Three Drills, Forever?

Bill Drill
El Presidente
Reload Drill

I simply feel one could better deal with real life situations with these three drills. El Presidente for instance with its back to target and in surrender mode, then one should be able to effectively make hits quickly and the Bill Drill is useful here, in my opinion. Being able to do a reload is just part of knowing how to run the gun, and keep it running.

If I were to add one more drill, it would be the Ball and Dummy drill.

Steve

Your links are toast.

I usually do the same thing all the time anyway so I know I'd be happy just doing the following:

I'll set out some targets, like rocks, clay pidgeons or small, plastic bottles, at different, reasonable distances. Then, I'll pick up a K-frame and shoot as quickly as I can, firing each round at a different target. I'm really into quick target acquisition.

Vice presidente, a transition drill, and my own spin on a retention drill. I. Tie a rope between my pistol to the target. Draw a knife using an icepick grip slash at the rope. If I cut through the rope I make a slash at the target then shoot with a grip similar to the Harristechnique. If the rope doesn't break I make a stab at the target and draw my bug with my off hand and fire one round from the hip and two from muzzle contact.

Good list, Chris. Thanks. Your list seems to cover the fundamentals well, and I'd be hard-pressed to come up with something better. As a bonus, the 1R2 and Field Course are also good drills to incorporate into a dry fire routine.

I can think of a few tweaks, though, that one might incorporate here and there, such as running these drills strong- hand weak-hand only.

Another might be to include a barricade at one of the Field Course positions. Shooting around a barricade can be tricky, but it's a stable in USPSA & IDPA. One can start at either position, so they can practice entering and leaving the barricade.

Also, maybe download to 6 occasionally when running the Field Course, to practice reloading on the move (a good USPSA skill), or reloading without busting cover (IDPA). Download to 9, and you can practice reloading while transitioning to the other side of the barricade in position 2.

If you confine yourself to a box you're doomed to limit your thinking and habits to that box. Then when you need to use the skills for something important you'll find you can't climb out of the box.

Three drills forever? Not on your life! ! ! !

Mix 'em up and move around. Partake in the action shooting games or other things like club level speed steel. Embrace stages or practice situations where you get to shoot at moving targets because in real life bad guys aren't going to just stand still so you can shoot them. No competition or drill is a proper substitute for a real live situation. But by partaking in as much variety as you can find it trains you to develop flexible habits where you can do two things at one time. And such habits will serve you a lot better if you should ever need them for real. For example one common drill we do at our club's IDPA nights is to draw and shoot while moving in various directions while moving to cover. Another is to draw and shoot "from restraint" in a safe manner. You won't find official targets for such drills. And neither would I wish to shoot only those two drills at the exclusion of other drills.

So unlike the valid "best three guns" thread I feel there is no such thing as a good limit on shooting drills unless you're shooting in something extremely specialized such as PPC or Olympic bullseye where the course of fire is very limited and predictable. For anything else, and practice for some possible actual SD situation ranks first in this, you'll want to seek out and try any and all drills. Especially drills that mix shooting with other factors such as multiple targets, movement and reloading.

I don't do drills anymore....

A recent isue of American Rifleman had (I believe) four drills to try. At my indoor range, I am unable to do the ElPrez, so I tried the other three:

--Dot drill (six 2" dots on an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper, six rounds, one shot per dot, 1 sec apart).
--5/5/5 drill: one 2" dot, 5 yards away, 5 rounds, 5 seconds.
--Failure to stop (Mozambique): 2 rounds to the chest, 1 to the head.

Several of these are ordinarily done starting from the holster. Since my range does not permit drawing from the holster, I start with both pistol and eyes at the low ready. I do 4-6 reps of each as a warm-up using my MkII.

I generally conclude my shooting session with about 15 rounds of point shooting. Low ready, eyes down 45 degrees, raise both eyes and pistol to target, fire one round. Repeat.