Figured I'd start a thread on various techniques/drills that people use for their respective shooting disciplines. Molon's excellent "Quarter" of MOA is an example, but thought a one-stop thread might be a good idea...

The last few months that I've competed in the local 2 gun match, I've found I've started slowing down. While there's lots of gamers who spray more rounds faster and take the penalties but end up with faster times, I prefer to focus on shot placement with the minimal time necessary. I also pride myself in understanding that we're shooting rifles, so doing everything at 25 yards and in, while an important (and fun) skill, shouldn't be the standard and one should be able to engage targets out to 200m with a RDS. Basically my issue has been that I still place in the top 20, but I can see my inefficiencies slowing me down. So this weekend, a shooting buddy and I (and a couple of others) went out and worked some specific drills that were great training.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not saying these are original drills. I'm sure they're someone's creation before we did them today, but they were some good ways to focus on specific portions of shooting a rifle accurately AND quickly.

What we ran yesterday basically boiled down to needing either a 50m x 25-ish m bay or if you can, a 100m x 25-ish m bay. The range I shoot at is a playground, so I'm lucky to have access to various shapes and sizes. With some alterations along the way, we did two primary drills using close up and distance shots.

Drill 1:

2 (or 3) targets. One paper target and 1 (or 2) steel targets at distance. Set the paper target up close (something inside 10m that requires you to use your holds for off-set). We used a Caldwell 4-target sticky target, with each target being about 3-4" (as seen here). The steel was set up at approx. 70m in line with the shooter, but 90 degrees out from the paper target. This forces you to turn and acquire the steel at distance.

Depending on how much ammo you want to burn (and I'm a fan of making each shot count and not just blowing through as much as you can shoot), you can decide if you want to engage all 4 targets or just two of the targets. We chose to shoot all 4, with 2 shots on each bulls eye and then 2 shots on the steel at distance. At one point we put another steel target at an intermediate distance, as well, but that was to mix it up. The goal is to get all 8 rounds inside the rings of the paper targets and then (obviously) not miss the steel with 2 shots. Each miss was 1 second. This works well as a nice static drill. Total round count is 10 (or 12 if you use a second steel target).

Drill 2:

I'm a big fan of NOT being one of the large and in-charge internet commandos at the range that just sits at their bench and blasts away. I really enjoy getting the heart rate up and shooting because it gets much more challenging and teaches you how you probably shouldn't have skipped that run the other day that you know you should have done. So this drill requires 2 steel targets in a 50m x 25m bay and the ability to move around the bay.

Basically think of this as four corners. The two steel targets are at the far two corners and you start inline with one steel target at about 50m. The drill is that you engage the target in front of you with 2 (or whatever) shots, then run (yes, run!) laterally to be inline with the second steel target, again at 50-ish meters. Take two more shots, then run forward towards that same target. Run up to however close you feel comfortable with shooting steel and stop. Take two shots. Then run laterally over to the first target and 2 more shots. Then run back towards the starting point and engage the first target again with 2 more shots. Now do it all again for another lap. Total round count is 20. We found a realistic par time to be around 50-55 seconds.

By the second lap, this is a pretty good workout and you do get tired. You'll need to determine what is safe when it comes to running back from the target to the starting point. Personally, I still keep the rifle pointed down range as I run back (but I don't run backwards, if that makes sense). Regardless, this is definitely an opportunity to practice the 180 rule.

So, what do you do?