Mike Boyle, I and a few others are working on collecting and binding thirty eight of our collective favorite snub range drills. From time to time I’ll post a few that you might want to try out. Your feedback is always welcome.
This drill is a draw conditioning drill. The shooter loads a single live round in his revolver, positions the round under the hammer, and then holsters the gun. Then face your targets ( I prefer to face a set of five or six knock down plates.) At the signal the shooter draws the revolver, takes aim, and does not fire. The point of the drill to overcome the tendency of too many shooters to reflexively fire on the draw. In a liability heavy world, any shot that is not deliberate can (and does) cost one dearly. After drawing the gun, re-holster, pause, and repeat. On the sixth draw stroke, pull the trigger one time. The trigger pull will move the round over once, but not discharge the round. Re-holster and repeat. Five draw strokes without pulling the trigger, then one draw stroke pulling the trigger only one time, then begin again. This drill requires you to practice your draw stroke thirty times, you’ll dry fire four times, and you’ll only get one live round after every thirty draws. This drill helps address the fact that the draw stroke is one of the least practiced elements of the self-defense shooter’s repertoire. I find that this drill is best done in front of the falling plates, where I focus on a single plate for six draw strokes. After the first plate falls, then I repeat the whole exercise facing the second plate. One can get a great day of range training, use a very minimum number of rounds, and avoid nearly a whole day’s worth of house husband chores that would otherwise ruin the day.
