It was suggested to me by a few members of this forum to create a thread like this. I thought it could grow into something useful and helpful for AR owners in the future to know where they stand in relation to the performance of others, so I was happy to oblige. It seems to be common in the realm of pistol forums, but not so much with rifles. Let’s change that.
The purpose of this thread is to discuss different drills one can do with the AR15 and post times for those drills. This gives people a general idea of how everyone else performs, and will hopefully serve to get more folks out shooting. In order to create an easily viewed database I will periodically update the OP with drills and times. If you have a drill that you would like to be listed in the OP, PM me with details
Once you have shot one or more drills listed in the OP, feel free to PM or post your time. Many applauses will be awarded to the #1 shooter for each drill, and hopefully this fosters the spirit of friendly competition.
From the low ready - 1 shot on a C Zone IPSC at 100y in less than one second - three times in a row. I kept saying B Zone in the videos I made, but it’s really the C zone (including B and A)
(I am not a youtuber. I suck at narrating. The shooting starts at 1:30. I am only including the entire video so there are no claims of cherry picking)
Have 5 rounds in your rifle and another magazine of 5 rounds. Standing with your back at the target, sprint 200 yards. Turn around and assume the prone position and score 3 hits. Sprint to the 100 yard line and score 3 hits from the standing. Reduce your time by 2 seconds for each round saved.
*Contains NSFW language and moaning/grunting when laying down in swamp water with MRSA.
Interesting idea, tagged to subscribe… though my “sprint” limit was at best the first quarter of a quarter-mile track, and that’s way back when I was skinny. (“Skinny” being relative, 160# at 5’6"… load me up in Full Battle Rattle tactical gear and I look like a Mall Ninja version of Newman.)
Here is a drill we run at work. We call it the Navy SEAL drill as one of our officers who is a former SEAL introduced it to us.
Target is a silhouette with an 8 inch circle target zone. We use a TQ-19-AZ target.
Distance is 50 yards.
3 magazines with 5 rounds each.
Drill starts standing. On the buzzer fire 5 rounds. Reload. Then move to intermediate position (ie kneeling). Fire 5 rounds. Reload. Move to prone. Fire 5 rounds.
Par time is 25 seconds. Every second over is +2 seconds. Every shot out of the 8 inch circle is +5 seconds. Every shot off of silhouette is +10 seconds.
I’m tempted to suggest the idea of an “M4C Shooting League” where members can post their scores and the top 25 or so on each go onto a regularly updated leaderboard. Nothing formal, no titles or prizes, just the goal of seeing your name on that board someday possibly giving a little extra motivation to try to wring out just one more ten-ring or one second faster… maybe a permanent list of “Possibles” at the top for those who’ve made perfect scores to give something more to shoot for too.
If I can find suitable range facilities and it’s not ITAR/EAR-restricted like the 23&P manual, I’ve been thinking it might be fun to shoot the Marine ART qualifier with the GF just to see if a crusty middle-aged cougar and a lardbody desk-jockey can pull it off…
Thanks for the reminder, I saw Jeff post on his FB yesterday him running that exact qual. Even he can get rusty with time, but he did better than I could in a million years! I’m going to try it this weekend myself to see where I stand.
Start standing in either low or high ready (shooter’s preference). On the buzzer, drop to prone and fire 10 rounds for score in less than 10 seconds. Goal: Score greater than 90 in less than 10 seconds.
Target: NRA B8
Distance: 50Y
Start standing in either low or high ready (shooter’s preference). On the buzzer, drop to a kneeling position and fire 10 rounds for score in less than 10 seconds. Goal: Score greater than a 90 in less than 10 seconds.
Target: NRA B8
Distance: 25Y
Start standing in either low or high ready (shooter’s preference). On the buzzer fire 10 rounds to the B8 in less than 10 seconds. Goal: Score greater than 90 in less than 10 seconds.
You’ll need to know your zero (I recommend a 100Y zero) and also where your gun hits at 25 & 50Y. If you can routinely shoot 270 combined in under a combined 30 seconds I’d say you are a solid carbine shooter. If you find the times are too generous, knock them down to 7.5s each and try again. But as a general rule I feel 10 seconds is a good challenge for most shooters.
My favorite drill for an M-4 type rifle…I’ve had 3 different variations at different classes. Trident Concepts was the toughest as I remember it. When I was the team leader I used this a few times a year for training days. Good shooters could get around 25, average was more like 30-40. I’ve seen guys shoot clean in 17 seconds but they were not average or good shooters.
And also quite useful if you are at a shorter distance range that would not allow a lot of moving between lines. That describes a lot of indoor or more urban settings.
Eurodriver, can’t say when it’ll be, but because I know I’m gonna suck I’m gonna offer my own scores for posting as a benchmark about “you REALLY suck if you can’t beat Tactical Newman.” lol
Cool! Good marksmanship drill. Did you try it support sided too by chance? In my case, I see better when I shoot left, but I run the gun better on my right, I suppose partly because of the controls on the rifle. I’m cross eyed dominant which is a PIA sometimes.
That begets two suggestions. First, Chief, maybe see about some kind of offset cantilever rig to bring the sights over so you can “shoot right but look left” like cross-dominant Marine and Gold Medalist Bill McMillan used to do by tilting his 1911s about 45 degrees in Olympic competition? (I usually use this myself when firing support hand.) Maybe 45-degree offset irons might help you too.
Second, re the course of fire, maybe add a second run off-side at like half- or 3/4-weight? (Say, if “Par” is 25 seconds strong-side maybe 33-50 off-side.)
I’ve resisted setting up my rifle with a unique sighting set up or lots of ambi controls for this reason: If I have to use a different rifle than my own, its likely not to have all the extras. I feel I need to be sufficient with a rifle that only has standard controls. The only thing I have added to mine is a ambi selector and a 12 o’clock mounted light switch. I shoot ok right eyed, just better left eyed. It’s more of an issue when shooting a handgun actually.
Gotcha. Would maybe a left-side tilt, “fixing” with meatware rather than hardware like the McMillan Tilt with pistols, be a viable possibility? (As a lefty, I don’t use BAD Levers since I can smack the bolt catch with support hand once I’ve stuffed the mag in–and I like ambi mag catches on my pistols but not rifles; if I’m shooting with a rifle I have a little response time but my pistols are built for CQB where every millisecond counts.)
I’m curious to see how I do at that and the Navy Qual.