Learning to shoot well is a never ending journey and it takes more than just time behind the gun to improve your skills.  Sure, you can try to brute force good shots by shooting a ton and hoping it gets better naturally over time, but having a little knowledge and putting some planning into your trip to the range can not only speed up your learning but also make it more enjoyable.

There is no point in trying to master every skill at once, break down the skills and create a plan that will help you address the areas of your technique that need work.  Once you know the skill you want to work on, find drills that purposely target that skill and push you to progress and improve.   

In this article we are going to pick out two skills which go hand in hand, precision and accuracy, and look at some drills that can improve your overall shot placement.  

Precision and Accuracy

There are a few things to point out before we get to the drills though. 
1. This is not about speed. Take your time to get that perfect trigger press and let speed come later. 

2. Precision and accuracy are different.  Precision is how close the results, i.e. bullet holes, are to one another, while accuracy is how close the results, read bullet holes, are to their intended target.  

Now that you know they are different, take a moment to think about how they apply both at the range and in an encounter.  You want to be capable of being both precise and accurate, and to practice that way knowing our skills degrade under stress.  As pretty as a tight grouping is,it takes time, so weigh your need for accuracy and precision and shoot accordingly.

8 Rifle Drills to Improve Shot Placement

Each of these drills can be scaled to your range environment and skill level.  Make sure that they are challenging enough but not impossible and don’t change it so much that it becomes another drill all together.  None of these drills should be for time until you have your accuracy down but they can be put on the clock to induce stress, or use the shot timer for the go signal.  Unless specified, pick your ready position and even vary it for additional practice.

Compressed Surprise Break

How you press the trigger has an impact on your accuracy which is why shooters strive for a nice, even press straight to the rear.  This is easy on an even, but slow, trigger press but going to a normal or fast speed induces errors in technique and results in poor shot placement.  Use this drill to learn to press the prepped trigger straight to the rear quickly.

For this drill you need a single target 5 to 7 yards away and a shot timer or app.  Start on target, prep the trigger so the slack has been taken out and then on the beep press the trigger.  Reset the trigger and repeat.  

The goal is to press the trigger evenly and straight to the rear without moving the sights, resulting in a good hit.  If your hit is not where you intended then during that short press there was an error in your technique which moved the barrel offline from your aim point.  

Over time as you work through this drill try to speed up the press, challenge yourself to go faster but hold your accuracy standard.

Point of Aim/Point of Impact

The optic on your rifle is set higher than the bore of the firearm, and while zeroed, the shooter still has to account for this height over bore when shooting at different distances.  Learning what your holdover is will help you be accurate at various distances and target sizes.

For this drill you will need a single target that has been divided into fourths horizontally, the first and third zones are shoot and the second and fourth are no shoot.  For the first shot aim dead on in the first zone and fire, repeat for zone 3.  Analyze the target to see what the distance is between where you were aiming and where the shot landed.  This is the hold over for that distance. Go back and reshoot zones 1 and 3 but incorporate the holdover into your aim, this should allow you to land shots in the correct zone.
Repeat this at various distances to learn holdovers.

The goal here is to learn your holdover for your rifle so you know where to place your point of aim to get the desired point of impact based on your setup and distance to the target.

Ragged Hole

Many of us do this drill without even knowing it, mainly because it is so satisfying to see shot after shot land consistently making a nice ragged hole in one place.  This drill really proves your fundamentals have been implemented well and built into a consistent and repeatable movement.

Only one target is needed for this drill, if it doesn’t already have one give it a distinctive small mark to aim for.  Place the target 3 to 5 yards away and take aim at the mark, and fire.  Repeat for a full mag aiming at that same spot to create the ragged hole.

Having one ragged hole is ideal, but having all shots touching shows you're pretty close to that consistency you seek.  Look for any fliers, note how many there are, in what direction and think back to if you know when they happened in your string of fire.  Incorporate any changes you need to your technique and as you shoot identify, and reinforce the good trigger presses.

Ready Up

The Ready Up drill is going to work on first shot placement.  This is something that should be trained until it is automatic, allowing you to press the trigger as soon as you have confirmed your sight picture.  

For this drill you need a single target and place it at a distance which is challenging but achievable, 7+ yards.  You will start in the low ready position, drive your rifle up and take one shot.  While not for time, a timer can be used for the go signal.  Repeat from high ready and any other ready positions you’d like to work on.

