POI & POA shooting drills

[TDDude]

I was reading a Point of Aim & Impact thread on the Rifles & Shotguns section and thought I’d make a new thread that was associated with the different drills that we all do. I did a quick search and didn’t see anything like this so here you go.

This drill was shown to me several years ago and it still kicks my rear at times. I've attached a couple targets that I drew in AutoCAD but since I'm basically a frugal kinda guy, (cheep, cheep, cheep) I usually just draw these out on a blank sheet of paper with a thick Sharpie pen. If you don’t mind spending the money on ink, I’ve linked to larger versions of the same thing and feel free to print away. Many ranges want the shooter to use the store targets so if that is the case, I’ll buy the target and draw this on the back. Besides, the numbers need to be changed around from time to time on one of the drills.

I start with a bunch of circles on a sheet of paper. With the target distance at around 3'-8', the drill is to put a bullet in the center of each circle. Shoot left to right and NO MATTER WHERE THE BULLET HITS, move on to the next circle. Don't keep hammering away at the same circle just because you’re hitting 5” away. Move on and keep moving on in order.

Take your time. One shot every 2-5 seconds to start would be normal. It's a VERY humiliating drill when you first start. It allows the shooter to work on trigger control as well as concentration and trying to figure out what your POI is.

Once you are able to put holes inside THE CIRCLE YOU ARE AIMING AT, then what I do is to randomly number the circles and then shoot at them in numerical order. This pretty much forces the shooter to have both eyes open and really works on concentration, memory, trigger control, and on and on. If you draw this out on the back of a silhouette sized target, there can be 50 circles and finding the numbers can be a challenge.

I haven't tried this with an AR yet because it requires a range where the shooter can place the distance of the target and that usually means indoor pistol ranges. Now that I have a .22 conversion kit for my AR, I'm going to take it with me and give it a go. I’d probably use .22 anyway so as to conserve my .223 ammo. Remember I said I was cheep, cheep, cheep.



http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1 ... 0large.jpg



http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1 ... 0large.jpg

[smasraum]

I've seen this stuff mentioned before, but i don't understand what it's talking about and have never seen it explained. Is the idea to fire without aiming or what?

[srothstein]

The purpose of the drill is to improve the speed of your aiming and your skills overall. If you start this with 6 inch circle, take your time and get to where you hit them all, you could then shrink them down to 5 inch circles. As you get better, keep shrinking the circles. If you do not shrink the circles, you should find yourself speeding up without even thinking about it.

One of the other variations in this is to have a friend mark a red X through some of the circles at random. These are your don't shoot targets. I have done this as part of the police training for learning to make shoot/don't shoot judgments.

[3dfxMM]

Whew! I thought I was supposed to put this up in the same size that they showed up on my monitor, about an inch in diameter, outer edge to outer edge. :) I like the idea of six or even five inch circles better.

[DoubleJ]

I've seen this stuff mentioned before, but i don't understand what it's talking about and have never seen it explained. Is the idea to fire without aiming or what?

no, but to know how to aim so that you hit what you're aimin' at!

[smasraum]

How is it different than chewing the center out of a target? Or is it the fact that you aren't aiming at the same place everytime.

So far (I'm pretty new). I'm going slow, and I'm going from low ready, aim, shoot, low ready, rinse, repeat. So each time, I'm having to re-aim. It seems like that would be similar.

[TDDude]

The purpose of the drill is to improve the speed of your aiming and your skills overall. If you start this with 6 inch circle, take your time and get to where you hit them all, you could then shrink them down to 5 inch circles. As you get better, keep shrinking the circles. If you do not shrink the circles, you should find yourself speeding up without even thinking about it.

One of the other variations in this is to have a friend mark a red X through some of the circles at random. These are your don't shoot targets. I have done this as part of the police training for learning to make shoot/don't shoot judgments.

Starting with larger circles is a great idea. It wasn't taught that way to me so I never considered it. I figured getting the paper very close was the same as a large circle but I really like the red X idea.

I've seen this stuff mentioned before, but i don't understand what it's talking about and have never seen it explained. Is the idea to fire without aiming or what?

It’s the exact opposite. The idea is to be as precise as possible and put each shot dead center in the holes. It’s misleading to think that since the paper is so close that it will be easy. Even though the circles look small, the paper should only be about 3’ or so away. I guess with bigger circles, the distance can increase but I was introduced to this drill with 2” circles but with only 3’ or so of range.

How is it different than chewing the center out of a target? Or is it the fact that you aren't aiming at the same place everytime.

So far (I'm pretty new). I'm going slow, and I'm going from low ready, aim, shoot, low ready, rinse, repeat. So each time, I'm having to re-aim. It seems like that would be similar.

It is similar, just different. I was taught that for this drill the idea is to keep the weapon up and on target during the entire shot series and the series was basically a full magazine or whatever amount you wanted to shoot. If you get shaky and tense before the mag is done, then of course you need to stop. It might take a couple minutes to go through the 16 shots but that would be part of the concentration part of the drill. Also, you should keep both eyes open as that will greatly improve the shoot-no shoot portion. Going slow with both eyes open helped me get used to lining up on my dominant eye while the other eye keeps my peripheral vision working.

Working through the different holes instead of chewing through is another concentration thing. I’m not really sure. I only know that going with this type of target is much more difficult than chewing out the center of a single target.

[srothstein]

In addition to it helping your aim in general, it also has the bonus of helping learn to engage multiple targets. This could help with hunting, self-defense, or competition shooting (IPSC for example). IPSC is one of those where you will have to adjust your aim for multiple targets and will usually also have some don't shoot targets mixed in.

[smasraum]

Thanks all for the info. Just a slightly different kind of shooting training.