Improving Draw Speed and Target Transitions

This drill will help you improve your draw speed and target transitions—along with recoil mitigation, and sight picture and trigger control. This is a great one to force you to use sights, learn to understand how your gun performs at speed and find your limitations between speed and accuracy. It’s a great drill for competitive shooters, but because of the basics it addresses it’s good for defensive handgunners as well.

Gear

Spare magazine, mag pouch, shot timer

Drill

Three IPSC-style targets. Targets 1 and 2 are at five yards. Target 2 should be centered on the start position (a USPSA-type box if you’re competition training) while Target 1 should be one yard left of center. Target 3 should be 20 yards downrange and one yard right of center. Fire two shots on each.

Goals

A fast, safe draw kicks things off. Because targets 1 and 2 are close, you will want to shoot these as fast as possible while making sure to get your hits. Be sure to maintain a strong grip to minimize muzzle flip.

Target 3 is a fairly long ways off, so slow to a controlled cadence in order to get your hits. This long target forces you to concentrate on your front sight. Remember, you can shoot only as fast as you can see your sights, and a premature shot will likely be a miss.

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