Pistol Drills for New Shooters

Now that you’ve been on the Shoot Like A Girl or Safe Living trailer, had a safe, fun experience, received some basic pistol training locally, and purchased a firearm, you may be wondering, now what? A lot of new shooters end up going to the range and shooting at paper targets, or as I call it, throwing lead at a piece of paper. Ideally, you have skills to work on while at the range. Once you’re comfortable with stance, grip, breath control, sight alignment, and sight picture, you can move on to other skill-building drills. Even though I’ve been shooting for over 50 years, I like to take classes from other instructors, especially defensive shooting classes, and the drills I’ll address here are my favorite two pistol drills, tracing and cadence.

Tracing drills help you with your trigger control, squeezing the trigger while in constant motion and sighting on your target. Start by using a blank target or paper and a sharpie to draw a 12- to 16-inch-diameter circle. Stand about 3-5 yards back from the target, aim at the target looking through your sights, and slowly trace around the circle without firing. Take about 10-15 seconds to slowly trace around the circle several times without firing, then smoothly and slowly start squeezing the trigger. Keep tracing and squeezing the trigger until the gun fires. Don’t stop tracing to fire your firearm; just keep tracing and slowly squeezing the trigger, then release it so it moves all the way forward (open your trigger finger). Keep repeating this smooth, slow tracing drill while keeping the gun in constant motion. With enough practice, you’ll have a smooth trigger squeeze and strike within an inch of the circle.

The second drill is cadence. This drill is good for improving your grip and trigger reset (the point at which the trigger resets as you release your trigger finger, before the trigger reaches full forward). Draw three squares on a target, one on top of the other. The top square should be about 3 inches by 3 inches, draw the next square four by four inches in the middle of the target, and the last square on the bottom should be five inches by five inches. Standing about 3-5 yards away from your target, aim at the top square and fire one shot per second, shooting a total of five rounds. While doing so, count out loud “one thousand ONE’ “one thousand TWO” etc., firing on the emphasized word. The goal is to fire in an even cadence. Next, aim at the middle square, shooting a little faster. Count out loud “one thousand one” “one thousand two” etc., shooting on the emphasized syllables. Lastly, aim at the bottom target and count off one, two, three, four, five, firing on each count.

Having a goal when practicing at the range will make your time at the range more productive. By using skill-building drills to improve specific elements of your shooting, like grip control and sight picture, you’ll feel your time at the range was well spent. So instead of just “throwing lead at paper,” why not try some skill-building pistol drills when you are at the range? You might even want to invite some friends for friendly competition.