How can I shoot indoors and still train well?

[apollo11]

So the weather here in CO has been annoying as hell lately, and has been responsible for cancelling matches and stopping me from shooting outdoors. The range that I shoot at has a section of 12 berms that are roughly 50 yards deep, and 25 yards wide. These are perfect for setting up my own stages with different paper targets and steel. Moving is no problem as the entire berm is all mine. However, the weather has stopped me from getting there for the last three weeks. I don't mind shooting in the snow, but finding brass is so much harder and I hate loosing it out there.

So today I called up the newer private indoor range and asked if I could try out the range for a fee. They allowed me to sign up with their instructor and take a "class". The gentleman left me alone and let me shoot for almost an hour. I set up two targets with a no shoot in between. The range is quite nice, and the gent that was watching over me was excellent. I was able to draw, do mag changes, and shoot at both of my targets. The issue was I felt so confined in my lane, and my shot timer was getting battered by the 357 mag and another larger revolver in either of the lanes next to me.

I am trying to figure out if this range is worth joining to do limited, keep the rust off training. How do you guys that shoot IPSC train when so confined? Any tips on working on transitions and such while in this setting?

Thanks a lot.

[JM Campbell]

Great read here.........

http://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?2347-Practicing-in-the-Resource-Constrained-Environment-article

[Jeff22]

I do most of my basic skill maintenance practice on an indoor range.

I do lots of basic practice using .22 conversion units on reducted targets at 50 feet (Usually an NRA B-24, B-29, B-34, TQ-16 or TQ-20 target)

Competitive Edge Dynamics sells reduced cardboard IPSC targets originally developed for indoor use with airsoft guns.
http://www.cedhk.com/shop/products/Airsoft-IPSC-%7B47%7D-IDPA-Paper-Targets.html

I've been using them for a year and I like them. (You can always make your own with random cardboard once you create a template). I have a friend who lives out in the country who shoots a little bit, and he has a range of sorts on his property, and several times we've set up simple stages out there with the reduced targets and shot on them with .22 conversion units in different guns. That worked out pretty well.

You could get .22 conversion units for your handguns and use them outdoors in the winter and not have to worry about losing the brass.

When shooting at a public range that has restrictions, just work within the rules and practice whatever you can. If they don't let you work from the holster, then begin from low ready. If they don't let you shoot "rapid fire" then shoot at a "timed fire" pace (traditionally 5 rounds in 20 seconds) at reduced scale targets or at targets at a distance. Focus on proper grip, sight picture/sight alignment and follow through.

I've known a few shooters who use an airsoft gun for developing some of these skills in their basement at home. Get a quality airsoft gun that matches the gun you intend to use -- you can set up IDPA or IPSC type stages in your basement and shoot all you want. I shoot both IDPA & IPSC a little bit and several of my shooting buddies bought quality airsoft guns (Glocks) last fall and shot them all winter in the basement & the garage and were quite happy with the result.

There are a bunch of recent books that you may also find useful:

THE SHOOTER'S APPROACH TO PRACTICE by Sam Conway (available at www.uspsa.org). Conway is an IDPA and IPSC shooter who works as an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.

PERFECT PRACTICE and THINKING PRACTICAL SHOOTING by Saul Kirsch (available at www.DoubleAlpha.biz) Kirsch is a European IPSC shooter who also teaches at a school called the DoubleAlpha Academy.

The focus of both books is specific to markmanship in the competitive shooting environment. There is no discussion of tactics or legal issues relevant to the defensive use of deadly force. Still, to a large degree, dynamic shooting is dynamic shooting, and both books offer a large number of drills that would be useful to anyone wishing to build up their marksmanship skills.

Many new shooters quickly reach a plateau where they stall out in their skill development because they don't know how to practice or what to practice. Both of these books offer a wide variety of exercises intended to help the shooter increase their marksmanship skills. Defensive shooters may have to read with a critical eye and discard those portions of the book that are ONLY relevant to competition. Keeping that limitation in mind, there's a lot of good information here that you can use to keep your personal training program interesting.

(If you order the PERFECT PRACTICE book, it comes to you from Holland and your charge card gets billed in euros. I love e-commerce!)

IPSC shooter Steve Anderson has two very useful books (which are available from www.andersonshooting.com)

The drills in both books can either be conducted as dry fire drills or as live fire practice sessions.

REFINEMENT & REPETITIONS: DRY FIRE SKILLS FOR DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT

PRINCIPLES OF PERFECTION: REFINEMENT & REPETITION II

(I personally don't do much dry fire practice and any I do is as a warm up at the range before I start shooting with "real" bullets)

[Jeff22]

http://midwesttraininggroup.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/DrillsForPublicRange.pdf

The link above is to December 1999 article in Combat Handguns written by Andy Kemp of the Midwest Training Group.
It deals with shooting on public indoor ranges that have restrictions on what you can do.

At the least you can do accuracy drills. A few times I've shot on ranges that did not allow drawing from the holster or rapid fire nor shooting at human shaped targets. So I used NRA B-3 50 ft timed & rapid fire bullseye targets (at 50 feet) or NRA B-8 25 yard timed & rapid fire bullsye targets (at 25 yards) and just shot the timed fire stage multiple times -- 5 rounds in 20 seconds. I found that to be a useful accuracy drill.

When doing drills with a timer, if other shooters are present, I just use the "par time" feature.

[Ptrlcop]

Anybody that shoots on an indoor range will run into the timer issues. However, I find that when I have been shooting on the timer a lot it feels very liberating to shoot without it. Sometimes, without the timer I feel like I am able percieve things about my shooting that I would not notice otherwise. Try shooting an untimed but still fast Bill drill and just let your mind wander to see what you learn about your shooting or your gun.

In December I shot about 1k of SHO bullseye both untimed and at a 5 in 20sec pace. The improvement in my trigger control has translated to every other aspect of my shooting. When I went back to the timer I found that I coulds hit things at improved speeds because all I had to focus on was the front sight and not the trigger press.

[HeadHunter]

I use my Gymboss (http://www.gymboss.com/) for a timer on indoor ranges. It has its limitations (only goes down to 2 seconds in the vibrate mode) but still a worthwhile accessory. Inexpensive too.

[apollo11]

Thanks for the replies. The range is excellent about shooting fast, and drawing. I just cannot move past the line at all. I am thinking it may be a good thing to shoot there a few times per week and work outdoors once a week or every other week where I can shoot a COF.

Again thanks everyone.

[GA_Jeff]

To me, I like outdoor shooting better. However indoor with shorter distances is good for many exercises. I shoot USPSA matches - indoor & outdoor. Indoors, we shoot a lot stages that work on transitions, lots of movement (which is surprising for some), taking some targets squatting below a barrier, or shooting around barriers, weak hand shooting, etc.