Course Topic: Pistol Drills for Skill Building

What:  *The 500 Rounds Derby: Students will shoot at least 500 rounds in quality drills and practices in 4 hrs. Get some ammo!

When: Oct 5 th, 2014 (0800-1200 hrs) 4 hrs

Where: Angeles Shooting Range (Eagles’ Nest “C”) Lake View Terrace, CA

Weather:  102 degrees

(1) The session began at 8:18 at 5 yard line.  All 6 shooters set up for 5 x 5 Drill. It’s a new drill where the shooter will dry fire their weapon 5 times and insert a loaded magazine and fire 1 round. After the second 5x dry fire – 2 live fire, third 5x dry fire -3 live fire, fourth 5x dry fire – 4 live fire, fifth – 5 live fire. This drill was to replace skip loaded drill and done much faster. With proper dry fire, regardless of whether the shooter know that there is a live rounds, he should be able to fire with steady press. All achieve the proper press.  Jack seemed to have issues placing rounds at the 8 inch paper plate and slammed many rounds low to the right (left hand shooter). After a brief correction, he hit the marker perfectly.

(2) Warm-up at 7 yard line. From the holster – Fire 3 rounds in 6 seconds. 4 rd in 6 seconds, 5 rds in 6, 6 rds in 6.  The gradual speeding up ensure that the shooter had good sight alignment/picture. All of them were able to make 6 rds in 6 seconds.

(3) P-I Test 5 rd – 5 yrd, 5 rd – 10 yrd, 5 rd – 15 yrd, 5 rd – 20 yrd:

Dave Shaw score the 199 missing just 1 round to miss the 200 Club.  Close but no cigar.  Fadi surprising shot really well with 197 – with the instructor’s Glock 34.  Mike’s score slipped with his weapon that was not firing correctly with numerous failure to fire malfunctions.  Mike got really good at tap-roll-rack technique. The expectation at this level is 180 and above to be satisfactory.

(4) Moving from line to line implementing the SUL ready position. Although this is not an official TAC-1 curriculum technique, Shoji showed and demoed the usage of SUL so that the shooters can actually turn around up range and move away from the target without covering and not violating the 180 rule.  All participants performed will with minor adjustments.  Shooters shot at 7 yard line – 5 rds standing, 5 rds speed kneel, SUL position moved up to 10 yard, 15 yard and 20 yard repeating the shooting sequence.

(5) Running Drill: drills involving running was requested by Dave Shaw who had the great urge to run.  Any drills that incorporate running and raising heart rate is an excellent way to discover what the shooter does under stressful situation.  Usually students lose not only the ability to hold sights, but also the mobility in the hands, and rational thinking. When students are not exposed to repetitive training, practice proper operation of the weapon system, and proper mind set they usually crumble and fail at some point of the drill. For some, reloading became a toil. Some froze when the weapon went out of battery, speed reload became pseudo tactical reload, fumbling with magazines (usually associated with improper hold).  Often shots were fired without proper sight picture (front sight focused).   Shooter started at 20 yard. As a group they all ran and touched their own target and ran back to 20 yard to fire 5 rounds as a group.  Ran and touch the target and returned to 15 yard to fire 5 rds, ran and touch the target and return to 10 and 7 yard line. The workshop is now picking up where if not properly prepared, shooters would sure to fail at many levels.

(6) 1-2-R-3 Drill: Shooter begins the drill with three rounds in the gun at 5 yrd line.  On the buzzer, draw and fire six rounds as follows on the

Target: 
– one round at the 1″ square
– two rounds at the 2″ circle
– perform a reload
– three rounds at the 3×5 rectangle

This drill is ordinarily done at 7 second par time. Mike Dozier came in very strong with this drill and no one was able to come close to mike’s raw time. Dave was also fast and accurate as well. For many, more you speed up, more you miss.

(7) Running Drill #2: Identical drill from #5 but now individually timed. 

Dave Shaw consistently demonstrated strong shooting through out the day and him hustling his running cut his time drastically.  Chris Weir who had a pull hamstring due to over powering at the Edged Weapon class in September caused him to run slower, however his accurate shooting as result almost caught up do Shaw’s best time.  Fadi often mess up the direction and this drill was no exception. Fadi only shot 4 rounds at 10 yard line and attempted to make up rounds at 7 yard line firing 10 rounds (???). His rational was never understood.

Remember,  “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training”.  If you are not operating your weapon correctly, if you are not mentally connected to the training, if you cut corners – all these things will aid you in your failure when SHTF. Why do we assess during our training? Why do we ask you to hold the magazine with 3 finger grip? Why do we perform chamber checks when handling administratively? Why do we go back to on target when completing a combat task such as speed reloading?  These things must be re-visited as students were cutting corners today. You will fall to the level of your training and if you are not training correctly…well, that’s what you will fall on. 

I take great responsibility in teach you these matters. It could make you or break you when you need it. But if you are not retaining material taught to you, just ask.  Don’t make thing up and don’t cut corners. Please take pride in the things we teach at TAC-1.  We have nothing less to expect from you. 

