Basic two gun competition shoot - what drills would you incorporate?

Wake27

Regular Member
For about a year or so I was the lead (only) instructor for the local rod and gun club. They’ve had various iterations of a program, that, in its current state, is called the “Marksmanship Program.” When I took it over, it’s only function was to run club members through Marksmanship Program 101 which was a basic certification course that had to be completed to allow members to use a holster when on the range. Previous iterations had done slightly more advanced training, but that had been shut down. When I took over, I created two more “classes” - MP 100 and MP 102. 100 was as basic as it gets, because there were club members who had never shot a gun. 102’s POI was vey similar to 101, but since 101 was a certification in safe weapons handling, I chose to stay away from creating efficiency and honing accuracy for that class. 102 began working on that stuff and the intent was to create a 201 to work the VTAC barricades and stuff like that.

The MP101 included a few iterations of Hilton Yam’s 1+1 and 4+4 drills with both pistol and rifle then finished with the TMACS transition drill. Total round count was 40 rounds of pistol and 32 rounds of rifle. 102 had the Bill Drill, more 4+4 drills, TMACS transition drill, and typically finished up with the VTAC 1-5. There was more flexibility on repeating and/or choosing other drills, but it called for 100 rounds of pistol and 82 rounds of rifle. I do not know if the POI has been changed at all.

I should be moving back to the mainland in the next few months so I was replaced by someone who won’t be leaving any time soon. However, they did ask if I had any ideas for a competition for the Marksmanship Program so I’m trying to figure out what drills would be best to use, given the restraints below.

1. Shooters: I expect somewhere between 5-10 members to compete, but there could be many more. They variation in experience and proficiency is about as large as possible. All of them will have to be MP101 card holders, but that could be the extent of their training. Most are current or former military but a lot are older, bench rest type shooters. I’ve yet to see someone that has the same experience and proficiency as I do, but I’m not that great so I’m sure the club has some guys that could put me to shame if they came out.

2. Time: Typically the club can only shoot between 1000-1500 and most guys like to do some stuff on their own so two hours is probably an ideal time for the whole thing.

3. Range: This is the hardest one. We use Army ranges so we have to deal with range control. We’re not allowed to shoot on the move at all nor are we allowed just about any type of reactive target (to include steel). Weapons have to be on line and pointed down range at all times. I have bent the rules there with holstered and slung guns. The range that I think we’ll use is about 70 meters long and is essentially a big grass field. There are VTAC and other barricades available, like mock windows but condition is unknown. Targetry is all over the place as it’s almost entirely supplied but the shooters. There are a few club targets but they’re typically shot to shit so just having consistent targets will be tough.

4. Powers that be: Along with the range constraints, there are also management constraints. I no longer run the program so I really don’t have any authority to bend any rules. Even when I did, I couldn’t get away with much. There have been multiple iterations of the program because guys kept doing stuff that range control didn’t allow and got caught, so it gets shut down for several months at a time. Club leadership is understandably trying to prevent that for numerous reasons and even if they weren’t, most of these guys are crusty bench rest dudes who use it as more of a social thing than anything else. I’d be tempted to try shooting then moving drills, but I doubt that’d work either.

With all that being said, what do you guys recommend? I’m thinking something along the lines of Bill Drill, Redback One ORT, and VTAC 1-5 but this was just mentioned so I haven’t been able to put a lot of thought into it yet. Scoring would would be along the lines of Virginia scoring IIRC, with only specified round counts and time added as a penalty for any miss.


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Sunshine_Shooter

Established
I'd replace the VTac 1-5 with a 2-2-2 variation. The 1-5 uses half a mag of ammo, whereas the 2-2-2 variation uses a fifth of a mag. It practices the same skills, minus the high round counts of the last two targets, but makes up for it with being much quicker to score and being more economical. I'd do a similar round reduction for the Redback ORT, like replacing the 10-shot strings with 4 shot strings, bringing the round count to (6) rounds per gun instead of the original (12). Fewer rounds to score

Look into Chuck's No Fail Box drill, see if you can incorporate it somewhere?

 

Dr. Cornwallis

Regular Member
The VTAC 1-5 is a good drill as is the 2-2-2, and it’s easy to set up. Pat McNamara has a ton of great drills and many of them lend them selves well to being modified. “Set It Off” is a great Patmac drill that can be modified several different ways and still be an effective drill.


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Bub

Amateur
The VTAC 1-5 is harder than most people think. In fact, if you don't think you can really screw this thing up.
 
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