Targets for draw practice?

For years we would usually shoot at an indoor range, slow fire of course, at 3 inch dots at 30 feet. That seemed to be a bit of a challenge since it was pretty rare that all 10 of our rounds hit. (We find it easy to load 10 rnds per mag and switch off shooting vs loading) Maybe only off by an inch or two, but not a hit either. So spring of 2017 I started local competition and my wife has even tried a couple of Steel Challenges. I found I could get a lot of practice drawing and making that first DA shot in the basement w/ a CO2 BB replica Beretta 92. 3 inch dots or paper plates at 20 feet. 3 inch dots are tough for me. But paper plates I was feeling reasonable w/ hits in the 1.2 to 1.4 second range. That probably gives you an idea of my skill level. Today it was 50 deg so I went to the outdoor range and practiced at 30 ft but only had the 3 inch dots w/ me. Kind of disappointed but tried to make myself feel better because most would have been hits on a paper plate. So my question is what do you guys use as a standard practice setup? I see GJM shooting at 8 in plates I 'think' at 15 yds. That is probably way beyond me. Also I don't have easy access to steel plates.Paper plates in 8 or 9 inch are easy for me to use where we shoot, so what is an appropriate distance?

I'm a little confused if we're talking live fire or dry fire or air gun practice here. For non-live fire, I use targets from Stoeger's dry fire book.

For live fire, it depends on what I'm trying to accomplish. It could be anything from "Find Your Level" target to full torsos to partially obscured torsos to...etc.

I might have missed it, but if you concisely lay out what you're goal is and what type of practice you are doing, it might help you get some more meaningful responses.

I use one of the scaled metric USPSA targets from this kit, set up at 7 feet:

https://benstoegerproshop.com/scaled...pers-and-dots/

I shoot USPSA a lot, so setting the 1/3 scale target at 7 feet equates to 7 yards sight picture. This is my primary target I use for draw practice on the timer, at home.

I would consider the CO2 shooting basically dry fire and bet your good hits in live fire are more in the 1.7 - 2.0 second range? That is normal.

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Originally Posted by BehindBlueI's

...I'm a little confused if we're talking live fire or dry fire or air gun practice here. For non-live fire, I use targets from Stoeger's dry fire book...

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Sorry, I guess I rambled a bit there. In the space of about 5 days I shot at the indoor range 3" dots at 30 ft. BB pistol at home pie plates at 20 ft. Outdoors 3" dots at 30 ft because I forgot the paper plates. So it got me thinking what is the most common. When I see videos, or read comments here, it would be nice to be shooting at something that may not be identical (because there are a lot of shooters here so I bet there is a lot of variation) but in the ball park. My most difficult shot is the first DA out of the holster so that is what I practice most w/ a timer and what I am most interested in what you guys are doing.

The goal should be to shoot targets that get smaller and further away, faster. Start with closer targets and as your skill progresses make the targets smaller and faster. Three inch dots becomes more a shooting than drawing exercise, and will develop trigger more than drawing. Eight inches seems a good compromise.

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Originally Posted by CraigS

For years we would usually shoot at an indoor range, slow fire of course, at 3 inch dots at 30 feet. That seemed to be a bit of a challenge since it was pretty rare that all 10 of our rounds hit. (We find it easy to load 10 rnds per mag and switch off shooting vs loading) Maybe only off by an inch or two, but not a hit either. So spring of 2017 I started local competition and my wife has even tried a couple of Steel Challenges. I found I could get a lot of practice drawing and making that first DA shot in the basement w/ a CO2 BB replica Beretta 92. 3 inch dots or paper plates at 20 feet. 3 inch dots are tough for me. But paper plates I was feeling reasonable w/ hits in the 1.2 to 1.4 second range. That probably gives you an idea of my skill level. Today it was 50 deg so I went to the outdoor range and practiced at 30 ft but only had the 3 inch dots w/ me. Kind of disappointed but tried to make myself feel better because most would have been hits on a paper plate. So my question is what do you guys use as a standard practice setup? I see GJM shooting at 8 in plates I 'think' at 15 yds. That is probably way beyond me. Also I don't have easy access to steel plates.Paper plates in 8 or 9 inch are easy for me to use where we shoot, so what is an appropriate distance?

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I now use a 5x8 index card oriented vertically for most of this sort of practice. In 2017 I was using a 4x6 for this to specifically drive "patience" on the sights which I deemed a problem for me.

Guys your responses have been really helpful. So next step. For some reason we have gotten used to loading 10 in a mag. If I start w/ an 8 inch or 5x8 at a distance that I miss half of them what would be considered good enough to increase the distance? 8 of 10 or 9 of 10 or all 10 should be hits? Or should I choose a distance where I always hit 9 or 10 of 10 and just work on speed?