Ten Ring Targets

I believe I learned about this at a clinic with Brian Zins and Andy Moody in the summer of 2011. I also found information on the internet which had the Marine training manual explaining this training technique so please don't interpret it as something I created.

What you do is print out special targets for slow and timed/rapid which have only the 10 ring as solid black. You can include the other scoring rings as a scoring guide but they are not needed. You use these targets as training targets. You shoot them as normal, however the point of this exercise is not to obtain a score, rather, your goal is to hit ten black spots in a row. You do this first with slow fire, then move onto Timed and Rapid fire. Obviously you are not going to do this in one day unless you are already a really good shooter.

I have adapted this technique to my own way of training and practice. I spent a good number of training session only shooting at the slow fire training target but thus far have not achieved 10 in a row. Not having the patience to wait till that happens before moving onto the Timed and Rapid fire training targets, I work with both on most training days.

When I first started doing this I thought it was a waste of time, bullets, and paper. However, I have become a big advocate of this training technique. Since adopting this technique, my groups have become smaller and my scores have risen. At first I thought it was because you are shooting at a smaller target and when switching to a normal target it seemed huge and less intimidating. While that might be somewhat true, there was something more revealing.

What I have since learned is that because the black is smaller, you work harder on your hold to maintain the area of aim within the black. You will quickly see if your point of aim is outside the black because the dot is on white instead of black. This instant feedback is a powerful guide to show you what you are doing wrong. I can easily see if my area of aim is bad and I can also, more accurately, see when I jerk the trigger. I can, with greater reliability, call my shots when I mess up on the trigger. I can also see which way I am shifting my point of aim when jerking the trigger. So, I think of the training targets as a tool to help me identify what I am doing wrong.

This training technique will only work with red dot sights, and if you have adjustable dots it helps even more. For normal targets, I set my red dot as big as it can be, in a perfect world, my red dot would be slightly smaller than the black on the target. For the training targets, I change the dot size so that it is as big as possible yet smaller than the black. This helps me to see my mistakes better.

The target at right is one of my rapid fire targets for 75'. The original idea with these targets to to hit ten, tens in a row. After I did that enough times in practice I started shooting the same course of fire until I didn't get a 10. For timed and rapid I have gotten as high as 23. For slow fire, I have only gotten 8 in a row so far.

As mentioned above, I usually work on my problem areas the most, but always work on Slow and sustained for every training session. If I am doing okay on all courses of fire, I will go to my default training/practice session which is as follows for each gun:

20 rounds slow fire using training target

10 rounds slow fire using normal target

20 rounds of timed fire using training target

10 rounds of timed fire using normal target

20 rounds of rapid fire using training target

10 rounds of rapid fire using normal target

If I spot a problem area during the above, I will switch back to the training target and re-shoot it for as long as I can. Like most people, I shoot at a range which I pay by the hour for. So I have to maximize my time at the range.

Below is a series of targets starting out with a slow fire training target and the following real targets for 22.