Triangle Tactical Podcast - Competitive Shooting, Mostly

Effective Practice on the Square Range

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Sometimes shooting on the square range is a necessity. Whether you don't have access to a range with bays where you can set up stages and drills, or the weather just isn't cooperative, there are times when the square range is the only place you can go to get some trigger time. 

A lot of people just shoot when they go to the square range. One target, and 200 rounds and then they pack up and go home. This isn't effective practice. 

Hopefully your square range will allow you to draw from holster. I don't think we have any ranges in the Triangle area that don't allow it, but I've heard of ranges in other places that have that rule, it makes things a little harder. 

Use some time pressure
  • The best thing is to use a shot timer. If you don't have one, that's okay, there are still options.
    • If your indoor range is really loud, you may have to use the par time function on your timer instead of actually having it hear your shots. I found my Pocket Pro 2 works really well inside Triangle Shooting Academy.
    • Some ranges have a mechanism to turn targets after a specified amount of time. This can be a decent way to add some time pressure to your drills.
    • Lastly, you could download a timer app to your smart phone and use the par time function. Don't expect to get very good results using your smartphone as an actual shot timer though.
    • Bring your own targets and pasters. Get some USPSA or IDPA targets and take them to the range with you. You might also want to bring your own stapler with long staples, because the ones at the range might not have the reach to get through the cardboard targets.
    • Practice. 
      • Some good drills for the square range are things like this:
        • 4 Aces (draw, fire 2, reload, fire 2, all shots need to be alphas)
        • Bill Drills (7 yards, draw and fire 6 rounds, all alphas) You can push the distance to make things interesting.
        • 25 yard group shooting
        • Other variations of drills that involve draws, reloads, and variations of targets (draw, shoot the lower A-zone, reload, and shoot the upper A-zone)
        • Dots.
          • News

          The NRA is getting rid of the women's division in smallbore rifle. Because women are just as good as men, and that's cool.

          Virginia finally got some sense around concealed carry. The Governor just signed a bill allowing reciprocity with basically all other permits from other states.

          Tip of the Week

          Don't tumble your dummy rounds. Last night I posted this picture of me drilling out all of my primer pockets on my dummy rounds because I tumbled them, and as luck would have it, they got filled with tumbling media and then deposited the media into my magazines and gun. What a mess!

          Plug of the Week

          Breach Bang Clear dropped a truth bomb this week that you should probably go read. Agree or disagree, it's worth a read.

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