The goal here is to be efficient in your movement, making it as easy and repeatable as possible.  To do this ensure that your rifle is aligned with the center of the target allowing you to drive straight into the center of the target, flip the safety off as soon as the rifle is parallel to the ground and fire a well placed shot.  Our first shots are incredibly important and if your first one is on target it paves the way for the rest of the string.

Rapid Fire

Single shot accuracy is great but at some point more shots need to be strung together to create rapid fire.  Your trigger press should stay consistent throughout allowing you to deliver accurate shots regardless of the rate of fire.

This is another single target drill, put it up 7+ yards away and fire 6 rapid shots.  Make sure you are keeping that rifle centered and not overpowering it, holding it too hard to the shoulder and creating an erratic pattern or wobble with your red dot and muzzle.    

You want to have a nice even group that has impacted where you intended, don’t forget the holdover, and steady control over where the muzzle is pointing.

Walk Back

This is a simple drill that helps to evaluate shooting fundamentals and forces them to be precisely executed in order to complete the drill.  When targets are up close it can mask some errors in our technique, but pushing the target further out will reveal any errors.  

Using a small target like a 3x5 card set the target 3 yards away.  From the ready take 5 slow shots.  The goal is to have all shots land on the target, if they do, then push the target out to 5 yards and repeat.  If you are successful at 5 yards, push it out to 7 yards.  Once you can shoot this successfully at 7 yards, continue to move the target out 1 yard at a time for each successful run.  If you fail, reset the distance to 3 yards.

This is a good drill to use to benchmark where you are at, running it periodically will reveal any deficiencies in your fundamentals and successful runs will increase your confidence.  Keep track of how far you can walk it back and use this to find your holdover for different distances.

Close to Far

This drill can be done for time but start out with using it as a vision drill to help you adjust from a target up close to one further away while being accurate on both.  Don’t let yourself get lost during the transition and drift down.  

This is a multi-target drill, set up 3 different targets with the middle one being the far target, the other two close up, making a deep V shape.  Line up with the center target and deliver 2 shots, transition to the left target for 2 shots, back to the center for another 2, then transition to the right target for 2 shots and back to center for the last 2 shots.  Vary the distances to refresh this drill and challenge yourself.

As you leave one target and move to the next you want to make sure you are driving across in a flat path.  This tests and trains accuracy from target to target ensuring you are not over-traveling or drifting off the most efficient path.  When moving from one target to the next don’t forget you want to look first then follow with the gun.  This will help you be on target rather than leading with the gun and having to come back and find the target.

Box Drill

The Box Drill is a two target drill and allows you to work on shot placement at two different size targets at the same distance and accuracy in a transitional path in two directions.  The stability of your firearm not only on target but from target to target is key and any deviations will show up in the points of impact.

This drill needs two silhouette targets set 2 to 4 yards apart and should be run at 10+ yards.  Stand on the centerline of the two targets and fire 2 shots at center mass on the first target, transition to the second target for 2 shots at center mass, then staying on the same target fire 1 head shot, followed by another head shot back on the first target. 

This drill can help to master the control and stability of your firearm leading to accurate shot placement.  The change in target size from center mass to head box requires the shooter to adjust for their skill level.  You want to learn at what rate you can shoot at what distance at what size target accurately, this is called throttle control and is where speed and accuracy meet.

Conclusion

Use these drills to work on accuracy and precision, scale them to your skill level but make sure they are still challenging.  Having a few drills that you perform regularly and record the results to will help you benchmark your improvement, once you are satisfied increase the distance or make the target smaller.  Just remember to vary your training, work to master both accuracy and precision but know that they are different and how to apply your skills to each of them.  

Practice these drills live fire to test yourself, but they can also be dry fired to get in extra reps and focus on technique.  If you can get the process down right the results will show up on the paper.  Make your dry fire more efficient by using a BlackbeardX unit, it replaces your bolt carrier group and magazine to give you an auto resetting trigger and laser bullet in one, plus shot analytics.  This means no more charging the handle to reset for the next shot and knowing exactly what happened when you pressed the trigger.  

Give each of these drills a try.  Take pictures of your live fire and if you aren’t happy with your accuracy take your training to the next level with the BlackbeardX.  Smart analytics and feedback are like having a shooting coach in your back pocket. Learn more and order yours today.