I'm trying to maximize my effectiveness with practice when I shoot my future carry handgun at the range. In doing this, I hold the weapon at a "low carry," and bring it up to eye level, trying to quickly find the front sight to place it on target. I try to snap off two quick shots with a natural trigger pull. I shoot at a B-27 at about 15 - 20 feet, figuring the reduced size of the target will make an actual shoot go better.

Is this OK? What are you guys using? Do you have any suggestions I could use to improve my survivability in a gunfight when my CCW comes in? What else (within reason, they won't let me draw and shoot there) can I do to be prepared if The Unthinkable happens?

lets see i practice both strong and weak handed for all of the stuff below:

reload
clear jams
draw from holster
single handed shots
single hand reloads
single hand clear jams
racking slide single handed, normally using top of slide against leg, i do this loaded mag in place,      empty chamber hammer down, to simulate dud in chamber ( i shoot 1911's )


typically when i go hand gun shooting i shoot about 50 rounds normally, than about 100 rounds doing the above drills, then another 100 rounds normally. the sad part is i have notbeen shooting in over a year i can afford it right now

Lately, I've been practicing El Presidentes to work on engaging multiple targets and reloading under pressure (practicing for IPSC) using paper plates at about five yards:

Face up range with hands in surrender postion (above the shoulders)
Turn and engage the three targets with two shots each
Tactical reload
Reengage targets with two rounds each

It's a good drill, but eats up a lot of ammo at 12 rounds per drill.

I only practice one thing nowadays, the sideways dive, gun in each hand.



All that other stuff doesn't work to impress the range.....but the sideways dive? It makes them all jealous.

The reason why I asked this was because I feel like I am wasting money, time, and ammo at the range unless I am practicing the likeliest scenario that will occur if I am forced to use my handgun to defend myself from sume screwball or thug.

Is my drill making sense to anybody? Maybe I should be posing this question over at packing.org.

Point and shoot.  

You should be practicing shooting from the draw. Your pistol is going to be in your holster when you need it, so learn how to shoot that way.

Your drill is fine.  Just think about variety – there’s no one likely scenario.

Scotty1911 has posted a nice list.

Let me add shooting from cover, failure (to incapacitate) drills, and multiple targets.  

While probably not possible, you should also think about pivots and turns, shooting while moving, shooting from a “downed officer” position (i.e. laying on the floor), dim light shooting, moving targets, and judgmental shooting (shoot/don’t shoot).  Also think about shooting or moving and shooting from a sitting position or from a car.

Don’t forget to practice scanning during all drills.

And, very importantly, work on speed.

If you can’t fire from the holster at the range, you can practice drawing (and at least some of the other things listed above) at home with an unloaded firearm.

Also, very, very importantly (and not firearm specific), learn tactics (esp. awareness), mindset and such.  Also learn your state’s laws regarding the use of deadly force.