Anyone tried Bill Wilson's 5X5 Skill Test? Post your time here

Modified the drill again today. 7yds with a VTAC target. I think I'm going to stick with this and see if I can track my (hopefully) improvement. This time I tried to focus less on the clock and more on getting good hits. Speed was 38.05s which is slower than the 34.25 last week but much better hits compared against post#11. Going with the VTAC scoring it's only one 0.5s penalty.
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Slimjim9 said:
Modified the drill again today. 7yds with a VTAC target. I think I'm going to stick with this and see if I can track my (hopefully) improvement. This time I tried to focus less on the clock and more on getting good hits.
Click to expand...

Well done, SJ9. I think yours is a good approach. The main thing isn't to compare yourself to others, but to use it as a tool to improve, so modifying it is a good approach if it works for you.

As to speed & accuracy, it's a balance. It's all about shooting within your control, so too many "points down" means your shooting beyond your control. Conversely, a "clean" target likely means you could've gone a bit faster.

With IDPA targets & scoring, "10%" is good rule of thumb, meaning a good balance is when time added from your points down is about 10% of your raw time. If you're consistently over 15 - 20%, it'd be worthwhile to rein it in a bit. Those who shoot IDPA and regularly go over 20% often never seem to get beyond their plateau, and can't figure out why.


couldbeanyone - excellent shooting. Well done!
 
MrBorland, thanks, you are very kind.

Slimjim9, MrBorland once again gives excellent advice. He has explained the balance of speed very well. You are on the right track, just keep after it. Be aware that if you shoot a steel challenge, accuracy will be at even more of a premium as misses just kill your times and targets at 25 and 35 yards is not at all unusual.
 
Slimjim9, part of your problem is way you are running the timer makes it hard to get a good time. Surefire makes a free shottimer app for the iPhone. As shottimers go, it is not great; but it is a lot better than your current method.

I've been down that path you are on myself and a dedicated shot timer is a huge help; but the Surefire app will at least make your life easier.
 
Thanks for the tip BR.i didn't know about that app. I'm kinda skeptical it would work with 5 other lanes shooting but probably worth trying just for fun anyway. At this point I'm less interested in "getting good times" compared to others than tracking progress against myself so any timing method that is repeatable will do.
 
One nice feature of the Shot timer app is that you can set it up so it emails you the results - which makes it handy when you don't want to mess with writing everything down at the time.

The problem with trying to time yourself is there are several spots where just the requirement that you recognize and respond to a stimulus adds at least 0.15-0.25 seconds per spot. So even if you have some lighting fast reflexes, you are introducing a decent amount of time and variation in time that isn't related to your actual shooting performance. You also have to be careful about training bad habits by trying to quickly push the stop/start button.

But you are right that it will be difficult to use on a public range (especially indoors) with multiple people shooting nearby.
 
Bartholomew Roberts, thanks for the heads-up on the free timer app! I think it's fantastic and we had a heap of fun with it today. You say as a timer, it's "not great" but having never owned an actual shot timer, I find this app to pretty pretty darn amazing and I plan to use it as a tool to improve.

Thanks again!
 
Glad it was useful. I bought my first shot timer before my first smartphone, so I already had a good shot timer. If I'd had the smartphone first and been looking at another $130 for a dedicated shot timer, I might feel differently; but generally a dedicated shot timer will do better and catching shots and requires less fiddling to calibrate.

One thing you can do with the Surefire app, is sometimes you can calibrate it so it will work with dryfire if you have a DA pistol. That can be handy also.
 
5 x 5 drill

I REALLY like simple skills drills like this. Basics exercises are the foundation of skill and as many of the posters have already noticed you can modify the drill to use different distances or targets as required by circumstance.

I'm going to have to try this one on my next trip to the range and see how it goes.
 
I enjoyed that video very much, Valerko - a very honest & solid run. Well done.

It looks like one of the -3s touched the -1 perforation, so I would've scored it as a -1, which takes you to 22.53. Fix your primer issues, shoot without a concealment garment, don't drop any -3s, and you're flirting with the 20 second Master cutoff.
 
Simple drills are fine, but most shooters tend to focus solely on that one drill. What is much more useful is to run different drills for each practice session. For example, Leatham's Drill of the Month Club. And even more useful is to actually shoot USPSA/IDPA at least twice a month. Each stage at a Level I match is a just a drill and stages are never the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7fMdUhJ0oo
 
3 of us shot it on Wed. 2 SS, 3rd with a jam didn't make it. It's a pretty good drill and you can tell if your improving or not. It will also be interesting to shoot with different guns. it's fast too, doesn't take all day.
 
In my ignorance I have to ask. Do you time each 5shot string separately and add the time together or how do you do it? I'm new to pistols and shooting drills.
 
Definitely need a timer for this guys. If you are running a stopwatch or something, you're not getting good results.
I use the free IPSC timer app and it has been awesome for me. I wait until others around me are shooting and then calibrate in the midst of the noise so that it is properly calibrated.

Ran this in 16.24 and took no penalties, but my results are based on one major exception to the rules. My range doesn't allow drawing from the holster, which would easily add 4 or 5 seconds to my total (i'm horrible on the draw). I might try to do it over again and rack the slide to start instead of drawing in order to counter my advantage. I may also switch to my CCW and see how that goes (I am envisioning some penalties)

Fun drill! I love stuff like this and dot torture.
 
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