Let’s mix it up now. Different drills to mix things up. (Updated 2/28/2023)
These are drills to help keep your training “fresh.” You will need a shot timer for doing training like this so you can analyze and quantify your improvement. A selfie stick where you can prop your phone up to take video of your target helps as well. A shot timer has two functions: First, it gives you a start beep that tells you to start shooting, then counts the time for each shot you make. This function is used in competitions and single training. If you use this in a busy range, it will pick up and count all shots from all shooters in the range. The function you will need here is a “Par function.” This you can set to a certain number of seconds. It goes “beep” to tell you to start shooting and “beep” again to tell you to stop. Shooting video of your target helps you determine your actual time. If many people are shooting in the same range, the shot timer will pick up their shots as well, giving inaccurate times. When I record, I say the date, the drill, the sequence, then start shooting and say "done" after my last shot.. If there were no shots from other shooters, I say what the timer says I did.
Below I have compiled a bunch of training regimens for you to practice with and keep things “fresh.” These drills are not mine. I give full credit to those I heard them from. Use my 8-6-4-1 Drills to take your shot strings home for study. A spreadsheet is coming soon for this. This way you can quantify if you’re getting better.
A quick paraphrase and inverse note from Ken Hackathorn and Bill Wilson's “7 Shooter's Sins,”
“Practice what you suck at, so you stop sucking at it.”
While practice and honing of every skill is important, those where you are “sub-standard” should always get priority in your training regimen. Bring your friends and compete against each other. This also provides accountability so you will seriously work to improve your skills. Say you have three drills you want to go through. Each of you do the drill, the one who does it the best wins, The winner comes out with winning 2+ of the drills, the loser buys lunch.
Ideally, draw from concealment. The bad news is, 99% of the indoor ranges will not allow you to draw and fire directly from your holster. My suggestion instead is to start at Low Ready (weapon in hand, pointed down at about 45 degrees, or at the “feet” of the target at 5-7 yards). and double up on your dry-fire from your holster at home.
There are a lot of variables involved in either starting from concealment or from low ready. Because they are different, I do not "add an offset" to my low ready drills so I can lump them into my draws from concealment. It's best to keep these drills separate from each other.
“Par time” refers to a fixed time duration in which all shots must be completed. Shots after the par time count as misses. Time Standard refers to a maximum time to complete the drill to show proficiency.
Here’s the key: you can run these drills as many times as you want, however only the first one is "scored for the board." You can't run it 10+ times and pick the best score. That's unfair to yourself. You won't get time for a practice run or to "warm up" in a real life situation.
Thanks to the cost of the big targets, ($6 for 4 targets at my range), here is a PDF of my "8-6-4-1" target. It is a single target with concentric circles to show an 8 inch, 6 inch, 4 inch and a 1 inch target, and fields where you can document the drill. It also has all of the drills below, so you can print out multiple copies of the target on the first page, and the rest of the document once for all the drills do you can have an easy-to-reference list of drills. You can also put up a dozen of these on a single "big" target and save lots of targets (and cash). The best part is, you can take the targets home and study them at your leisure.
SPECIAL NOTE: if you have a home setup that resets your trigger (SIRT, Coolfire, etc.), you can do the below drills with a "DRY-FIRE COMPATABLE" tag during your dry fire practice as well.
When using the Mantis IDPA target, I determined the distance from my muzzle to my toes (stand in a shooting position, muzzle against a wall, then measure from the wall to your toes), then added that to the scale of the target. I did the math properly. I painted lines in my garage from my garage door where I mount the targets and have at it.
| Full-size range | Mantis target range |
| 3 Yards | 5'0" |
| 5 Yards | 6'10" |
| 7 Yards | 8'8" |
| 10 Yards | 11'5" |
| 15 Yards | 16'0" |
| 20 Yards | 20'7" |
| 25 Yards | 25'2' |
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And any time you think you've "got this drill down cold," then up the game. Increase the range. Drop the par time. Shrink the target. Add a slide lock reload to it. Put some dummy rounds randomly in your magazine. Do all of the above. Like instead of a "5-5-5" drill (5 yards, 5 rounds, 5 seconds) into an 8" target, make it a "10-5-3" at a 4" target.
