First, I have a Pac timer that I use to try to induce a bit of adrenaline and to be more used to hearing that buzzer go off. I recently bought a GoPro camera that I took with me to the last outlaw match to video tape some POV stuff with the head mount. I intend to use the GoPro with chest mount during some reloading drills with all 3 guns to give myself a more useable angle to critique myself. I have a few distinct advantages when it comes to drills and practice...I have a 400 yard private range with rifle steel at approximately 105-110 yards, portable rifle gongs I can set at varying distances, a hanging head shot target and 10-12 4" wide knockdown targets for pistol, a texas star, a spinner, and I recently built a plate rack using 6"x6" square targets. Initially the smaller sized steel was used due to it being what we had available, now I like it, as it seems the steel we shoot at matches is HUGE in comparison! Our knockdown targets are primarily 4" wide x 6" tall with a couple 6"x6" squares mixed in. The plate rack has the plates hanging below....poor mans plate rack that we never have to reset and can see the plates swinging with hits. Spinner and star are clones of MGM targets we had built on a budget. We also have 5 PVC bases with wood uprights for USPSA silhouettes (it works great and we have yet to have any dirt shooters hit the PVC parts that are down low. Rifle steel at 105-110yds is made up of an Iron Maiden sized silhouette on each end with three 14"x14" gongs in the center....all targets have around 8-10' between them and a berm behind them. We also have about 20 clay pigeon holders that sit around 14" off the ground and hold a clay on the top for shotgun......they have been surprisingly cheap and have held up really well......rabbit season is going to go very well for me!
We also have a couple barricades to shoot around, one that is open like a window where we can use plastic panels to block off to use a small window, the other has various small windows cut into thin slats, traingles, and circles to shoot through or to shoot off of the side.

Here are a couple drills I try to do now and then to increase my speed and accuracy. I find that the more I try to hurry through something, the more I miss and the slower I am. I find myself the fastest when I follow the "slow is smooth, smooth is fast" rule.....I just try to make that smooth part a little faster each time.


"2-1-1-1-2" Drill    ..........low ready, Pact timer goes off, hit the silhouette 2x, each gong 1x, then silhouette on the other end 2x.   At 50 yards I can easily do this under 5 seconds. Last practice at 105-110yds was just under 7 seconds.

"1-3-5-4-2" Drill     low ready, on the buzzer sight on the far left target, one hit, skip the second target and shoot the third, then the far right silhouette, then back to the 4th target, then the 2nd. Essentially imagining the targts are numbered left to right and must be shot in an order.

"Draw-Fire" drill       ........3 USPSA silhouttes about 3' apart from each other and around 20 yards away. On the buzzer, draw pistol, fire a single shot into each target, trying for the A-Zone.  So far, my best times have run about 1/10 second under 3 seconds.....something I think needs alot of improvement! Great low round count drill IMO.

Same thing but 2 hits each target....time usually runs around 4 seconds....my issue seems to be acquiring the sigth/target after the draw.

Clay-Star drill with shotgun.  2 loaded in the gun, with one being in the chamber. Low ready. On the buzzer, bust the clay at 20 yards, load 4 shells (weak hand reload), then clean the star. Most of my times have been in the 8 second ballpark with a few in the low 7's when everything feels "right".....I think low 6's is doable with more practice.

Pistol  reload drill......similar to draw fire with the saem 3 targets, 2 rounds in the gun, buzzer goes off, fire those two rounds, reload from holster and fire on third. Can't remember times here.

Rifle Reload drill  .........imagine above, but with a rifle

Then we also will do timed runs cleaning the star with both pistol and shotgun, running the plate rack left to right with pistol,...you get the idea.


I usually try to never fire the gun without a specific intended target, basically attempting to always get the most of each drill whether I hit my target on that particular attempt or not. I've seen some shotgun reloading drills where you fire a round, load 8 shells, then fire another round to see what your split was. I have tried this drill before, but tried to make sure I had an intended target down range.....otherwise I'm just trying to get the round off ASAP with less regard to hitting my intended target.




We have been shooting on my range for about 8 years now, and just this year we started to have it set up for more than just rifle steel that we walked closer to shoot pistol at. I THOUGHT I was a pretty solid shooter and could hold my own against anyone............

March outlaw match was my first 3-gun experience, finding myself at the bottom of the pack with one score not even being recorded due to timing out.
Apriloutlaw match I avoided timing out on every stage and was able to put myself at 11th out of 41 shooters
May I shot in the MW3G as an RO, where I took 8th in HTO...beating alot of the TO scores while shooting .308, and inadviseably shooting 15rd .45ACP and pump shotgun instead of my 9mm and semi-auto.......reading the rules may have helped me A LOT!
June outlaw match I took 2nd out of 40 shooters
July outlaw match (July 21st) I again took 2nd out of 24 diehard shooters who got out in the 100 degree plus heat.

We have two outlaw matches in August and the Ozarks 3-gun in September....I would like to score within the top 50% of my class at the Ozarks and the top 3 at the outlaw matches. I will be shooting Tac-Irons division at all 3 matches.






SO,.......list out some live-fire drills with a short description of your goal time, layout, and so on. If you have microsoft paint skills (i do not)....feel free to use them. We are always looking for new live-fire drills to incorporate into our practice sessions.

I think the drills really start to help.....I have a long ways to go, but here are a couple videos from last weekends outlaw match....I recommend watching full-screen as the fish-eye of the GoPro isnt the greatest on a tiny box.


Stage had one popper that flipped 2 clays, hit all pistol steel twice, two headshots on 4 rifle targets. Feel like I took way too much time/too many shots with rifle and missed a clay.



Stage had 4 poppers, one flipped 2 clays, one flipped one clay, pistol on star and plate racks, then rifle flashers from 100-300 yards. Found myself holding my breath on rifle shots, thought I broke myself of that, and having to take extra shots and time.



Please feel free to critique anything I could improve on!