know how much it might cost. It doesn't have to be huge, maybe 3'x2' at 7 yds or so. But I'm thinking you may want to come up with something other than "I'm going to use it for target practice" if they ask what you're making them up for. Don't want the public getting the wrong idea. Either way, this would be more of a challege in the target discrimination area than the shapes. And please, try not to hit the friendlies. If you're into precision rifles, etc, build a little building out of cardboard boxes with windows, doors and such. Buy a bag of army men or some such, and tape their legs to the base of some of the windows, on the roofs, etc and try to get them from 100yds or so, or whatever you're comfortable with (and then try to go further). This is even more fun with a fellow shooter/spotter to call your shots and direct you to other targets in the "building". You can incorporate portal numbers, weapon types, etc into your communication with each other. I won't get into how to number buildings, sides, floors, etc, because everyone does it different, but you get the idea. "One man, flamethrower (we're using army men, remember), left building, third floor, third window from the left" will work. This can be a fun drill, especially if you like that kind of thing. Personally, I'm not a DM, but I still enjoy communications drills. Just another idea. Ball and dummy drills. Include dummies in your magazines to force immediate action. Incorporate this into all your drills. It's good practice. Include a barrel or some form of simulated cover to duck behind as you reload, if you're practicing with a pistol or carbine if you so desire. Just a couple thoughts, hope they help. |
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There are tons of things you can do to help hone your skills. It seems that's there an unlimited number of drills and variations. They are limited only by one's creativity. You can even find ways to do some good training on days you can't get to the range and fire live ammo. One method you can use is even as simple as watching a little TV! I try to do the following on a daily basis with both a handgun and a carbine: Make sure your weapon is unloaded. This means checking, double checking and triple checking. Then you check it again for good measure. And for the handgun, drop in a snap cap. For the AR, I am ok just dry firing it. Turn on your tv and stand back from it. Practice engaging targets that appear on the screen. Start from the low ready (or holster with your handgun) and practice bringing the weapon up, aligning the sights, disengaging the safety and squeezing off a well aimed shot at the character before the scene changes. Then engage the safety and repeat as much as you like. Commercials work really well for this type of practice. Being they are short, they usually move fast. Thus, as your speed improves, you can challenge yourself more by practicing against these quick changing scenes. There will even be opportunities available in which multiple people will appear in the same image, so you get to engage multiple threats (if you have a weapon that doesn't require you manually recock it after each shot). The goal here is to start slow and build speed. Don't ever sacrifice accuracy for speed. There's a saying....."fast is slow, slow is fast". That applies to shooting most definately. One "slow" shot that makes a good hit is going to do more, faster than a lightning fast double tap or hammer that misses by 3 feet. So practice accuracy first and foremost. The speed will come the more you practice. The ultimate goal will be to shoulder the weapon, flip off the safety, align sights, and squeeze the trigger in what will hopefully be one fluid movement (fluid in this case doesn't mean faster than a jackrabbit, just a steady progression from one task to the next without any stopping or pausing between). If you wanted to get really creative, get a shooting partner to video some scenes for you and you do likewise for them. Present them with human targets in all different sorts of positions. Prone, sitting, standing, behind cover, moving, etc. Maybe add in some hostage type scenes for something suprising and unexpected. Then transfer them to DVD/VHS and exchange them. By doing this, you won't already know the order of the scenes or even what challenges you'll be faced with. Thus, it will keep you on your toes. And of course, you can always re-do them later and mix up the scenes, so as to not develop a "pattern" when practicing. You can also mix things up by having numerous objects in a scene and having someone call out a specific target among them. Color coded items or shapes work well for this. IMHO, this sort of practice is very underrated. Not only does it allow one to have many more opportunities to become familiar with their weapon, but it also adds more repetition. As we know, that is what's needed to help us buyild muscle memory and allow us to instantly react to a threat, without having to stop and think..."what am I gonna do?" People who shoot several hundred rounds every week can still benefit by practicing these simple and efficient drills. With ammunition being as expensive as it is today, many people are shooting less. So if you shoot less, spend more time doing this. There's always something you can do to help train, even if you aren't going live fire or in some cases, don't even have a gun in your hand! One other thing I have noticed about training using dry fire practice is that it often