So I'm a big fan of manipulation vs. "Marksmanship Masturbation. I also like to maximize my range time while not needing to expending precious ammo.

Now I'm also a firm believer that I rarely inventing anything and this drill , even thought I thought it up, is a variation of one I did in a class many years ago.

What I like about it is
- requires low ammo count
- requires a level of speed and accuracy
- makes you  work you gear/pouch placement and choice of magazine cariers.
- Has a time limit to add some duress.
- incorporates a Plate carrier that if you own one, you should be wearing and practicing.


So here is the drill
- You and you rifle
- your plate carrier with 4 magazines
- 4 rds
- any target with a A zone or 8" circle (Paper plate) will work as your desired hit zone.
- a shot timer

Place one rd in each magazine (3 mags ea. with 1 rd ea,on your carrier
1 magazine in the gun. standing with rifle in a low ready
distance approx 15 yds
Par time is 10 seconds
at the beep, fire 1 rd, speed reload, repeat until all 4 magazines are gone.

all A zone hits in  under 10 seconds.


Give it a whirl. it's become one of my favorites... makes you really pay attention to how you run your gun and get ammo in it. will highlight any glaring deficiencies with your magazine type and/or placement.

Next time I'll do 120 rds....

Outstanding Harv, I did something very similar the other day, same training objective.  One rnd ea. in several mags, ran through just like that, albeit not timed.  Did it at 10 yards, and moved laterally back and forth while doing the reloads.  Gonna do this one timed real soon.

Sort of reminds me of the VTAC Reload Drill.

LBT6094 or AWS, w/BGF tenspeed?  Nice setup, but you look nothing like Telly Savalas.

This is exactly the kind of out of the box thinking that benefits us most in training.

I will be shamelessly copying this one into my drill book.  Calling it the "Harv24 Reload Drill".

Thanks for the Kind words Joe, But I'm pretty sure I'm not the guy who invented. I like it because it's something one can do with a very low rd count (Had no idea how low a round count now a days) and work on manipulation. As the Great Pat Roger's (Still miss you brother) always told us, "I can teach any dick to put rds in a bullseye at 10 yds" The trick is can you run the gun efficiently and effectively, hot, cold, dry, wet, tired, angry, scared shitless.

I consider myself to be an above average shooter who puts a lot of time into firearms, and I still fumble fuck reloads. it's a never ending process to stay proficient.

And it's an AWS PC, best bang for the buck in carriers.

Seems like an ok drill. My thoughts for a possible better twist...

Only problem with these kinds of drills is the fact you know it's (bolt lock) coming. I'd recommend doing something like a single ready up with a mag that has 1, 2, or 3 rounds max (to keep the round count down)... and doing single ready ups until dry and then reacting and doing the speed load.

Set this up by loading ten or fifteen mags with varying amounts of ammo (1, 2, or 3 rounds) and mixing them up, then randomly put those mags in your rifle/kit and then run the drill.

This way you're not gaming the reloading process and you're conditioning yourself to process (OODA) information while reacting and performing the reload in the raw.

Your way still gets you good reps and builds skills, but does nothing for the more important processing and reaction aspects of gunfighting. With ammo at a premium, might as well get both.

double tap

It's a good idea, I like it.

For low round count I like the 1, 2, 3 drill, you practice a lot of things with a little ammo. Bonus is at the end you have a round chambered and an empty mag so you can run it over and over quickly:

Attached File

Another good, simple drill is the 2-2-2 drill. Two shots at each target, as fast as you can accurately transition between them. You can add things like drawing your sidearm after your rifle goes dry and repeating the process, or modify it by starting at 25m, shooting 2-2-2, running up to the 7m line and doing it again to add stress, etc.

I finally ran Harv's reload drill.  14.96, not too good.  Got good hits, but need to shave time.

" />

Nice hits....

I do this with .22 trainer mags in AR and secondary, with full mags then random 1-3 rounds without the trainers because I had as someone posted above, dropped a full mag a couple of times. It is something to “train around” for me personally.

Thank you good sir, best I could do middle of the night in the rain.  Will run it again soon.

I too miss Uncle Pat...he taught a whole generation.

Life is good.