When do you sacrifice accuracy for speed?

[BaiHu]

24 days ago I made a goal of putting 2 rounds into a 3X5 card at 7 yds from a jacket covered draw under 3 seconds, consistently. Today, I feel that I accomplished that.

However, having no one of this forum's caliber to shoot and compare with at my range, I'm having trouble being satisfied with my accuracy. I'm making clean hits, but they're all over the card, sometimes nicking the card, and my misses are no further than 3 inches away.

Should I be trying to speed up now or simply use a par time of 3 seconds and try to dial in my accuracy?

In case you wanted some data, my fastest today at 7 yds was 2.63c 2.11/.52 and my slowest was 2.98c 2.38/.59.

Thanks in advance!

[CCT125US]

Great job of reaching your goal first of all. To refine you accuracy you could fold the target in half (3x2.5) and use the same par. To stay on the 3x5 and push speed just keep dropping the par by .10 while keeping 100% hits. Keep in mind one definition of "good" is simply being able to hit the 3x5 at 7yds, let alone at speed from concealment. Reset your goal and keep going..

[JHC]

Speedy hits on the low probability 3x5 are all good hits. I would not worry about your group on the 3x5. I think that's why it was chosen as a target; so small that any hit is respectable and you just speed up how fast you can hit them. FWIW 90% of my misses on 3x5's are just a skosh low. I should go all OCD about it but everything has a SD context and a miss that drives a shot into the upper lip is not the worst miss in the world. ;)

[JV_]

I'm making clean hits, but they're all over the card, sometimes nicking the card, and my misses are no further than 3 inches away.If you had nice tight groups, that would be a sign that you should speed up. You need to go fast enough to get your hits.

You should be able to shoot small groups when going slow, but that's not what you were practicing.

[BaiHu]

All of you gave me perfect advice. I really appreciate all the feedback and support.

[Odin Bravo One]

I like to take any drill that calls for hits at speed, and place a higher standard of accuracy than is called for. Before I go shrinking that 3x5 card, I might work my accuracy to the point where I can consistently achieve not only my par time, but also 100% hits completely INSIDE the 3x5 card. Shooting the FAST target, I consider any round touching the line to be a miss. Doesn't matter if the round is "mostly" inside the scoring area. If it is touching the line it is a miss.

If I am achieving my par time AND my accuracy standards, then the par time is too slow and I need to remove a quarter of a second, or more. Or maybe less if I can't achieve it once in awhile. If I get to the point where I can clean 2 hits onto a 3x5 consistently under 2.0, I might look at shrinking that target area down a little, but not too much, maybe 2x4. The point of the 3x5 on the FAST, or the brain box on several other well thought out targets is to replicate acceptable accuracy in relationship to human anatomy.

Of course, this is all academic, and has little practical value beyond pushing yourself to be a better shooter based on whatever criteria and/or goals you have set for yourself.

[DonovanM]

Ideally I would never sacrifice the ability to hit what I'm aiming at 95% of the time for speed. In reality I do it in matches all the time. Working on it :)

[Ptrlcop]

I think you need to mix it up. Sometimes push for speed, sometimes for accuracy. I start and end each session with SHO bullseye at 50ft or 25yds depending which range Im at.

In your case I think I would work on consitantly making the shot at 10yds in the same time and also making hits at 5yds in 2.5 or 2.25. Once you can do both work on making the 7yd shot at your 5yd speed. Also Press Six has seemed to be helping me alot lately.

It is sort of like in the gym, sometimes bench pressing is not the best way to improve your max bench.

[BaiHu]

Well put everyone and thanks for all the training ideas-keep them coming.

I especially liked this analogy:


It is sort of like in the gym, sometimes bench pressing is not the best way to improve your max bench.

Oddly, I shot this drill at 3, 5 and 7 yds and although I was cold in more ways than one when I started at 3 yds, I actually shot my fastest at 7 yds today when my toes/fingers were numb :D I could spend the next 10 range sessions just doing variations on this drill and skipping all the DOTWs, but I like them too :0

So many drills, so little time :(

[rsa-otc]

If you don't mind my saying my friend, that performance was a solid GOOD in my opinion, don't sell yourself short.

I looked at your training log post concerning this accomplishment and my type "A" personality ;) picked up on a couple of things. I would like to make the following observations & suggestions.

You note that your cards were a tad smaller than 3x5. Actually they were approx 33% smaller (3x5 = 15 sq inches, 4x 2.5 = 10 sq inches). Doesn't seem that like that much looking at them but that's a big difference in my book. I bet those on the line hits would be fully on a 3x5.

Shot Timer apps are undependable, I have yet to make them work right and I've tried several. I keep going back to my 25 year old shot timer. When you get a chance pickup a dedicated shot timer. That will lower the frustration level and let you concentrate on shooting. Also par times on these apps are in full seconds only and will not let you adjust the par time down slowly. At least an the Android platform.

So in the mean time maybe try to squeeze a third shot in under 3 seconds on a true 3x5 card. Maybe do the 99 drill more often in your routine. Smaller targets work as well.

Keep up the good work.

[BaiHu]

Once again, thank you. and I hope to help you all at some point, but it probably ain't gonna be in the gun world-lol! I'll have to find some skill you guys don't :D

Underwater basket weaving anyone??