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PUT IN THE WORK
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Drill Set Time: 15/30/45 minutes
The ability to quickly and consistently get a handgun out of the holster and into the fight is critical for any conceal carrier.
People have been shot and killed in defensive encounters because they were seen drawing their handgun and were shot before the defensive handgun got into the fight.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, many successful counter ambushes have happened because the defender waited for an opportune moment and was able to quickly and accurately get the handgun into the fight.
A good draw from the holster must be fast, accurate, and consistent.
Draw Time Goals
Expert: Under 1 second
Professional: Under 1.5 seconds
Average: Under 2 seconds
Bad: Over 2 seconds
Setup for Drill Set
3 targets at 7 yards with 1 yard between them
Something to drop, like an empty ammo box
A chair
Drill Modifications
Changing up your start position is incredibly important to a “real world” ready drawstroke.
Change your hand position and body orientation relative to the target.
Only run this drill a maximum of three times. The goal is to be able to get under your par time on all three draws. If you don’t beat the par time, then you’re not really as fast as that par time.
Drill Steps:
At the beep draw and engage the target with one shot
Rotate your body orientation relative to the target for each rep to ensure a solid index no matter where the target is.
Drill Steps:
At the beep, draw the gun
While drawing the gun, begin to prep the trigger. The goal is to have the trigger prepped just before the trigger breaks as the sights settle on target
Pause with the sights on target and the trigger prepped
Start position: Gun loaded and holstered. If in dry fire, hammer back
0 rounds required
Drill Modifications
To push draw speed, move the target closer. 3 yards is a great distance to really push speed, particularly when training for conceal carry.
To improve natural point of aim, make the targets smaller, farther, or more difficult.
To improve natural point of aim, don’t square up perfectly on target. Rotate your feet and body so you’re facing in random directions off to either side of the target. This will help ensure a solid natural point of aim for practical accuracy since the target is rarely squared up perfectly in front o you.
If you are struggling to prep the trigger without breaking the shot, remove the draw stroke. Bring the gun to the compressed ready, then push the handgun out to trigger prep. Bring the gun to compressed, ready, then push the handgun out to trigger prep. Removing the timer and draw stroke allows for fast repeated reps on learning where the trigger breaks.
Closing your eyes is a nice addition to this drill. It helps you “feel” the draw stroke and trigger prep without getting distracted by what you see. Closing your eyes during the draw is also an effective test of how good your natural point of aim is. Upon finishing the draw stroke, open your eyes and see how close your sights are to being lined up and how close the sights are to being on target. If your sights are lined up and on target – you have an excellent natural point of aim.
LEO should strongly consider running this drill without putting the finger on the trigger as LEOs are more likely to draw the gun without needing to fire the gun.
Start position: Gun loaded and holstered, wrists below belt
2 shots required
Drill Modifications
Rotate your body orientation to the target
Start with your hands in a variety of positions
Change the distance to the target
In live fire, use a snap cap for the second shot fired. This saves ammo and removes recoil for the second shot so you can see if you’re jerking the trigger.
Start position: gun loaded and holstered, wrists below belt
6 shots required
Drill Modifications
Vary the start position. Have your hands in different positions, feet at different positions, and torso oriented in different directions. In the real world, we likely won’t be perfectly squared up on the target.
Start the drill at a slow walk, as if you were walking down the isle at the grocery store. Use a par timer with a randomized start time with a very wide window of a beep, like 3 to 7 seconds. At the beep, run the drill. This will sharpen reaction time and improve the ability to get the gun out into action during a real world situation.
At the beep, backpedal instead of move laterally. There are situations in the real world where moving laterally during a DGU isn’t a viable option.
If training with a partner, have multiple targets, each with a unique identifier. Be it target type, target color, or some sort of unique marker. Instead of using a shot timer to activate the first shot, have the partner call out a unique identifier on the target. Run the drill while engaging that target. For added difficulty, the partner has the option to call out an additional target while the first one is being engaged.
2 Targets with one target width between them at 7 yards.
Start position: Hands at sides, wrists below belt. Gun holstered. Feet touching start mark in a “natural” stance.
16 shots required, 4 shots per string
Drill Modifications
To work on diagonal movement, put markers in a box shape with two yards along the edge of the box. Run the drill in a similar manner but move diagonally from corner to corner.
To push speed, move the markers closer to the targets.
To push precision, move the markers farther from the targets.
To work on smoothing out the movement so the sights bounce less, don’t pull the trigger at all. Just move the sights back and forth between the two targets for several steps.
3 Targets, 1 in the middle of the box, 1 in front of the right edge, 1 in front of the left edge.
Using markers (like cones) is ideal, but a general shooting area can work. 4 cones 3 yards apart in a square, front cones 5 yards from the targets. Increase the distance if space allows.
Alternative, rotate the cones 45 degrees so they’re in a diamond in front of the targets.
Start position is at any of the cones, Gun loaded and holstered, wrists below belt.
Rounds required: 24 – but it increases based on the skill and speed of the shooter.
Drill Modifications
Change up the distance between the cones.
Rotate the cones 45 degrees so they’re in a diamond in front of the targets
Rotate the cones varying amounts so you can get used to moving in any direction in relation to the target.
A strict Bill Drill uses a USPSA target and requires all hits to be in the A Zone.
To improve speed, run the drill at 3 yards. (It’s actually extremely fun to run at such a close distance! Sometimes “giggle factor” is a perfectly valid reason to run a drill and a 3 yard Bill Drill has some serious giggle factor.)
To improve control, run the bill drill at 20 yards.
Double Bill Drill
A Double Bill Drill is two bill drills joined by a reload. Draw, six shots, reload, six shots.
Triple Bill Drill
A Triple Bill Drill is (you guessed it) three bill drills joined by reloads. Draw, six shots, reload, six shots, reload, six shots.
Drill set done!
End of training self analysis questions:
What is something I learned from this session?
What did I do really well this session?
Complete the following: “I have success when…”
Want to keep training? Run the drill set again!
or…
Double down on a single skill by running a single drill for the next 5-10min.
