Typical practice session?

[Court]

Do you have a plan in mind on what you want to accomplish on your next practice session? Or, do you just plan on shooting the center out of the target as fast as you can? How many rounds is a good number for you? For instance Last time out I fired 100 rounds and took about two hours. I practice outside on private land. A lot of loading, unloading, 4 or 5 rounds in each mag. I practice safe handling and gun functions much more than actual shooting at this point. Any productive practice tips for a novice appreciated. Describe in detail what a good productive practice session for you is. I'm very interested in how others practice. Thanks

 

[Skidboot]

It sounds like you're very much on the right track in terms of practicing safe gun handling.

When my wife and I practice, it is mostly at a range indoors, so most of our practice is measured by time rather than rounds fired. We usually bring a variety of handguns and shoot the ones we feel like shooting. Safe gun handling is always a focus. We often make a game of shooting different targets just to keep it interesting.

When we shoot ourdoors, we're more likely to practice "point and shoot" techniques, but we're often drawn to shooting cans and bottles (the latter especially when filled with water) just because that's the most fun. Safe gun handling and increasing familiarity with our carry pieces remains a priority.

 

[cfolsom]

I try to do a 50 round warm up, consisting of the following:

7 yards - 2 handed - 5 rounds
7 yards - strong hand only - 5 rounds
7 yards - weak hand only - 5 rounds
10 yards - draw and fire - 5 rounds
15 yards - draw and fire - 5 rounds
25 yards - draw and fire - 5 rounds
15 yards - draw and fire - 5 rounds
10 yards - draw and fire - 5 rounds
7 yards - draw and fire - 5 rounds
7 yards - draw and fire - 5 headshots
All of those are done with concentration on sight alignment and trigger control, shooting speed is not a consideration. You can work reloads into the routine, or use some dummy rounds to check for flinching.

I will then work on any problem that cropped up during the warm up, usually slowing down as I have the tendency to shoot quicker and sloppier(?).

If the shooting is up to me, I usually work on accuracy with a reactive target. My favorite reactive targets are golf balls (used and found in the woods during a round of golf). I start at 5 yards and work my way back to 25 yards. Small targets usually mean small misses. This is of course on an outside range and I am shooting the golf balls off a wooden target stand. Great fun and if you shoot a group on paper afterwards, the target zones look huge compared to what you were just shooting.

 

[Rei40c]

I wasted a lot of ammo at first thinking just throwing the rounds downrange would make me better. I suppose you could say I learned a little about the recoil, basic operation of the gun, but really I wasn't learning a darn thing. I had the outlook that if I fired 500 rounds now, if I fire 500 more I'll be 100% better, but it just doesn't work like that I think.

So to your question yes, I do try to work on specific things now and specific skills at specific ranges. I measured the max possible line of site distance inside my home, that's the range I practice at for "long range shooting" (which really isn't that far). My point is I cater it to my everyday environment. Yours will be different. The VAST amount of my practice is at 10 yards or less.

One drill I kinda made up for myself is to fire one round, then 2 shot group, then 3 shot group, then 4 shot group. Then I go backwards 1,2,3,4 then 4,3,2,1. This works great because I carry 10 rounds in my sr40c. I do one set as fast as I think I can, then one concentrating on being accurate. The end result is my natural shooting is somewhere between as fast as I can spray rounds and very accurate aimed shots. For me this has resulted in acceptable "combat accuracy" with rounds on the target fairly quickly.

Most importantly I'm not in the lane falling asleep simply pulling the trigger over and over again. I'm trying to do something specific with every round. And I'm thinking about ever single round now rather then just mashing the trigger.

 

[Court]

Great replys, interesting topic, thanks.