How much time do you have "in the saddle?"

[beltjones]

There is a pretty common theory that it takes around 10,000 hours, or 10 years of doing something full-time, to achieve true mastery in anything.

So I thought it would be fun to look into how many hours I've put into pistol shooting. Now, I'm not counting the times I went plinking with my dad's Ruger Single Six, as much fun as that was. I'm only talking about time you've spent actually working at pistol shooting. I haven't calculated my hours yet, but here's the basic formula:

Class time: total actual hours of instruction.

+Teaching time: For those who do this regularly, take the average per week or month, annualize it in hours, and total it for the number of years you've been a serious shooter.

+Practice range time: Take the average per week (realistic, not hopeful or wishful numbers), annualize it in hours, and total it for the number of years you've been a serious shooter.

+Dryfire time: Take the average per week, annualize it in hours, and for the number of years you've been a serious shooter.

+Competition time: Take the number of stages per match, number of matches per month, and multiply it by 1 minute per stage. I figure one minute is fair, but I don't want to include the time you jib jab with buddies or paste targets or anything. Annualize it in hours for the number of years you've been a serious shooter.

=Total each of the above and post it here.

Oh, and the point is not to have a pissing contest. If you fudge the numbers you're only fooling yourself.

[beltjones]

Mine looks like 271.32 hours over two years. I thought it would be a lot more - maybe I need to re-evaluate it. It looks like I have a long time to go to get to 10,000 hours!

[DonovanM]

266 hours in 1 year and 9 months using your method.

I figured 20 minutes of dry fire every day, and I think that's conservative, even taking into account days taken off.

I think 1 minute per stage is conservative. While I'm physically at the range for a match, formulating my plan, studying how others shoot the same stage and comparing that to my own plan, as well as analyzing my results and seeing what I did wrong and thinking about how to practice to avoid that in the future takes more time than that I would think. I would add in the entire drive home, sometimes I have to turn the music off so I can hear myself think better. Most of the time I turn it up so I don't have to think about my performance, but that's another story

I've also spent hours on youtube watching video of other shooters, hours watching the Magpul Dynamics DVD, some of Saul Kirsch's, Matt Burkett's and Lenny Magill's videos, etc.

And I've also spent hours reading the benos forums, his book (twice, working on a third), other forums including p-t.com articles and ones by Bruce Gray, Steve Anderson's books, Saul Kirsch's books, etc.

Including all that into account I think it would be safe to double that number, for me. I've spent 10x the time and effort learning shooting than I have into college, and I'm a 3.7 student. In fact, that's probably why I'm a 3.7 student. Oh well. I know which accomplishments I'm more proud of.

[Odin Bravo One]

Over my lifetime? Couldn't begin to count.

[YVK]

There is a pretty common theory that it takes around 10,000 hours, or 10 years of doing something full-time, to achieve true mastery in anything.

I wonder where this came from, and what defines "true mastery". Some high-level professional jobs requiring manual skills have less formal requirements.

[Joe in PNG]

Sadly, no where near enough.

[vecdran]

More than is probably sensible in my year of shooting. But hey, it has paid off. I'd say I'm fairly competent now, but still have a long ways to go.

[ToddG]

Looking only at the last few years:

2008-2009, M&P9 test: 371.5 hours on the range
2009-2010, P30 test: 513 hours on the range
2010, HK45 test: 392 hours on the range

Perhaps 10-20 extra hours per year shooting other guns, etc. Probably closer to ten than twenty.
Perhaps 10-20 extra hours per year dry firing. Probably closer to twenty than ten.

So somewhere between 1,300 and 1,400hr over three years.

So far in 2011 on the G17: 222.75 hours on the range

During the tests, I averaged approximately 150 rounds per hour. Assuming that number would hold true in previous years:

31,165 through my first M&P9
176,242 through various SIGs during five years of employment there

That's another 1,300 or so hours.

Getting further into guesstimation land, since I don't have my Beretta numbers on this computer I'd estimate I shot about 25,000rd per year back then. Another 75,000 rounds at 150/hr means another 500 hours.

And finally, I'd just arbitrarily say about 500hr total in the years before going to work at Beretta.

That would put me approximately 1/3rd of the way to 10,000 hours.

[SecondsCount]

My first shot was out of a pellet gun about 35 years ago, a 22 rifle was a few years later. Purchased my first 22 handgun in 1987 and a 9mm in 1989. Back then I would go to the range once or twice a month and that number has grown steadily every year. Last year I averaged once per week. I have always found that the frequency of range visits has trumped length of visit when it comes to improvement.

Except for matches and training, I usually spend 2 hours at the range per visit. Using that number, averaging 25 range visits per year over the last 24 years, I come up with 1,200 hours. You could add a couple hundred more for matches, training, dryfiring, etc.

[Shellback]

I wonder where this came from, and what defines "true mastery". Some high-level professional jobs requiring manual skills have less formal requirements.

It gained popularity when Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in his book Outliers: The Story of Success. The number is based on a study by Anders Ericsson, The Making of an Expert, which is a very good read on the subject and is where Gladwell got the idea, to the best of my knowledge.

I'm a looooog way from 10k hours but continue to chip away at it day after day.