If you’ve been following the CADRE Dispatch blog, you know I’m big on shooting drills and often write about my favorites here. As much as I enjoy buying guns, I believe the firearms media should also emphasize training with the firearms we already own. I like shooting drills, but I think they need context. So, let’s answer a simple question: Why do we shoot drills?
What Are Firearm Shooting Drills?
If you’re new to firearms training, you might not be familiar with shooting drills. A drill is a preplanned course of fire with specific accuracy and time standards a shooter must meet to pass.
Drills vary in difficulty and requirements, often specifying round count, range, and actions like drawing, reloading, or engaging multiple targets. They can be very effective training tools for instructors and are great for shooters looking to practice independently. These tools are valuable and can help you reach the next skill level.
With that in mind, let’s discuss why we shoot drills in the first place.
Are Firearm Drills Realistic?
Many shooting drills are based on real-world incidents and adapted with time and accuracy standards. Many of the earliest exercises, like the Failure to Stop or the El Presidente Drill emphasize practical shooting applications. These are excellent drills, but they are not fully representative of modern shooting.
Take the Bill Drill, for example — one of my personal favorites. It’s a simple drill. The goal is to draw and fire six rounds as fast as possible into a rectangle measuring 5.9 by 11 inches. But is that realistic? Why six shots? What if two shots stop the threat? What if the target moves? Also, I’ve never been in a fight with a rectangle, so why is that the target?
Or consider the VTAC 1-5X drill. Engaging three targets with a rifle at five yards, in numerical order, with an increasing round count per target — how realistic is that? These drills don’t always replicate real-world engagements, so why do we use them?
Realism Isn’t The Point
Firearm shooting drills don’t have to be realistic to be valuable. Training for every possible scenario would be impossible. Instead, shooting drills help refine fundamental skills that apply across situations. Think of it like cardio fitness—it benefits running, kayaking, basketball, rock climbing, and overall health.
A good shooting drill doesn’t have to replicate a real event to improve your shooting ability.
What Makes a Firearm Drill Effective?
The purpose of shooting drills is to develop and sharpen fundamental skills applicable in nearly any situation. To pass most drills, you need a certain amount of skill. If you can pass the drill consistently, that would be great. The drill will help you build the skills necessary to pass if you can’t.
Most of these skills come down to the universal skills of shooting fast and straight, in different ways. Drills also build the supporting skills necessary to shoot fast and straight, like control and recoil mitigation.
Drills may also work on hard skills like reloading and drawing a handgun, and in some cases, even malfunction fixes.
Good drills have established standards for you to meet. The two objective standards we can use at the range are accuracy and speed. Targets provide our accuracy standard, and a shot timer will provide your speed standard.
These standards and methods of judging standards provide objective data to shooters, which can be used to diagnose weaknesses, track progress, and refine their skills. For example, if I aim for a sub-2-second Bill Drill and my draw takes 1.5 seconds, I know I need to learn to draw faster. Keeping a shooting journal allows you to track performance over time and see tangible progress.
After consistent training with structured drills, you develop a certain degree of confidence in your shooting skills. If you can shoot a Bill Drill in less than two seconds, you’ve built solid fundamentals in drawing, speed, accuracy, and control — all pillars of effective defensive shooting.
Firearm Shooting Drills Aren’t Everything
With this all said, drilling isn’t everything. They allow you to work on your shooting skills, but you might need more than shooting skills to win a fight. You might need this crazy thing called tactics.
A sub-2-second Bill Drill is impressive, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. You should be able to shoot fast and straight with control from behind cover. Knowing the difference between cover and concealment, how to use cover, and how to shoot from cover is where tactics come in.
You should know how to use cover, including awkward angles, how to escape a vehicle under fire, how to turn corners, how to retain your weapon, and how to have sharp situational awareness. That’s only scratching the surface of the tactics conversation.
We can discuss close retention tactics, low-light tactics, and more. The best way to learn tactics is to train with a reputable instructor. Drills don’t teach tactics. Parts of a drill may employ tactics, but a dedicated block of instruction is required to master concepts.
Shoot, Scoot, and Boogey
Firearm shooting drills can be a terrific training tool for new and experienced shooters alike. They help build and evaluate skills and set a guided training standard for your time at the range. They are great, but they are just one piece of the puzzle. So use drills, get some quality training, and keep improving — because competency with a firearm is more than just shooting straight.
