If your social media feed is filled with images of competitive shooters, people attending high round count classes, and guys claiming they run at least a thousand rounds a month through their Glocks, you might be feeling some pressure to also shoot at a high rate. You may also find that it’s cost-prohibitive — or that you simply don’t have the time. If that’s the case, we have good news for you! A single box of ammo gives you practically endless options for training. Today we’re going to list our five favorite ways to make that 50-round box of 9mm matter.
You might notice these are largely not specific, popular handgun drills but are, instead, exercises we’re laying out so you get the most out of your trigger time. After all, every shot fired counts, for better or for worse. We’re going to help you make yours count in the best ways possible.
Slow and Steady
It’s fun to mag dump into a target, but it’s more useful to take those shots slow and steady. When you only have 50 rounds available it’s even more important to take your time. To work on your skills one shot at a time, choose a distance — such as 10 yards — and hang your target. Be mindful of everything you do: your breath, trigger control, and follow through. Make every shot count and refuse to rush.
Shooting slow and steady requires patience and some attention to detail. If you’re already precise on target at 10 yards, move yourself back to 12 or 15 yards so the exercise presents a greater challenge. Choose a specific spot on the target, not just a wide zone. If your target doesn’t have a precise aiming point you can use a Sharpie to draw one on. You just might be surprised how that drawn-on dot draws the eye and helps you focus. Then, take aim, keep your eye on the front sight, and press/pull the trigger. If you’re struggling and there’s someone experienced available to keep an eye on you, ask them to watch to see what’s going wrong. You can also record your live fire on your cell phone and review it later. That method isn’t quite as comprehensive, but it does help.
Holster Work
So you’ve moved on from only shooting from low ready or from the bench and it’s time to work from the holster. That’s fantastic! This is an important step for gun owners interested in carrying for self-defense purposes. For the purposes of this 50-round training session, we’re going to assume you’ve already been taught and are working on the basics of a correct draw stroke and presentation of your handgun. It might sound silly, but it’s vital that you understand and train to correctly, and safely draw your gun and get it on target. For the live fire portion, here’s our suggestion.
Once you’ve fine-tuned your draw stroke, practice drawing your handgun and taking a single, well-placed shot on target. As with the slow and steady drill, it’s a good idea to have a specific point of aim in mind rather than just firing at a general area. Draw your gun, aim, and take a single shot. Re-holster your gun. Do it again. The repetition is a good way to eventually build up some speed and move on to longer strings of fire. For now, learning to nail that first shot matters. As your skills advance you’ll find yourself working to speed up that first shot on target from the holster.
Shooting Positions
Yes, there’s more than one position to shoot from with a handgun. It’s not all standing still and upright, aiming at the target. If you’re unfamiliar with different shooting positions, keep yourself relatively close to the target (within 10 yards or less). Tiny errors at close range become a lot bigger when you move further from the target, so before you go further out, spend time training up close and personal.
Since you have 50 rounds to work with, we suggest shooting five to 10 rounds per position. As always, don’t rush. Take it easy. Make every shot count. These are our suggested positions to try:
- Braced kneeling. To do this, lower your strong-side knee all the way to the ground while leaving your support side knee bent. That support side leg becomes the rest for your support arm. It’s relatively easy to get into this position and get back out of it.
- Double kneeling. For this one, both knees are going to hit the ground. That means you won’t have a knee to brace an arm against, so this requires a bit more balance and strength.
- Low kneeling. Just how low you go depends on your back, knees, and hips. If possible, sink down to your knees with both legs out to either side, feet aimed behind your body. This means you’re literally sitting on the ground, only with your legs bent and pointed back behind you. That gives you a lot of contact with the ground and offers fantastic stability.
- Controlled prone. This puts you on the ground slowly and mindfully which is a good way to start learning to go prone with a gun in your hand. Take care to keep your gun aimed in a safe direction and slowly lower to your knees. Holding your gun in your strong side hand — still aimed safely at the target — use your support hand to reach in front of your body and help lower yourself to the ground. Once you’ve mastered this, you can move on to fast-prone positions.
- Rollover prone. In a firefight for your life, rollover prone is a definite possibility thanks to how dynamic the situation may be. After having gone prone, or at least knelt down, use your support hand to safely move onto your side. Most commonly you’ll then bend the knee of the support side leg, meaning the leg on the ground. How much you bend it depends on your needs and balance. Don’t forget your foot, either; flexing or pointing your foot will affect your balance and it varies by person and situation.
Controlled Pairs
This one’s more along the lines of a known drill and involves taking two controlled shots at the same spot on the target. Incredible speed is not the goal. The goal here is to carefully control those two shots, creating a steady “boom, boom” rather than a rapid-fire burst. This can be done while standing or from the bench. It’s also a great one to add to the mix when working from the holster.
One Handed Shooting
Self-defense scenarios can easily involve firing with the gun held in just one hand. If you haven’t practiced this, it can lead to errant shots and totally missing the target. This is especially true if you’re forced to fire one-handed using your support hand only and you’ve never done that before. Remember: you’re not likely to have the time to slowly get into a standing, careful shooting position, let alone maintain it as things progress.
To shoot one-handed, work up close around three yards, and start with your strong-side hand. There are different methods regarding where to put the hand you’re not using. You can simply press the palm of that hand to your chest or you can make a fist and draw the arm tightly back as though you’re about to punch. Just make sure to keep it out of the way. Put extra tension and force into the gun hand and aim with purpose. Some shooters find a slight tilt inward helps them get on target more accurately (and others find they don’t need that tilt on one side but do on the other). Take your shots one at a time and shoot with care. There’s no rush.
Whatever you choose to do with your range time, it should always involve thought. Don’t rush yourself. Take the time to come up with a plan for your trigger time and make it count. Every shot you send down-range will affect your shooting habits, so do your best to make them good ones.