allows you to see flaws or mistakes in your technique that you may not be as aware of during live fire. I have used this to help new shooters isolate problems. For example, many new shooters (or out of practice experienced shooters) have that tendency to close their eyes and jerk the trigger at the end of the break, rather than doing so clean and crisply. If their eyes are closed, how are they going to see that they are pulling/pushing off low, high, to the side, etc? But in dry fire mode, they aren't going to be anticipating the "bang" or recoil. So they will be more likely to get it right. And if they do flinch, they themselves will likely detect the problem. With lots of dry fire practice, most of those types of problems can be isolated and corrected, through repetition. Accuracy will dramaticaly improve. And muscle memory will be strengthened. Anyway, I just thought I'd throw out something a little different, yet beneficial nonetheless, to those looking to maximize their time spent training. Even on days you can't get to the range, you can still conduct effective training if you get creative. Just always remember to apply basic, common sense safety rules and don't get careless. Otherwise, you may end up needing a new tv (or worse) in short order.  |
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This is simple, fundamental practice, but a must have. I am applying this only to carbine/pistol (primarily because that is what I work with and receive formal training on. I'll leave the rest to those experienced in other disciplines). Pick up some dummies, 5 or 10 for your pistol and your carbine. Practice your immediate action drills with both, incorporated with slide/bolt back and forward. I'm sure most everyone with any experience knows this, but for some of the newer members, it might be a good suggestion for you. After clearing both your carbine and pistol CORRECTLY, a couple of times (don't forget to check your magazines, too), load a few dummies in each magazine. Come from the holster, dry fire. When it clicks (as of course it will), do a tap-rack. For those that don't know, this is immediate action for the pistol, often needed when a mag isn't seated well, misfire, etc. Tap the bottom of the mag with the heel of the support hand (not hard, just firmly, from a couple of inches or so, not a tennis swing), and rack the slide, while ensuring you're not covering the ejection port. NOTE: if you suspect a misfire (on the range), hold the weapon downrange for 30+ seconds to ensure it's not a hangfire. Practice reloads in the same manner. Do the same with the carbine. The military (or at least basic training army) teaches SPORTS for immediate action. SLAP-PULL-OBSERVE-RELEASE-TAP-SQUEEZE. The problem with this is that you use your firing hand to pull the charging handle, hence slowing your sight reacquisition, and taking your firing hand off the grip. An easier (and more efficient) way of doing this is roughly the same as the pistol. With the support hand, slap the magazine, then grab the charging handle and latch with the same hand (either by pinching or hooking behind the carrying handle, etc, depending which works best for you) and quickly retract it. These take 1 to 1.5 seconds with practice. This is based on my training, it varies from place to place. Either way, hope it helps. |
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Rabbits, Jack Rabbits to be specfic. They are hard to hit , bounce back and forth and you know when you hit them and when you don't. Walk in a field of sage brush and scare them up. Walk with your kids in a line and teach field of fire and responsibility. Also when target moves into anothers field of fire they learn to stop shooting. Plus the dog loves the meat and kids loves the hides. Crows are good targets too. |
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To start off. I am in 100% agreement with some of the other posters. It makes zero sense to spend all that money on a firearm of ANY type and then think that you will magically know how to use it in a high stress situation. That is like buying the best bat and glove and thinking you are ready for the Major League. You HAVE to have TRAINING! That being said. One thing that I am a VERY strong advocate of is empty hand self defense training. This is something that seems to be lacking in most "combat" pistol or service rifle courses. Unfortuneatly, the train of thought of most people is that if they have a gun, they are invincable. Guess what. Most attacks on the street occur within five feet. Even IF the bad guy said "Hey, I'm about to attack you!", from that distance you would be VERY lucky to be able to comprehend the threat, draw your weapon, and fire before the bad guy is on you. Now add the element of surprise and put a weapon in his hand and you can see where this is going. As an instructor, my mission in life is to give my students the ability to save their own life or that of their loved ones. In order to do this you HAVE to practise at the VERY LEAST things such as startle recovery, creating distance, and disarmament and retention. |
Agreed. I tend to concentrate more on the weaponcraft, but that is more for lack of knowing where to get the "hands-on" training. I know that I suck at hand-to-hand type stuff, but don't know the best way to go about remedying it. If anyone knows of any good hand-to-hand (realistic training, I'm not looking for an art form) training worth the money around central VA, please let me know. |