In last weeks’ Tactical Wire, Dave Spaulding discussed what one should practice with live-fire for combative handgun skills. The discussion today, more about general handgun skills, is applicable to combative skills but it’s not the same.

It’s a component of focus, deliberation and patience in handgun marksmanship.

There is some live fire required to attain and maintain handgun proficiency. While target shooting “ain’t gunfightin’,” if you can hit a mark, on demand, at distance with some time pressure, it won’t hurt your ability to prevail in battle.

In the alternative, precision target shooting can be remarkably peaceful – once you get past bullseye targets and shot timers. I didn’t want to consume the expensive (and, in some calibers, hard to get) centerfire handgun ammo. That leaves 22 rimfire ammo.

The course I elected to use to establish my benchmark is the FBI Firearms Instructor Bullseye course. A service pistol variant of the more classic bullseye course, they use their version of the NRA B-8 target. Using the course as the FBI does – to allow candidates entry into the instructor school and rechecked midweek to determine if a candidate is staying the rest of the week – it can be fired two-handed or one-handed. According to one source (not shown on the attached graphic), passing for two-handed shooting is 260/300 and for one-handed shooters is 240/300.

If I’m shooting it with a rimfire pistol, I’m shooting it one-handed. As the 22 I selected has an optic, I shot half the strings left-handed and the other half right-handed. I also scored the target for each string fired.

The course is run as follows:

BULLSEYE COURSE

TARGET: 25 YARD BULLSEYE

AMMUNITION: 30 ROUNDS SERVICE

POSSIBLE SCORE: 300

STAGE 1 - SLOW FIRE

STARTING POINT: 25 YARD LINE

TIME ALLOTTED: 4 MINUTES

Start with the weapon loaded with 5 rounds. On command the shooter fires 10 rounds in 4 minutes. Upon completing Stage 1, the shooter unloads and holsters an empty weapon.

STAGE 2 - TIMED FIRE

STARTING POINT: 15 YARD LINE

AMMUNITION: 10 ROUNDS

TIME ALLOTTED: 2 STRINGS OF 5 ROUNDS IN 15 SECONDS

Start with the weapon loaded with 5 rounds. On command the shooter will fire 5 rounds in 15 seconds. Upon completing the first string, the shooter reloads with 5 rounds. On command the shooter again fires 5 rounds in 15 seconds. Upon completing Stage 2, the shooter unloads and holsters an empty weapon.

STAGE 3 - RAPID FIRE

STARTING POINT: 15 YARD LINE

AMMUNITION: 10 ROUNDS

TIME ALLOTTED: 2 STRINGS OF 5 ROUNDS IN 10 SECONDS

Start with the weapon loaded with 5 rounds. On command the shooter fires 5 rounds in 10 seconds. Upon completing the first string, the shooter reloads with 5 rounds. On command the shooter again fires 5 rounds in 10 seconds. Upon completing Stage 3, the shooter unloads and holsters an empty weapon.

Half the strings were fired one-handed with the dominant hand, above. The other half were fired with the "less-dominant" hand -- still one-handed without support.

I shot the course with the Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory. The gun was fitted with an after-market barrel – the Volquartsen carbon fiber THM tension barrel – and a red dot sight, the C-More RTS2. I shot the course cold – first rounds I’d fired that day – in fact, in several days.

The first strings, 25 yards, were fired in separate two-minute strings with scoring between. I posted a 47/50 with each hand. On a separate target, I shot the 15-yard strings. My “timed fire” – shot too fast, with 7 seconds the right-hand string and just over 8 ½ seconds left-handed – yielded 48/50 right-handed and 46/50 left-handed.

The rapid-fire strings – each in about eight seconds – yielded 46/50 right-handed and 48/50 left-handed. I victimized myself with a convulsive clutch on a too light trigger (for me) that cost two points on the left-handed timed fire string – I also belatedly noticed my low zero on the optic and held high for the last string of fire, pumping up the score.

 

I ended up with 282/300. It clearly should have been higher with that gun – even though the ammo wasn’t match ammo (CCI Clean-22, excellent shooting rimfire ammo). But it was my first trip with that heater.

How does this kind of shooting help? It develops focus, helps you determine your grip strength and your ability to hold the gun up in line one-handed … one-handed shooting isn’t preferred for combat, but it’s been necessary in some cases.

All-in-all, I found it a rather relaxing, engaging exercise. I wouldn’t practice this to distraction, but I’ve found certain elements of my shooting that I can work on in individual exercises. Give it a try.

-- Rich Grassi