Indoor Range Defensive Drills

Times are tough these days and we all have our stories of economic woe. I'm making 1/2 of what I made before my 1 year of unemployment (at least I have a job) and just had to trade my Sr9c for a PF9+cash just to survive.

I'm really pretty new to shooting and SD and am trying to make the most of my range trips, as they are getting fewer and farther between. I'm also trying to quantify my shooting ability so I can focus on more rapid improvement. To this end, I'm trying to come up with a 1-2 box scored set of drills. Here's what I have so far:

(This list assumes an indoor range with rules followed. I can't present from holster or do contact-shooting outside of a class-setting.)

Scoring (by ring):
7=1
8=2
9=3
10=4
x/head=5 (Head shots, as in real life, will count as 0 for miss)

Drills (by 7rd. Mag):
1 Box Each at 10 & 20 ft. respectively-
Normal Stance-CM
Normal Stance-HS
Controlled Pair-CM
1 Hand-R-CM
1 Hand-L-CM
Flashlight
Induced Malf.

Accounting for the 2 rounds lost to using dummies on the "induced malf", total possible score will be 480.

When money allows, I will add a 3rd box and add:
Extension from position 3
Extension from "SOOL"
Kneeling (When my favorite RMs are there)
Multiple lanes & targets (It can't be said enough-"It ain't what you know, it's WHO you know")
Mag dumps (just for fun/stress relief)
Hostage Targets

My dry-fire routine consists of:

Presentation from concealment
Extension from Pos. 3
Extension from "SOOL"
1 Hand Reload/Malf-RH
1 Hand Reload/Malf-LH

Wow, this post wound up long! If you've made it this far, I'd like to know if there's anything I missed and/or what your defensive drills at an indoor range are.

P.S. I have taken and will take further advanced instruction.

Thanks!

Since your practice is defensive oriented, I would make a couple changes to the scoring. First, in most defensive situations a head shot isn't a good bet (since the head moves around a lot you're far more likely to miss in real life than your practice will account for). Because of this, I would count the head shot no higher than the 10 ring. It will discourage you from thinking of the head as a more valuable shot if you ever find yourself in a real defensive situation.

Second, depending on which target you're using I would ditch the 10 ring points and just make the 9 the max. Anywhere in the 9 ring on most targets is plenty accurate for defensive situations and you'll be encouraged to work on quickness instead of bullseye target shooting. Like I said, this really depends on the target.

Finally, the defensive difference between the 7 ring and the 8 ring is substantial. Although the 7 ring will wound, it is not likely to stop an aggressive attacker and therefore is worth far less in a defensive situation.

So I think I would present the scoring like this:

9 or Head = 5 points
8 = 4 points
7 = 2 points

good thoughts grunting frog--


and now for something completely different
save cardboard, like that comes in packaged goods and go to wally world and get 150 paper plates for $1
staple the plate on backing-head and below it for CM. draw on them--add fun.

that set 2 at say, 3 and 5 yards.
go to low ready and at a thought( till you can afford a timer) raise the gun and fire at your target of choice. some times dbl tap the same or different targets. with 4 to choose from-change it up.
you cant draw , so thats why i say 'low ready' that point where you have the gun out in both hands (pointed at the ground about 10 feet in front of you) and the safety may or may not be still on and your finger is not on the trigger till you intend to shot. some shots will be taken as the gun comes up to eye level ( called a snap shot--learning how to point shoot).
have 3 or 4 mags to minimize down time and pace yourself for when to change targets.
important that you see your shoots till you know them from any misses.
save some ammo for weak and one handed practice.
practice (unloaded) draw at home-there are different ways for different holsters-you practice in slow motion till it feels right. do it 3 paces from a mirror and aim at your chest or head--in a mirror it is easy to 'see 'how well you are pointing (this is anothe step towards point shooting)

holes in paper plates beats counting points and they are visible

than join a plates & pins shoot, IDPA.

good luck

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gruntingfrog

Since your practice is defensive oriented, I would make a couple changes to the scoring. First, in most defensive situations a head shot isn't a good bet (since the head moves around a lot you're far more likely to miss in real life than your practice will account for). Because of this, I would count the head shot no higher than the 10 ring. It will discourage you from thinking of the head as a more valuable shot if you ever find yourself in a real defensive situation.

