Old Bakersfield PD qual

[JCN]

Since it has been buried a little, here are the target sizes and COF from the article.





You can debate what the original timing equipment and targets were. And you can debate what changes you’d like to make like 8” circles fully inside for convenience instead of 7”.

But if the Rangemaster May DOTY requires drawing a 5” circle on copy paper, I don’t think drawing a 7” circle is a big ask personally.

Just so we are on the same page for what drill we are actually talking about.

[John Hearne]

I'm pretty sure I can share this. @jlw talked to someone who had pictures of the true old Bakersfield target. His information was that each shot was worth 10 points. The 10 ring was a 6" circle. The 9 ring was an oval that measured 9x13". Any hit on the silhouette was worth 6 points. I made a Word doc that recreates this and we placed it on an IDPA target. The 6" circle and use of an oval instead of a rectangle cuts down on the scoring areas pretty well.

[Sal Picante]

I'm pretty sure I can share this. @jlw talked to someone who had pictures of the true old Bakersfield target. His information was that each shot was worth 10 points. The 10 ring was a 6" circle. The 9 ring was an oval that measured 9x13". Any hit on the silhouette was worth 6 points. I made a Word doc that recreates this and we placed it on an IDPA target. The 6" circle and use of an oval instead of a rectangle cuts down on the scoring areas pretty well.

Now I'm hungry for hard boiled eggs.

[AMC]

I'm pretty sure I can share this. @jlw talked to someone who had pictures of the true old Bakersfield target. His information was that each shot was worth 10 points. The 10 ring was a 6" circle. The 9 ring was an oval that measured 9x13". Any hit on the silhouette was worth 6 points. I made a Word doc that recreates this and we placed it on an IDPA target. The 6" circle and use of an oval instead of a rectangle cuts down on the scoring areas pretty well.

Last year when I was still working full time at a range, I had pallets full of our Qual Target to use for various things. Sounds like it was a good approximation after all. The inner chest ring is 5", and the outer ring is 9". Used those as the 10 and 9 point scoring zones. Overall silhouette area was around 20-25% larger than a 'C' Zone. Best I was able to do was a 98 on this target, with a Sig 320 Pro 9mm with TLR 1HL, out of a Blackhawk T Series L3D. When I ran it with our issued gun (Sig P226R .40 with Surefire X300U out of an SLS/ALS holster, I averaged a 91-93.

ETA: the head circle is 4", if anybody cared.

[jlw]

I'm pretty sure I can share this. @jlw talked to someone who had pictures of the true old Bakersfield target. His information was that each shot was worth 10 points. The 10 ring was a 6" circle. The 9 ring was an oval that measured 9x13". Any hit on the silhouette was worth 6 points. I made a Word doc that recreates this and we placed it on an IDPA target. The 6" circle and use of an oval instead of a rectangle cuts down on the scoring areas pretty well.

Ken Hackathorn did a video on the Bakersfield Qual. Someone who saw the video sent him pictures of the actual target and the dimensions. He shared it with me.

[jlw]

I shot it again this morning with the 48, cold, from a very close flitting ALS holster. I was cruising along until the final string at which time I flubbed the draw badly and then pulled a shot into the 6-zone. This is the first time I've been over time on that string and the first time I have pulled any shot into the six running this.

I have sad.

[AMC]

I shot it again this morning with the 48, cold, from a very close flitting ALS holster. I was cruising along until the final string at which time I flubbed the draw badly and then pulled a shot into the 6-zone. This is the first time I've been over time on that string and the first time I have pulled any shot into the six running this.

I have sad.

I did it a few times. Always on the last string and usually the last shot fired. Always under par.....way TOO under par. Shooting like a jackass to make the imaginary par time in my head, until I realized how long it really is.

[JCN]

I did it a few times. Always on the last string and usually the last shot fired. Always under par.....way TOO under par. Shooting like a jackass to make the imaginary par time in my head, until I realized how long it really is.

Lol, I went to the range during the kiddo’s gymnastics class today and ran it cold with a 6” circle.

Did exactly what you said and snatched the trigger at 20 just wide for a 99.





Super reproducible. I ran it a few more times afterwards and never missed a shot or a par in the first 3 strings.

The 4th string… snatchola sometimes trying to beat a par that didn’t exist lol.

Might have to practice that timing a little bit.

Great drill and the 6” circle tests my long range trigger press that needs work.

[JCN]

For some of the people who haven’t seen the SWYNTS thread and discussion I’ll reiterate here because it absolutely applies to Bakersfield, which was a vetted and proven drill AND test.

Everything should add and scale. But the flipside is if your base mechanics are shaky or slow, then that compounds slowness in all things.

A sub-second open draw confidently on target with index plus minimal vision is a basic skill.

Add extra visual and mechanical stability and refinement for farther and harder targets.

If you look at my Bakersfield strings (top is most recent, bottom is first string):



You can see how each increasing distance took a scaled extra time on top of my base draw and stayed within my skill set.

But if you don’t work your base draw, the others will all suffer.

So sub-second draw is about base mechanics and nobody sane would think that’s the only speed or gear you would have.

Here’s a video from SWYNTS to illustrate:



Same thing regarding reaction time training.

It’s not about being slaved to a buzzer. That’s just silly.

Fast, confident reaction and execution can be done off any stimulus programmed in.



So if you want to be able to execute the first three strings of Bakersfield under par with all your hits… every single time… rather than sometimes or never…

Work on your sub-second index mechanics and work to make them more and more accurate and reproducible at speed and good things will happen.

This is exactly the point of the SWYNTS training 3 yard string. Any skeptics, try it for 2 weeks and rerun the Bakersfield. I suspect you’ll have personal best scores.

[cclark]

Ken Hackathorn did a video on the Bakersfield Qual. Someone who saw the video sent him pictures of the actual target and the dimensions. He shared it with me.

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