(8) Pistol-II(D) TEST (1/2)Marksmanship Test (Stage 1): 25 rounds

Positions Test (Stage 2): 25 rounds

Scores @ 500 max score

Chris Weir came in at the Top for this drill.  This course was designed for those who’d completed all of Pistol-I and Pistol-II module and the course is not easy by any means. Although the workshop participants had only shot the first half of the test, they’ve gotten down and dirty. Fadi was quickly disqualified for shooting with two hands when he was only allowed to use one. Fadi shot 474 and would have been at the top but his inability to follow direction due to language barrier hurt him greatly. Jack took a break during this drill due to exhaustion from both running and heat. He sat out for this portion.  Doug told me later that he’d never trained positions that he felt he needed further training.

(9) Movement Drill: Lateral and Forward move.
– Lateral: 2 shots on 6 targets moving left to right / right to left x 4 times
– Forward: walk from 15 yards to 10 and draw and fire 5 rounds as the shooter moved to 5 yard line x 2 times

(10) The Bill Drill: 7yd, gun in holster, 6 rounds fired, IPSC size steelThe Bill Drill is designed to improve speed without sacrificing accuracy. Six shots are fired quickly hitting the target. The drill teaches sight tracking, proper visual reference, recoil management, and trigger control.  One important aspect of the drill is learning to track the sights at all time including recoil so that the shooter can fire consecutive shots as soon as adequate sight picture. It just needs to be “adequate” where perfect sight picture is not needed.  The shooter must pull and press the trigger as soon as the front sight comes back down onto the scoring zone without waiting for precise alignment or for the sight to stop moving. At full speed, the front sight is constantly moving, never coming to rest until the drill is over.

At this point Jack had disappeared from the range so he does not get a score.  Dave Shaw shot his Glock 21 (.45) with Safariland Level 2 holster.  He had the top score through out the drill until Mike Dozier stepped in and shot in the 2 second mark which made Dave nervous. But it wasn’t until when Chris Weir stepped up at his last string of fire and shot 2.65 taking the top spot for this drill.  I find this drill extremely beneficial and I stepped in and demoed the drill. The first attempt with 1 miss and the second attempt was clean with 2.30 (.40 S&W). All I heard was “shit” coming from very competitive Dave Shaw who immediately challenged himself to break my time.  I’m looking to break the 2 second mark before the end of the year.  Doug also told me that he had never trained speed shooting like this Bill Drill. His trigger was erratic and he had difficulty finding the proper cadence.  Although he was shooting a Wilson Combat 1911, his improper trigger reset cost him in this drill. Unlike precise shooting, trigger should NOT be reset just to the click which will eventually cause the trigger to have “hiccup” and press on the trigger before the reset. This will cause the shooter to lose concentration and become desperate in getting the rounds down range which often results in missed shots.  The trigger should be reset all the way out even to the point where the trigger finger lose contact with the trigger.

(11) Duel Tree Challenge: Knock all 4 steel targets to the opponents side before he does.

Round #1
Dave Shave (L) VS Mike Dozier  (W)
Doug (L) VS Chris Weir (W)
Fadi (L) VS Shoji (W) taking Jack’s spot

Round #2
Mike Dozier (L) VS Chris Wier (W)
Dave Shaw (W) VS Fadi (L)  <WILDCARD>
Shoji (W) VS Doug (L) <WILDCARD>

Round #3
Chris Wier (L) VS Dave Shaw (W) Dave’s third or fourth shot with his .45 hit the center post and knocked all the plates to Chris’s side then knocked the whole dueling tree down.
Dave Shaw (W) VS Shoji (L) Dave Shaw came back from his initial loss to take the KING of the Dueling Tree. Shaw seemed extremely satisfied that he had beaten the instructor in this drill.  His perpetual smile will not go away until the last drill.  Dave, thanks for bringing the tree with you today!

(12)  Last drill: 5 shots on steel at 45 yards.  Shoot 5 rounds and count only the hits. 

 Chris and Shoji headed for the final.  Shoji only got 3 hits, but Chris could not beat it with only 2 hits at the end. 

Instructor’s Final Note:

Workshop attendees were reminded to be prepared for strenuous training such as this workshop session.  Students shot approximately 500 rounds in 4 hours involving movements.  Some students showed up mal-nourished  skipping breakfast. Some showed up drinking just Diet Coke and smoking cigarettes.  Such poor eating habit and destructive behavior will sure to fail the operator   It is the responsibility of the student to stay sharp through out the training so that they can receive full benefit from the workshop and mostly to stay safe on the range.  It is indispensable to stay alert during any firearms training where students must function at 100% as any mistake and violation of firearms safety rules can have catastrophic consequences to their team mates/friends. Therefore, it would be considered irresponsible to show up not physically prepared. Furthermore, students who operates at this level and higher at TAC-1 must be physically fit to perform the given task. Stumbling, falling, tripping due to uncoordinated body movements will surely to have disastrous consequence when handling firearms. It is the student’s responsibility to bring their well conditioned body to higher TAC-1 modules especially in in these workshops where constant drilling and practicing must not equate to participant’s exhaustion compromising safety.  

TAC-1 is committed to student’s physical and mental well being.  One of our instructors (Shoji) will assist any student who are having any difficulty with their physical fitness when assistance is requested. However, it must begin with the student’s will to change and to improve themselves. 

Thanks for coming!

SHOJI
TAC-1