Second, depending on which target you're using I would ditch the 10 ring points and just make the 9 the max. Anywhere in the 9 ring on most targets is plenty accurate for defensive situations and you'll be encouraged to work on quickness instead of bullseye target shooting. Like I said, this really depends on the target.

Finally, the defensive difference between the 7 ring and the 8 ring is substantial. Although the 7 ring will wound, it is not likely to stop an aggressive attacker and therefore is worth far less in a defensive situation.

So I think I would present the scoring like this:

9 or Head = 5 points
8 = 4 points
7 = 2 points

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Thanks! That does make more sense. The only reason I was including head-shots at all was to work my way into "failure" drills. Would you substitute something other than HS for those 2 mags worth of ammo? I like my PF9 a LOT, but it's definitely gonna take some time and effort to get as good with it as I want/need to be.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by claude clay

good thoughts grunting frog--


and now for something completely different
save cardboard, like that comes in packaged goods and go to wally world and get 150 paper plates for $1
staple the plate on backing-head and below it for CM. draw on them--add fun.

that set 2 at say, 3 and 5 yards.
go to low ready and at a thought( till you can afford a timer) raise the gun and fire at your target of choice. some times dbl tap the same or different targets. with 4 to choose from-change it up.
you cant draw , so thats why i say 'low ready' that point where you have the gun out in both hands (pointed at the ground about 10 feet in front of you) and the safety may or may not be still on and your finger is not on the trigger till you intend to shot. some shots will be taken as the gun comes up to eye level ( called a snap shot--learning how to point shoot).
have 3 or 4 mags to minimize down time and pace yourself for when to change targets.
important that you see your shoots till you know them from any misses.
save some ammo for weak and one handed practice.
practice (unloaded) draw at home-there are different ways for different holsters-you practice in slow motion till it feels right. do it 3 paces from a mirror and aim at your chest or head--in a mirror it is easy to 'see 'how well you are pointing (this is anothe step towards point shooting)

holes in paper plates beats counting points and they are visible

than join a plates & pins shoot, IDPA.

good luck

---

Thanks for the advice! The only reason I want to count points is to improve against myself. Also, the reason I'm working this all out for an indoor range is that it's the only convenient venue for me. I don't know anyone who has any land near-by and the outdoor ranges are an hour in either direction. I like the stuff you said about 'point shooting' and will probably add that in/change to it when I get more comfortable with 'front-sight shooting'. The good news is that the outdoor range that's an hour south of me has IDPA and scenario-based ranges. I can't wait to get good enough for that!

Just one more thought for dry fire drills, (CHEAP) have someone sit a spent casing on your front sight (base on blade) while you work on trigger press, when you can dry fire with casing in place (not falling off) you will be amazed how your accuracy will increase when you go live fire again. If your weapons front sight is too thin or angled to where a casing will not sit on it, place it on the slide/barrel not quite as good, but almost.

I love this idea! Thank you for that suggestion.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stubborn

Just one more thought for dry fire drills, (CHEAP) have someone sit a spent casing on your front sight (base on blade) while you work on trigger press, when you can dry fire with casing in place (not falling off) you will be amazed how your accuracy will increase when you go live fire again. If your weapons front sight is too thin or angled to where a casing will not sit on it, place it on the slide/barrel not quite as good, but almost.

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Start using a .22lr pistol for most practice and keep the scoring REAL tight. As in quarter size dots at 15 feet coming up from low ready is the only acceptable hit. Then push it back to 20 and further.

FUNDAMENTALS. Solidly executed fundamentals will win fights. Shooting people in critical areas will win fights.

If you are practicing on a budget, you can't afford to miss, or to get bad habits.

Also, start dryfiring with a snap cap in the gun, and a dime on the front sight. Start at compressed high ready, extend the gun and press the trigger. If the coin falls off, you did it wrong.

When you get good with that, add burpees (10 is nice) then do the dime drill again till you get the dime to stay on.

Then drawstroke practice. Buy fighting handgun vol #1 from ShivWorks and practice the drawstroke till it's second nature.

