What type of shooting do you do with your AR?

AR/M4 AR General Discussion
1

I’m hoping to get a pulse for things here. The question is not how often or how much do you shoot. Regardless of how much, you shoot X amount and that is made up of various types of shooting for most people, from classes, to matches, to structured practice, to plinking, to benchrest/accuracy shooting, etc.

I also don’t care what your metric is, as long as you include it. Whether you count hours spent at the range, number of rounds fired, number of range trips, whatever, just be clear about how you’re taking your measurement.

Let’s assume the 6-month period preceding the date of your post.

For example…

In looking back at my logs I can easily document round counts through my guns over the last 6 months, so number of rounds fired is the easiest metric (just a hair under 5k). I found just now that my breakdown looks like this
9% Bench
13% Match
59% Class
19% Practice

Where Bench is any time I was shooting from a bench whether for zero purposes or for groups, Match is any competition shooting environment, Class is any training environment where I was a student, and Practice is any other drills type shooting.

Classes for me are pretty much the typical where everyone is in a line, shooting on their own target and/or perhaps the target on either side of you. Some classes work in more dynamic movement, use of cover, lateral movement, engaging multiple targets, on the move, etc. Same goes for the “practice” which in my case is (or was, until recently) largely the drills nights that I ran. My shooting there generally consisted of demonstrating drills and skillsets to the shooters and participating when we ran more dynamic drills.

The “Matches” were also predominately the matches I run (or did until recently) and mainly consist of IDPA but with a carbine (for lack of a better description) with targets anywhere from 5 feet to ~120 yards with the majority of stuff being relatively close-range at 25 yards and in but with a lot of movement between positions, use of cover, target ID, target discrimination, low-light, transitions to handgun, shooting while moving, etc.

2

Interesting question and well-asked.

Currently, I’m looking at:

15% Bench
0% Match*
10% Class
60% Practice
15% Demonstration**

  • That will change this year!
    ** for forensic chemistry classes here at my college
3

Round count around 2k for AR / 5k for pistol (didn’t ask, but figured I’d throw it in)

AR distribution
10% Bench
75% Practice
5% Plinking
5% class (need to up that this year)
5% match (need to up this also)

Pistol distribution
5% bench
60% Practice
25% Match
5% Plinking
5% class (teaching)

4

Rifles:

1-2% bench (zeroing only)
25% practice
50% matches
15% classes
8-9% plinking

Round count: 3-4k rifle per year

5

0% Bench
0% Match
0% Class
100% Practice

My practice consists of prone, sitting, kneeling, and off hand drills rapidly engaging targets at multiple distances. Nothing fancy, roughly 300-500 rounds a month. If I need to zero, it is from the prone position.

Pistol is 15-25 yards standing about 200-300 rounds a month.

6

I am pretty good with a carbine so I don’t spend much time “practicing” with it anymore.

General break down with 5K in ammo:

0% Bench
0% Match
50% Class/training
50% Teaching

C4

7

Break down of percentage in relationship to time spent:

4.9% Bench Shooting
80% Structured practice, and Training
15% Instruction of Others
.1% Yahoo shooting (I have a couple of mag dump kind of friends, and from time to time I will humor them, I feel guilty about it).

8

AR:
50% bench
50% practice

Shotgun:
99.9% practice
0.1% bench

Pistol:
100% practice

9

Do tell, what kind of demonstrations\experiments are you conducting?

I haven’t shot a rifle match in about three years due to my training schedule and concentrating on pistols. 100% of all my rifle time has been training\qualifications.

10

I should probably clarify, I was sticking with Rob’s selections. Every time that I shoot it is training. I learned long ago that no matter how good I am, there is always a need for more training. :wink:

11

I average around 2k a year with my AR’s

10% off the bench for sighting/zeroing…

60% practice (drills and CQB oriented)…

20% training…

10% instruction of others…

My AR is with me everywhere I go. I use it for predators and feral dogs around my rural property, home defense and as a patrol rifle.

12

40% Bench (I come from the target world, shot and coached, hard to get away from it)
15% Match (CMP, Cant seem to find any 3-gun in NH)
5% Class
20% Practice
20% Plinking/Instructing (Mostly non-exp shooter friends)

13

I think this is a good way for me to break it down as well. This is strictly for my ARs.

0% Bench
5% Match
65% Class/training/drills
30% Teaching

If we had more local matches that 5% would be a little higher.

I’m interested in this as well. I can’t think of any way I was able to put rounds through my ARs in relation to college experiments or demos, especially 15%! Though I think can see a few rounds for a forensics class.

14

Sadly, very little. Remove from storage 1-3 times per year, take to the range, put 100-200rnds through it to make sure it’s still GTG, clean, put back in storage. Generally from 50, and 100 yard line. Perhaps 50/50 standing and bench.

Two primary reasons for that are:

•I live the NE, in a state that does not have much room (100y outdoor is often max distance), a state that does not like gun ranges (making the ranges inherently conservative, risk averse, etc, so “tactical” style carbine course for example rare if ever…) and sees all black rifles as evil weapons of mass destruction with their own mind, etc. The major time with the AR I got was when working with tactical LE and using their stuff. :cool:

So, courses of “dynamic” nature with an AR = a drive out of state/travel as a rule for me.

• It’s my feeling, as a civi type, I’m most likely to require a handgun for SD, and so, most of my time, $$$, effort has been toward the improvement of skills with handguns as the best time/$$$ spent for what is (in my view) my potential needs. Only so much time and $$$$, so given the choice, most likely to work the handgun skills, courses, etc.

I wish I did have more time and training on the AR platform and it’s on my list to take a good course in the future.

15

Since my weapons are all sighted in:

30% training
70% practice

16

30% - drills
65% - matches
5% - bench/static range - this is mostly to take out new shooters as I find the static range mind numbing.

I’m planning a more training based distribution in the coming 6-12 months to something more along the lines of:
5% bench
30% matches
65% classes/drills

17

Me too.
FWIW, I lump my zero/confirm is in practice and I do it in the prone ‘belly in the dirt’.
Practice is static, although multiple targets may be used, based on the number of shooters. Reloads & Malf drills are practiced. Movement is not allowed at the clubs where I belong.
I think my goal for next year will be a carbine class; this year’s class was LAVs 1911.

18

It strikes me that “training” and “practice” probably need more definition. I’m editing my post above. If nothing else it needs to include whether it’s “dynamic” or “static”. In other words, working position shooting at 50-250 or working CQB drills at indoor distances?

Also, feel free to use your own categories entirely. You don’t have to use mine. If you have better definitions for the kinds of shooting you do please use them.

19

AR
3-4k yr

A while back I built a range out back with lots of varying steel targets. Most of my shooting is on my range. I’m tempted to call it training but the reality is I really enjoy it and don’t do enough structured practice to define it that way.

I shoot way more handgun and do structured training. It’s not nearly as enjoyable but it made sense for me to devote the bulk of training to handgun vs carbine.

For my AR then:

Goofing off : 75-85 %
Real training: 10%
Work: (class & qual) 5%
bench: 3-4 %
Predator control: <1%

I’ve been on motors at work for the last 12yrs so I don’t carry an AR. If I was back in a patrol car I’d likely do a lot more real training.

20

I don’t keep round counts!:rolleyes:

Bench /load developement 50%
Practice/plinking 25%
Hunting 25%