Ken Hackathorn’s Warm-up drill:
Comment: Shoot cold, as in your first shots of the day. You won’t get to “warm-up” before a real gunfight.
Target: 4” Circle on chest, 4" circle on head.
Range: Varies, as below.
Time Standard: Not timed, however as quickly as possible.
Suggested weapon start: Concealed.
Penalties: None
Actions:
1 shot @ 3 yards to head target.
3 shots @ 6 yards to torso target.
3 shots @ 9 yards to torso target.
3 shots @ 9 yards to torso target.
Ken Hackathorn’s 2-2-2 Drill:
Comment: Another “1st drill of the day” drill.
Target: 8” Circle
Range: 10 yards
Time Standard: 9 seconds
Suggested weapon start: Concealed.
Penalties:
Misses: on paper: + 1 seconds, off paper: + 5 seconds.
Actions:
-Draw and fire two rounds with both hands.
-Remove support hand and fire two rounds dominant hand only.
-Switch to support hand and fire two rounds support hand only.
Larry Vicker’s 5-5-5 Drill:
Comment: “Push until you fail.” Same time, but more shots in that time.
Target: 8” Circle
Range: 5 yards
Time Standard: Par of 5 seconds
Suggested weapon start: Low Ready.
Penalties:
Misses: Drill fail.
Shots after par time: Drill fail.
Score as the last successful run.
Actions:
-Fire 1 shot into target in less than 5 seconds.
-Fire 2 shots into target in less than 5 seconds.
-Fire 3 shots into target in less than 5 seconds.
-[Keep going]
Repeat, adding 1 round to the string each time until you fail.
Ken Hackathorn’s Comfort Zone Drill:
Comment: “Push until you fail.” Same number of shots, but progressively less time to make those shots.
Target: 4” Circle
Range: 5 yards
Time Standard: Par of 5 seconds and decreasing
Suggested weapon start: Concealed.
Penalties:
Misses: Drill fail.
Shots after par time: Drill fail.
Score is the last successful run.
Actions:
-Fire 5 shots into target in less than 5.0 seconds.
-Fire 5 shots into target in less than 4.5 seconds.
Repeat, decreasing par time in 0.5 second increments until you fail.
Shoot to stop (Mozambique)
Comment: This will be the closest you’ll get to what you’ll (try) to do in an actual gunfight.
Target: FAST target.
Range: 5 yards
Time Standard: Faster than your last run.
Suggested weapon start: Concealed.
Penalties:
Misses: on paper: + 1 seconds, off paper: + 5 seconds.
Actions:
Fire 2 shots to the chest.
Fire 1 shot to the head.
Tap-rack-bang
Comment: A failure drill. This will help you recognize recover whenever you pull the trigger but don’t have that “bang.”
Target: 8” Circle
Range: 5 yards
Time Standard: Faster than your last run
Suggested weapon start: Concealed.
Penalties:
Misses: on paper: + 1 seconds, off paper: + 5 seconds.
Bonuses: For each “misfire,” -2 seconds.
Actions:
Dump 20 live and 5 dummy rounds into a cup and mix. Without looking, load 10 rounds into a magazine. Better yet, let a friend do it for you.
Upon pulling the trigger on a dummy round, tap the bottom of the magazine with your non-dominant hand to reseat it, pull the slide back to eject the “bad” round, let the slide go forward on its’ own, reacquire your hold and sight picture and resume shooting.
Beth Alcazar’s Tap-rack-bang 2.0
Comment: Tap-Rack-Bang endurance test, with multiple targets. Have fun!
Target: FAST target.
Range: 5 yards.
Time Standard: Faster than your last run.
Suggested weapon start: Concealed.
Penalties:
Misses: on-paper, + 1 second. Off paper, +5 seconds.
Actions:
From a pool of 20 live rounds and 10 dummy rounds, Load 3x 10 round mags randomly without looking. Have a friend load them if possible.
Engage large target. On malfunction, tap/rack/bang, start shooting at small target. Switch targets on every malfunction.
