This month’s War HOGG skill builder is focused on making your first shot with a red dot optic on your pistol and carbine sooner instead of chasing a perfectly settled dot. If you are new to the Safariland CADRE Dispatch, go back to past skill builders and review those articles.
At War HOGG Tactical, one of the biggest things I see with my students is hesitation to fire that first shot. Specifically, it’s the habit of waiting for that dot to come to a dead stop, perfectly centered, before the shooter is willing to press the trigger.
I understand where it comes from. A red dot gives you a level of visual feedback iron sights never did. You can watch the dot float, settle, drift again, and your brain tells you to wait for stillness before it trusts the shot. The problem is that stillness costs time, and in a deadly force encounter, time is the one thing you don’t get back.
“The Accelerator” is designed around a single, simple goal: get the shooter firing their first round sooner by working from an acceptable sight picture instead of waiting for a perfectly settled dot. Acceptable and perfect are not the same thing; this is where a lot of shooters lose valuable fractions of a second they didn’t need to lose. I tell my students if the dot is anywhere in the window, on the acceptable target area, “send the round!”
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
- Normal range and firearms equipment
- Live-fire range
- Dry-fire training area
- The Firearms Training Notebook – available on Amazon
- Shot Timer: we recommend the PACT Club Timer III. Click the link to learn how to use a timer effectively in your marksmanship training.
- Recording device and tripod/holder – this will be key to watching your footwork
- War HOGG Tactical Training Target
How the Monthly War HOGG Skill Builder Works
The War HOGG skill builder model is simple. At the beginning of the month, shoot the drill cold, no warm-up. Just shoot the skill builder and let the target and your shooting data tell you where you are with your shooting performance on demand. Then record the data in your copy of The Firearms Training Notebook. Write down any notes you learned during that live-fire session.
From there, you build your dry-fire and live-fire plan around what the shooting performance data exposed. Later in the month, you come back to the live-fire range and reshoot the skill builder to see whether you actually improved on that skill set.
Set Up for “The Accelerator”
Set up your target at 5 to 15 meters, depending on your skill set, with the War HOGG Tactical Training Target. I’m using the top B8 Bullseye target.
Load a magazine of 10 rounds for your pistol and 10 rounds for your carbine. Your pistol can be fired from the ready position or from the holster. I would recommend the ready position just to focus on the pistol presentation and the low ready for the carbine.
How to Run the War Hogg Skill Builder
Run “The Accelerator” as follows:
- For the pistol, start from the ready position or from the holster. For the carbine, start at the low ready position.
- On the audible tone of the timer, present the pistol or drive the carbine up to the target.
- As soon as the red dot is on the acceptable target area, send the round.
- Record your shooting performance data in your copy of The Firearms Training Notebook.
- Repeat for a total of 10 shots with your pistol and 10 shots with your carbine.
The intent of this range session is to evaluate how quickly you can make that first shot and if there are marksmanship issues. Any issues you had during the skill builder, write it down in the note section of The Firearms Training Notebook.
Build Your Dry Fire Plan
Once you shoot the War HOGG “Accelerator” skill builder with your pistol and carbine, your dry fire plan will be built from the shooting performance data recorded. Take your 10 shots of your pistol and carbine and figure out your average for each blaster. I would add .10 to .25 to my starting dry fire time depending on split times.
The Skills: What “The Accelerator” Develops
The Accelerator doesn’t replace fundamentals. It builds on them. You need to already have a consistent grip, good trigger finger placement, and a stable platform before this drill does you any good, because without those pieces in place, speeding up your decision-making just means missing faster instead of missing slower.
This is a drill for shooters who’ve put in the fundamental reps and are ready to compress the time between presentation and that first accurate round downrange.
- Vision: Focus on a small part of the target
- Not waiting for a perfect, settled red dot
- Calling your shot
- Acquiring a proper grip
Check Your Work
Sometime near the end of the month, go back out and reshoot “The Accelerator” drill. Compare the end-of-the-month shooting performance data to your data from the first of the month. If you put in the work, you should see improvement when you compare your data in your notebook. If one rep is off, not the end of the world; just know what happened to cause the issue and make a note.
Build Your Shooting “CREW”
Having other like-minded shooters around will help you push to make yourself better. If you have friends, family, or co-workers who share your shooting passion, start building that shooting “CREW.” This way, not only do you have your own accountability, but you also have others to help you improve on your marksmanship journey. They can record you shooting, possibly give you feedback on things they see, and it’s always good to have some fun competition to help you grow.
At War HOGG Tactical, our motto is “Be 1% Better Everyday!” You can always join us and our “CREW” members in sharing your marksmanship growth.
Go to our On The Range (OTR) Patreon “CREW” members’ page and join like-minded shooters looking to get more proficient in their marksmanship skills. My co-author, Mark Kelley (Kelley Defense), and I conduct bi-monthly interactive Zoom calls where we break down each shooter’s skill builder. We have even reviewed video of “CREW’ members shooting during our Zoom call and given immediate feedback on where we see they can improve their shooting skills.
Conclusion: Put In The Work
If you’re running a red dot pistol and you’ve never specifically trained the gap between acceptable and perfect, this month’s War HOGG drill “The Accelerator” is exactly the kind of skill builder that closes that gap, and it’s a drill I’d encourage every law enforcement officer and shooter going through a War HOGG Tactical firearms training course to spend real time with, because the habit it breaks is easy to build by accident and hard to unlearn without deliberate work.
This month’s War HOGG skill builder is something that should start to become second nature when shooting your red dot optic. Remember, shoot it cold, record the data, study your shooting performance data, and build your dry fire plan. Then come back to the range and check your work at the end of the month or periodically during the month.
To see improvement in your marksmanship skills, you must put in the work with a solid dry fire training plan throughout the month and a way to record your progress, like The Firearms Training Notebook. Using additional tools, like a shot timer and a phone to video your training sessions, you can take your dry fire training to the next level and see an increase in your shooting performance during your live training.
Don’t forget to check out the War HOGG skill builder library for more shooting tips and sign up for our newsletter. Go to warhogg.com for our upcoming training course schedule.
Train Hard, Stay Safe, and see you “On The Range” – Rick
