Be Heard: Range Time Planning


In the last installment of Be Heard I asked what you thought about the zombie marketing push that is so prevalent in the firearm industry recently. The majority of you thought it was fairly harmless but gimmicky and over done.

This week, I want to hear about your time at the shooting range. I am fascinated by the various ways people approach range time. Some people go with a regimented plan for what they want to accomplish in terms of drills or tasks like zeroing and load testing. Some people generally go with no plan at all and just play it by ear.

Do you plan your range time or do you just wing it? Maybe you do a little of both? Can either way make you a better shooter?

Comment below and Be Heard!

5 Responses to Be Heard: Range Time Planning

  1. Alan Murdock May 3, 2012 at 08:36 #

    I like to plan my range time. The best way to get better at a skill is to practice exactly what you would like to do in a given situation. I read one article that indicated soldiers who trained with their rifles and pistols at separate training sessions would often forget their secondary when in a conflict. Drills should focus on being dynamic. Here is a primary/secondary drill I did recently at the range
    http://alanmurdock.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/breaking-in-a-new-walther-ppk-backup-gun-with-primarysecondary-drills/

  2. MannyF May 3, 2012 at 09:26 #

    I also like to plan my range time. The beauty of the internet is access to information, so I like to look up various drills and practice 2 or 3 of them for at least a half hour each. I’ll work the drills off both strong and weak side. I’ll also start and end with some focused time on the fundamentals.

    Alan, I also incorporate drills with transitions to the secondary. Thanks for the link. Another one I’ve seen is using the handgun as a primary and a knife as secondary since that’s a very common EDC setup.

  3. Kurt Huhn May 3, 2012 at 10:41 #

    I tend to mix it up at the range quite a bit. Some days I go with a fixed plan and stick to it, while others are just for fun and I don’t even really know which firearms I’m going to bring until a few minutes before I leave. And there are those days that I just grab the Savage Mk-II or the RFA for one of the ARs and walk out to the back deck for 15 minutes of group therapy. On the days I have a plan, though, I make sure to stay true to it and accomplish my goals.

  4. Alan Murdock May 4, 2012 at 07:32 #

    Kurt, I wish I lived where I could walk out the back door to do some target practice! Sweet!

    Manny, I’ve thought about transitions to the knife as well. In my home I have a knife in my backup “tool kit,” but realized in my defense planning I wasn’t thinking about effective ways to draw the knife – I’d likely forget it was there until after the critical incident.

  5. Rob May 14, 2012 at 19:37 #

    I plan it. I don’t have time for screwing around. the only time I go without a plan is when I shoot a match, and even then I try to go with a goal, such as shoot ever stage as fast as possible, focus on reloads, zero points down, etc.

Powered by WordPress. Designed by Woo Themes