#fridayfundamentals

Last night’s IDPA match at Johns Creek Indoor Gun Range concluded with a Standards stage. It was a simple drill that we can call 5+1. Some variation of this drill is the last stage of every match there. It began loaded with five rounds and an available reload of at least two rounds. Since I was shooting my Model 65 revolver, I used a full speedloader for the reload. A single IDPA target was placed at 7 yards.

The drill was to: draw and fire four shots to the body, one shot to the head, reload, and fire one more shot to the head.

The drill is timed and scored. Although it seems simple on the surface, it includes a number of marksmanship components.

1. Draw to a good first shot
2. Three splits (successive shots to the same target, in this case the eight inch – 0 zone of the body)
3. A transition (shot to a different target, in this case the four inch – 0 zone of the head)
4. A reload
5. One shot to a precision target (in this case the four inch – 0 zone of the head)
6. Follow through on the last shot

It also requires the shooter to remember the drill while being timed. This may seem straightforward but every match several shooters make some kind of Procedural Error, such as shooting too many shots, forgetting where the shots are supposed to go, or riding the slide stop so the slide doesn’t lock back. Not having the slide lock back doesn’t incur a Procedural Penalty but if you look at the gun for a bit before initiating the reload, there’s additional time on your score.

For many shooters, the trip ups come at three places; the first shot, the shot after the reload, and following through on the last shot. Missing the first shot is the single most common marksmanship error. Missing the first shot after a stoppage clearance, e.g., a reload, is the second most missed shot. Not following through after the last shot is the source of many dropped shots.

Those two shots, first and first after a reload, require the shooter to ‘Shoot better,’ as Bill Rogers https://rogersshootingschool.com/ says it. It’s easy to let the trigger finger get ahead of the sights but that’s a mistake. In 1893, Theodore Roosevelt, the 26^th President of the United States, wrote in his book The Wilderness Hunter:

“No possible rapidity of fire can atone for habitual carelessness of aim with the first shot.”

Some concepts are timeless, regardless of what gun you’re shooting or what sighting system it has on it.