Drills and Practice

I subscribe to Active Response Training, and I've found their daily articles valuable.  Always.  I've yet to find something that I felt was a waste of my time or that didn't make sense to me.  I've run across sites that offer advice that just doesn't make sense, yet I see people following thier advice.  Not so with Active Response Training.

A few weeks ago, they had an article about the Dot Torture Shooting drill.  I quickly followed the links to download the drill.  Just reading the directions, I got excited and couldn't wait until I could get to the range to try it.  I shot an email over to Tara and she got just as excited as I did.

The weather has changed for the worst here in Colorado and we decided to move our weekly range day to an indoor range.  We were joined by another local GunDiva, MShell, who we hadn't shot with in months.

Though this has nothing to do with Dot Torture, I have to say something.  We checked into the range, got to our bay and looked around.  The range was full, so many people were shooting two and three to a lane.  And men were outnumbered by women.  Go ahead, take a second to digest that.  I've been shooting regularly for nine years or so and it was the first time (other than at an all-female shoot) I'd ever been on the range where the women outnumbered the men.  And not by a little bit, by better than 2:1.  Six full-grown women and two little girls compared to three men on the range.  It was awesome!  Since I didn't know any of the other ladies, I didn't take a picture, but I should have.

Anyway, back to the Torture.  It is very appropriately named.  Only fifty rounds, but requires something like eighty-three sight pictures.  For our fist time around, we didn't draw from our holsters, but we will next time.

Since it's kind of an ammo-eater, we shot it with the GSG.  I started out and felt like I did okay.  Not fabulous, but okay.

I didn't actually read the directions properly,
oops.
Each dot has a specified number of strings.
In my brain, it was five strings for every dot.

Tara loaded up the GSG's mags and took her turn.  She did really well, too.

The #8 dot is shot weak-handed only,
it was her tightest group.
Brat.

And then MShell shot it.  With a gun she'd never handled before.

It's hard to see,
but she shot the damn thing clean.

A clean round.  From our newest shooter.  MShell's only been shooting about two years.  Tara's been shooting five or six, and I've been shooting more than nine. MShell's a rock star.  Maybe she'll teach me a thing or two.

Sadly, as I was loading up one of the GSG mags for her, I dropped the mag on the cement floor.  It exploded!  Parts went everywhere and I'm not exaggerating.  I scrambled around, trying to find all of the parts.  I found all but the most important - the spring.  The damn thing just disappeared.  We all looked for it, but it's g-o-n-e.  Now I'm down to just four mags, but at least I still have some.

The second time through, I chose to shoot it with my Para.

Oh, it was ugly.
Really ugly.

MShell ran it with her 9mm.

She "threw" two rounds.
The hole off the paper on the right was a pre-existing hole.
I really want to hate her.

I can't wait to run this drill again and again.  I love it and intend to incorporate it routinely in my training.

If you're looking for something to hone your skill, I suggest you give this one a try.

(And if you don't already subscribe to Active Response Training, go do that, too.)