Have you mastered scoring hits on the B8, particularly the B-8(CP) repair center? Watching a young content provider’s video – JaredAF, a notable shot who has taught lessons in his videos, I found that he has a B-8 Mastery Drill. His name for it is ordered differently, with a humorous result. (HINT: Wear your eye pro.)

Using Bluetooth-enabled ear pro and the “Bullseye Match” app on a smartphone, you hear the range calls and have the par times in place. For an informal 22 practice session, nothing is better.

He essentially took the National Match Course, rendered it at 25 yards, like the gallery course, and – instead of using B16s for slowfire – he changed scoring on the B-8 to make it work. 

I saw his take on the NMC and his position that you have to master the B-8 at 25 yards to demonstrate mastery of the handgun and it inspired me. 

First, the course of fire. Like the National Match, it goes like this:

B-8 at 25 yards 

10 shots in 10 minutes (Slow fire, Alternate scoring by subtracting 1 point per scoring ring); 

2 -5 shot strings, 20 seconds per string (timed fire); 

2 - 5 shot strings, 10 seconds per string (rapid fire).

This 30 round course yields 300 points, scoring the target per the rings (use the alternate scoring for slow fire).

As far as I’m concerned, he’s right. I use a range of benchmarks on handguns here for test and evaluation. This one is at least as good as any and it’s better than most. If you have issues with vision, grip, wobble-zone, trigger anxiety – just about anything – it’ll show up here. 

I’ll give you an example: I had a new-to-market gun, along with a nondisclosure agreement, which is a variant of a previous pistol line. I shot it on the course. 

For NRA and CMP, the National Match scores considered for levels of achievement go like this: High Master – 97% (291); Master – 95% (285); Expert – 90% (270); Sharpshooter – 85% (255) and Marksman – 80% (240). 

With the new gun, I found I couldn’t even rise to the Marksman level. Was it the gun? The ammunition? 

Nope, it was the trigger nut. Something kept happening between the brain signaling “PRESS” and the bullet leaving the barrel. 

That’s not good. What’s my confirmation that it was me and not the gun?

To start with, this was the first thirty rounds out of the gun and they were all “for score.” Had I taken a moment to check where the gun hits at 25 yards with the load I was using, I’d have been better off. By the time I fired the first string, I found five rounds hit high above the bull at the top of the repair center. 

That didn’t help. 

In the following strings and stages, I found I was pressing left; that’s likely grip and vision. 

Next, I got out the Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory. Mine has a Volquartsen barrel and a C-More RTS2 red dot optic. Shooting bulk-packed Winchester 38 gr. HP – and shooting one-handed, just like that new gun – I made Marksman. 

Not convincingly; not deeply into Marksman territory – but I made it. 

I found that, during a string of fire, I’d tilted the gun – about like the old Cirillo “punch” technique, more appropriately used closer or with a gun zeroed for it. The rounds pressed above and left, predictably. When I saw I was doing that, I stopped, but the damage was done. 

Some differences for my take on the drill: I don’t score “almost” line breaks as the higher number. I don’t have the overlays and would just as soon score it down than up. If it was a good hit, it would have taken a bite out of the next higher ring, not just broken the paper next to it. 

To use the B8 for slowfire at 25 yards, count each ring less one point. It takes very few out of the bull to really hurt.

The way the course was administered, per Jared’s video, was by acquiring and using the Bullseye Match application. This features the match range calls and allows for scoring and making images of targets. I used the range calls and timing aspects. 

According to the app page, “The calls play with regulation timing, followed by the start signal. It counts down the time, plays the stop signal and closing calls, then advances to the next round.”

As I was wearing Walker’s Disrupter earbuds with Bluetooth connection to my phone, the range calls played right into my head. 

Some tips – he mentioned them on the video and I repeat them with my endorsement – 

If you can’t stay on the B-8 repair center at 25 yards one-handed, shoot it through with two hands. 

If you can’t stay on the target two-handed at 25 yards, move the target up. Try the course without a timer. Get to where you can make solid hits, then add the various aspects to increase difficulty until you get to his Master … or B-8 Mastery … standards. 

So was it shooting a 22 that helped me “fail less?” – No. 

Was it the “training effect?” I’d already shot through once with a centerfire, so that helped? – I don’t think so. 

Was it the optic? – Optics don’t hurt, that’s for sure. But I don’t believe it was the game changer.

I went home and did some dry practice on the Wall Drill from George Harris. I saw that the sight was stationary when the gun was caused to dry-snap. I believe the problems include vision, inconsistent grip and increased “wobble zone.” 

We’ll see. I’m not giving up.

— Rich Grassi