Favorite Rifle Drills

Zach

Newbie
I'm wondering what all your favorite rifle drills are that you use to stay sharp in between training events. As a scrounging college student, I'd also like to see what some of your lower round count drills are.

High round count, low round count, sidearm transitions, whatever. I wanna see'em. If they involve a shot timer, even better.
 

Grayman

Established
One of my favorites is the reload drill. Works for rifle and pistol, low round count and doesn't take long to setup.

Start with as many mags as you've got and load each of them one round. Have a partner stand by with some loose ammo and a stopwatch.

Set the stopwatch for 1 minute and begin. Do as many reloads as you can within that minute having your partner load empty mags as you drop them. Once you run out of the mags on your person drop to a knee and begin grabbing mags off the ground.

Realistically you will need at least 5 mags or this will become an exercise in futility as you wait for your partner to catch up....

CAUTION!!!

Make sure your partner is very aware of their surroundings and does not at anytime move in front of your muzzle. This is not a drill for someone with less than exceptional situational awareness and safety mindset!
 
Here's a couple documents that contain a ton of drills for both rifle and/or handguns. Some are various qualifications, some individual drills that work specific skills.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B24LvkvOQ-1kM1gtMFBPQldrcHM/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B24LvkvOQ-1kOFJJTEtubkhDdUE/view?usp=sharing

Drills that I regularly run that stand out as particularly awesome include Vicker's 3-6-9 Drill, Modified Navy Qual, Proctor's Soul Crusher, 10-8 pistol test, Falla's Lucky 7's, the Rock Star Drill and Bill Wilson's 5x5 Skill Test.

This is a drill set I put together to distribute to Cops on my agency who wanted something to start with when they practice with their monthly allotment of 100 pistols rounds, though it could be run easily with rifle also.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B24LvkvOQ-1kZWhIYVlobHFTbE0/view?usp=sharing

The "Range Drills" I update every few months and is formated to print and use half page document protectors to make a range drill book.

Keep the drill info coming, there's never enough too many available.
 

Jackrabbit

Member
Basically anything from Pat Mac, I like the blend of raw physicality and low round count marksmanship. I run the following drill on an IDPA target, BC steel, or on a 8" steel plate. Hoist, carry, and drop a 90lb sand bag at each yard line to increase difficulty.

Light the Fuse (Rifle, 7 rounds)Pat MacNamara

Target: IPSC, IDPA, 8-10MOA steel, or silhouette-type target

Loadout: 1 magazine loaded with at least 7 rounds

Course of Fire: Begin at the 100 yard line. Fire 1 shot at 100 yards, 75 yards, 50 yards, 25 yards, 50 yards, 75 yards, and 100 yards, running between each yard line.

Scoring: Total time, all shots must be in the A/B/C zone of an IPSC target, -0/-1 zones of an IDPA target, or on the body/head of a photo or silhouette target.
 

Bourneshooter

Blue Line Sheepdog
I like to use a variant of one of Pat Mac's:
1 round in chamber, empty mag, 1 round in reload mag. pistol with 1 in chamber, 2+ in pistol reload.

7 yard line.

On buzzer, fire 1 shot, reload, 1 shot, transition, 1 shot, reload, 1 shot, assess. Then conduct a full "safe" environment reload of pistol if needed and reload of rifle.
 

K.O.A.M.

Amateur
I try to run the modified Navy Qualification (an EAG/Pat Rogers mainstay) every time I go to the range at least three times. Drill requires a carbine, 15 rounds of ammunition, and an EAG target to be perfect. Or, if you don't have an EAG target, you can run it with a rifle bull or some other target simulating the vitals area. You start in the standing position with a hot rifle, safety on, with four in the magazine. You fire your five rounds, move to the kneeling position while reloading, fire five rounds, go to prone while reloading and fire your last five rounds. There is a par time. Every shot out of the target zone is +2. Every second under time is -1.

I like the drill because I'm working reloading, positions, and accuracy simultaneously. If you take an EAG class, you shoot it at 25 the first day, 35 the second day, and 50 the final day. It seems fairly simple until that buzzer is introduced. You're going from bolt lock reload every time, which can screw you up severely if you don't remember to hit that bolt release after you seat the magazine. While moving downward being timed.

I enjoy it and think it lets me train a bunch of things in a short period of time without a lot of ammunition.
 

JD Williams

Member
I like to shoot my regular agency 50 round qual but use a B8 bullseye and score it as an aggregate. 500 points with 450 as passing. If your looking to up the ante on your qual use a b8 and score it.
 
I'm in the same agency as JD. Here it is.

100 YARDS
Start at the low ready position. On the command of fire get into the position of your choice and fire 5 rounds center mass. Time: 20 seconds.

50 YARDS
Start at the low ready position. On the command of fire get into the poison of your choice and fire 5 rounds center mass. Time: 15 seconds.

35 YARDS
Start at the Low Ready position . On the command of fire, start firing in any position except prone and fire 3 rounds center mass. Immediately get into the prone position and fire 2 rounds to the head. Time: 20 seconds.

25 YARDS
Start at the Low Ready position. On the command of fire, step left and fire 3 rounds center mass standing only. Immediately get into a kneeling or squatting position and fire 2 rounds to the head. Time: 15 seconds.

25 YARDS
Start at the Low Ready position. On the command of fire, step right and fire 3 rounds center mass standing only. Immediately get into a kneeling or squatting position and fire 2 rounds to the head. Time: 15 seconds.

15 YARDS
Start at the Low Ready position.. On the command of fire, step left and fire 3 rounds center mass. Take a kneeling or squatting position and 2 rounds to the head. Time: 10 seconds.

15 YARDS
Start at the Low Ready position. On the command of fire, step right and fire 3 rounds center mass and 2 rounds to the head. Time: 7 seconds.

10 YARDS
Start at the Low Ready position standing only. On the command of fire, step left or right and fire 5 rounds center mass. Perform a mandatory re-load and fire 5 rounds center mass. Time: 15 seconds.

10 YARDS
Start at the Low Ready position standing only. On the command of fire, step left or right and fire 3 rounds center mass and 2 rounds to the head. Time: 4 seconds.
 

Tropleo

Member
PatMac drill

From the 50 on a B6 target
5 rds standing
5 rds kneeling
5 rds seated
5 rds prone

Total time and score
If using IPSC target then anything into A zone is good hit. B and C zone add 1 second to total time. D zone is 3 seconds. Outside of D is 5 seconds added.
 

Jackrabbit

Member
Due to limited financial resources over the last few months I've been running extremely low round count drills, some from this list. A mainstay has been setting an 8" steel target at 75 yards, setting the timer for random start, and working on getting one round on target as fast as possible. My par time has been 1-1.15 seconds.
 
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