Shooting on the range should be limited to confirming the skills you practiced off the range and with .22lr to focus you shooting.

Idealy, do the shooting with a long double action similar to your carry gun, so use a revolver if you can scare one up.

Live ammo through a carry gun on a budget should be 5 to 10 rounds at the end of a 100 round ore more .22lr session focusing on perfect shots delivered quickly.

Their is no more scoring. This is index cards taped to the target. Hit the index cards accurately or it's FAIL.

5 feet from compressed high ready to 50 feet slow fire - hit the 3x5 taped to the target. Or FAIL.

Thats how I practice on a budget.

Today I was supposed to be practicing one-hand shooting at the range with my two handguns. But instead, I did the one-hand shooting using a rental Nighthawk 1911 .45 since I didn't feel like spending the time to clean both my handguns. And besides, they have had enough rds. through them already. The session wasn't bad at all. Although not perfect as weak hand support shooting, I still shot respectable groups at center mass using both strong and weak hand shooting, unsupported. A lot of the other shooters too were surprised at how I could shoot a .45 one handed and still make decent hits. Since the range could not allow this, I also practiced one hand reloading drills at home using only the gun hand. It's a good skillset to have because you never know when you might have to shoot w/ one hand as a result of an injury or the support hand may be busy doing something else.

Just another thought and different direction for you to try if you can. I spent $200 and purchased the LaserLyte Pro LT-1 target and laser insert for my .45. Just in the dry fire alone, I figure I have paid for it. I can go home dressed from work and practice five or ten presentations from the concealed holster I am wearing that day. Later, I can use the laser to practice trigger control and put the target in many varied positions and places throughout the house. No, you don't get the recoil and same follow through BUT, I have noticed that my groups are tighter at the live fire range and also tighter in the few places that allow hammers/double taps. It puts a lot more fun into the dry fire practice and has actually caused my wife to particpate and shoot more. Drives the cats nuts too. You can also put the target in a safe spot and practice firing from the floor or around the couch. Try it lights out with your flash light and have your wife place the target somewhere and surprise you. Also can practice in the garage with vehicle presentations e. g. car-jack type situation. Found out I needed to move my holster to get to it when seated in my wife's car.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chefjon

Times are tough these days and we all have our stories of economic woe. I'm making 1/2 of what I made before my 1 year of unemployment (at least I have a job) and just had to trade my Sr9c for a PF9+cash just to survive.

I'm really pretty new to shooting and SD and am trying to make the most of my range trips, as they are getting fewer and farther between. I'm also trying to quantify my shooting ability so I can focus on more rapid improvement. To this end, I'm trying to come up with a 1-2 box scored set of drills. Here's what I have so far:

(This list assumes an indoor range with rules followed. I can't present from holster or do contact-shooting outside of a class-setting.)

Scoring (by ring):
7=1
8=2
9=3
10=4
x/head=5 (Head shots, as in real life, will count as 0 for miss)

Drills (by 7rd. Mag):
1 Box Each at 10 & 20 ft. respectively-
Normal Stance-CM
Normal Stance-HS
Controlled Pair-CM
1 Hand-R-CM
1 Hand-L-CM
Flashlight
Induced Malf.

Accounting for the 2 rounds lost to using dummies on the "induced malf", total possible score will be 480.

When money allows, I will add a 3rd box and add:
Extension from position 3
Extension from "SOOL"
Kneeling (When my favorite RMs are there)
Multiple lanes & targets (It can't be said enough-"It ain't what you know, it's WHO you know")
Mag dumps (just for fun/stress relief)
Hostage Targets

My dry-fire routine consists of:

Presentation from concealment
Extension from Pos. 3
Extension from "SOOL"
1 Hand Reload/Malf-RH
1 Hand Reload/Malf-LH

Wow, this post wound up long! If you've made it this far, I'd like to know if there's anything I missed and/or what your defensive drills at an indoor range are.

P.S. I have taken and will take further advanced instruction.

Thanks!

---

If they allow it, drawing and live fire would be very important. I can do that at mine. I also am allowed to run the computerized target from, say, 20' to 0' while I draw and fire as it's coming toward me. That's a handy drill - again if they allow it.