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Mr_White
03-27-2015, 12:18 PM
Week 105: Driving The Gun/Single Target

Results may be posted until April 27th, 2015.

Designed by: Gabe White
Target: 1" square, 2" circle, 3x5" rectangle, 8.5x11" rectangle (the paper itself) - download here: http://pistol-training.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/3-two-1.pdf
Range: 5 yards
Rounds: 0

This is one of several drills intended to work on shot calling, sight tracking, and trigger manipulation in dry fire. In this drill we're going to be doing those things while addressing one target at a time.

At bare minimum, verify gun is unloaded, have no live ammo anywhere in the dry practice area, and keep muzzle in a safe direction. But there is more you can do to ensure safety in dry practice. Please also read Robust Dry Practice Safety Principles and Procedure following the drill description.

Drill procedure: Start aimed at one of the four targets (either 1" square, 2" circle, 3x5" rectangle, or 8.5x11" rectangle - the paper itself.) Press the trigger and dry fire the gun. Now, continuing to hold the trigger to the rear, use your support hand to cycle the slide enough that the striker is reset or hammer is recocked. Resume your two-handed grip and tilt the muzzle up a little, simulating muzzle flip in recoil. All that was preparation for what we are actually drilling, which is the next part: simultaneously let the trigger forward allowing it to reset as you drive the front sight back to the target spot. When you see sufficient alignment in the sight picture, press the trigger well enough for the target. Repeat, varying the target between the four available.

That's how it is going to work with striker fired, single action, and DA/SA guns (this drill addresses shots after the first one, so even a DA/SA gun is essentially going to function as SAO for purposes of the drill.) With a true DAO, you can skip the part where you break grip and cycle the slide to get the mechanism ready to reset.

Driving the gun out of simulated recoil is going to be somewhat different from driving the gun out of real recoil and won't translate perfectly. You will also be interrupting your grip a lot, so make sure you reacquire your real grip on the gun each time. Focus on resetting the trigger while driving the front sight back into sufficient alignment with the target and pressing the trigger carefully enough as soon as you would hit.

Do the drill for a period of time you choose, rather than for a specific number of repetitions.

Please report when you've completed the drill, what gun you used, how much time you spent on the drill, and anything you noticed.

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.

Robust Dry Practice Safety Principles and Procedure (the closer you follow this, the fewer opportunities you will have to ND)


Principles:

Allow no distractions – focus exclusively on the task at hand

Keep muzzle in a safe direction

Use correct trigger finger discipline

Verify no live ammo in gun, on person, or in the dry practice area

Use dedicated dry practice targets that are put away until you consciously choose to begin dry practice, and taken down when you consciously end dry practice

Use dedicated dry practice magazines and dummy rounds/inert training cartridges that stay in the dry practice area (if you use any magazine or cartridges)


Procedure:

Unload gun in a location other than the dry practice area

Leave live ammo, and magazines with live ammo, completely outside the dry practice area

Enter the dry practice area

Verify gun is unloaded, that any magazines do not contain live ammo, and that any cartridges present are inert/dummy cartridges

Consciously choose to begin dry practice

Put up dry practice targets

Do your dry practice

Take down dry practice targets and put them away

Consciously choose to end dry practice

Exit the dry practice area and do something unrelated for a few minutes

Return gun to location and condition of your choosing

Jared
03-31-2015, 04:22 PM
Spent 30 minutes on this, just now got done.

Beretta 92FS, and I started with a very controlled draw and DA shot, then followed with SA shots. The way I did it, I did "5 shot groups" and then put the gun back in the holster for a little bit to rest my forearms. For today, I stuck to the 2" dot mostly, but I did a few on the 1" square.

Big thing I noticed... I've somehow developed a bad habit of not taking enough care with my trigger press when shooting SA shots on tight targets, so this drill is going to become a regular for me as I work on that. I tried working it a little with a 20 second PAR time to see how many clean shots I could break in that time, but I only did that like 3 times as it seemed counterproductive and this just doesn't strike me as a good drill for PAR times unless it's used on individual shots, which I may test in the future.

Good Drill!

Range1
04-22-2015, 07:18 AM
Have been including this drill or a variation during my usual dry fire routine for some time now. I used a Glock 34 and OWB holster from concealment. I would draw to one dry fire, cycle the slide by hand, re-establish two handed firing grip and sight picture then simulate recoil and recovery to one shot. I would repeat this a few times then re-holster. The time spent was 5 to 10 minutes out of each dry fire session. This is definitely a good drill for burning in the correct trigger press and grip. I did not time anything, just worked at a comfortable pace to begin then tried to work a little faster each repetition. When I would lose concentration I would take a break for a time then come back to it. Now if I can just make myself perform as well with live fire as I think I am with dry fire I will be very happy.

EricM
04-27-2015, 10:04 AM
I've been doing this for the past several weeks, tacking it onto the end of other drills like draw and reload practice, so I'd run the primary drill like normal and following that trigger press run an iteration of this drill. Just today I realized I really should've done this drill SHO and WHO. I've been slacking on that side of things (both dry fire and live fire) but I think it would be a particularly valuable drill there as I tend not to run the trigger as efficiently when shooting single handed (having more of a tendency to pin it) and also for me the sights don't automatically return on target as well as they do when shooting with both hands, so the additional practice realigning the sights would be good.

Mr_White
04-27-2015, 12:21 PM
Used the Gen3 G34, and spent at least a couple of hours on this in the last few weeks. It is one of my primary trigger control drills for dry practice. I really think it addresses a part of the firing cycle that is often neglected in dry fire. Although there is no confirmation via bullet holes, I think it's great practice calling the shot since the sights don't move from recoil, but there's a little bit of motion to 'see through', plus you can really work on pressing the trigger straight back fast. And the different targets definitely require different levels of care in sights and trigger.

EricM, the drill didn't specify to do SHO and WHO. It was intended to be freestyle, but outside of the scope of this drill of the week, I've found doing it SHO and WHO very valuable too.

Corey
04-27-2015, 06:06 PM
Did this drill for about twenty minutes per day for a week straight with my M&P. Felt a little like practicing transitions except vertically instead of horizontally. I would have to do some times drills to see if it is helping, but it is good practice for working the trigger from reset.