On slidelock, emergency reload and put 5 live rounds into large target, clearing dummies, then resume moving targets on malfunction.
Daniel Richardson‘s "Dirty Thirty" Drill
Comment: This is an accuracy and endurance test. If you complete this drill at a class held by Richardson Precision & Training, you get a Challenge coin.
Target: 6” Circle or bullseye target.
Range: Various.
Time Standard: N/A.
Suggested weapon start: Low Ready or Ready.
Penalties:
Misses: Count as zero points toward your score.
Actions:
Fire ten rounds at 7 yards.
Fire ten rounds at 10 yards.
Fire ten rounds at 15 yards.
Daniel Richardson‘s "Dirty Thirty" Drill v2.0
Comment: This is an endurance test with a time limit. If you complete this drill at a class held by Richardson Precision & Training, you get a Challenge coin. As of my writing this, no one has got a perfect score.
Target: 6” Circle or bullseye target.
Range: Various.
Time Standard: See below.
Suggested weapon start: Low Ready or Ready.
Penalties:
Misses: Count as zero points toward your score.
Actions:
Fire ten rounds at 7 yards in 15 seconds or less.
Fire ten rounds at 10 yards in 15 seconds or less.
Fire ten rounds at 15 yards in 20 seconds or less.
Hackathorn’s BFM drill
Comment: This is an amalgamation of three separate drills. The "Bill Drill" (6 shots, 7 yards, 3 seconds), the FAST Drill and the Mozambique drill (both described above), Hence the "BFM." The Mozambique is run “backwards” (1 to the box, 2 to the circle) so you have to change targets after every group.
Target: FAST target.
Range: 7 yards.
Time Standard: Faster than your last run.
Suggested weapon start: Concealed.
Penalties:
Misses: on-paper, + 1 second. Off paper, +5 seconds.
Actions:
Load a magazine with eight rounds, insert into weapon and chamber a round. Load a second magazine with seven rounds, insert it into mag pouch on hip.
Fire 6 shots to the circle.
Fire 2 shots to the box.
Perform slide-lock reload.
Fire 4 shots to the circle.
Fire 1 shot to the box.
Fire 2 shots to the circle.
Par times:
Over 20 Seconds, fail.
17-20 Seconds, D Grade.
14-17 Seconds, C Grade.
11-14 Seconds, B Grade.
Under 11 Seconds, A Grade.
Larry Vicker’s Close-out drill
Comment: This should be the last drill you shoot in your session. It's easy and lets you feel better if you've shot terribly this session.
Target: 1” Circle.
Range: 3 yards
Time Standard: N/A.
Suggested weapon start: Low Ready or Ready.
Penalties: None.
Actions:
Shoot ten rounds, with the objective is to aim at the target and end up with a ragged hole. The hole does not have to coincide with the target. You are looking for a knothole-sized ragged hole in the target.
DIAGNOSING DRILLS
These two drills can help you with diagnosing any issues you have.
2nd shot drill. (Adam Painchaud)
If you start to find yourself missing with your second, or third, or shots during a drill firing multiple shots quickly, use this drill to help you find out what's wrong.
Insert a loaded magazine, rack the slide to chamber a round. Drop the magazine, aim and fire. Your weapon will fire and cycle the slide into an empty chamber. Bring the sights back on target quickly and pull the trigger, watching your front sight. Pay close attention so you can see which way your shot is missing. The first shot teaches your body that this was a real shot, and it will assume the 2nd will be as well, since you didn't relax, take your aim off the target, etc. This is very telling on what your hands are doing.
Blind Swordsman Drill (Ayoob)
DRY-FIRE COMPATABLE.This one recommends a friend to make sure you don't get off target or something happens while your eyes are closed.
Load and aim at your target, close your eyes and pull the trigger. Open your eyes to see if your weapon is still on target and if you hit where you aimed. Only do one shot at a time so you can tell where you hit. If you shoot twice and one misses, you won't know which one was the miss.
In closing, do a variety of these drills. Keep it interesting so you retain your enthusiasm for your range time. Measure your performance. Analyze the results. See where you're weak, then learn how to improve in that area.