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#Post#: 136--------------------------------------------------
Shooting tight groups
DIR By: allmanav
Date: April 8, 2020, 6:31 am
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In action shooting disciplines, Match Directors can be pretty
sneaky when they design their courses-of-fire and often
incorporate targets that force the shooter to slow down and
deliver a precision shot. And it makes no difference whether
it's an IDPA, USPSA or ICORE match.
They all do it. One tactic is to snuggle a No-Shoot target tight
to a Shoot target, leaving little scoring area available. Hit
the No-Shoot and you eat a pile of down points that trash your
score. In addition, sometimes they will put up a hardcover
target that covers most of the Shoot target behind it, and shots
that hit the hard cover mean you eat the down points for the
shots you missed on the Shoot target. That doesn't help your
score either.
This requires a shooter break off from their “hose ‘em” pace to
settle down to deliver a precision shot on a target that may not
offer more than a couple of inches of scoring zone—and at ranges
out to 15 yards or more. These shots require intense focus on
the basic fundamentals of grip, stance, sight alignment and
trigger control. That's precisely what the Focus Drill requires.
The Focus Drill is shot at five yards. The target is a 1.5- to
2-inch circle on a clean white background. The drill is to bring
the gun up in a freestyle hold and, taking your time, fire five
deliberate single shots—bringing the gun down between shots and
taking a short rest.
The objective is to chew one ragged hole in the center of the
circle—basically putting every round into one large hole.
This drill is not as easy as it may appear. The five yards of
distance is far enough to challenge the shooter to be perfect in
their grip, stance, sight picture and trigger press—yet close
enough to remove the mechanical accuracy variables from the
handgun.
Regardless of how the gun and load may group from a 25-yard
benchrest, any decent competition revolver or semi-automatic
should be able to shoot a 0.5-inch group at five yards. That is,
if the shooter focuses on the basic fundamentals of handgun
accuracy and executes them properly.
Making focus drill targets with spray paint and paper
Targets are easy to acquire, alternatively, a can of spray
paint, an empty bathroom tissue roll, and some white copy paper
will quickly create all the Focus Drill targets a shooter will
ever need. And, their use goes beyond the standard Focus Drill.
Making the appropriate targets is quite easy. Shooters can
purchase small, stick-on target dots from the various target
makers and simply slap them on an 8x10 piece of white copy
paper. Or, most of the cardboard tubes from a roll of paper
towels or bathroom tissue measure just under two inches. Stick
one end on a piece of white paper, shoot some spray paint into
the other and you can make targets all day long.
Competitive shooters who truly want to master their skills will
also engage these targets with both their weak and strong hands
only. Action Pistol shooters will benefit from this, as they are
often called upon to engage targets with the weak and strong
hand. But they're not the only ones. Precision (Bullseye) Pistol
shooters will also find this to be a valuable drill. If they can
make one ragged hole in a two-inch dot at five yards from their
normal stance, the 10-ring isn't that intimidating.
Another very useful application of the two-inch dot target is in
refining the first shot presentation from the holster. For many
shooters, their worst shot on a stage will be the first shot on
the draw because they were eager to get into the fray, they
rushed it and were not fully on target. Stand at five yards and
draw and fire one round. Holster and repeat. The shooter who can
put all their rounds in the circle will have their draw
stroke/presentation down pat.
Of course, one doesn't have to be on a live-fire range to gain
benefit from that two-inch dot target. It is an excellent
dry-fire target to set up in the home. Most shooters can find 15
feet of space in the house to set the target up. The dot makes
it easy to see where the sights are when the trigger is
pressed—whether one is doing deliberate dry-fire training or
working on a presentation from the holster.
Overall, the dot target can be a great training aid. Shooters
who master the Focus Drill will be able to handle the tightest
shots—and thwart even the most devious Match Director.
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