Shot Timers and 6 Ways to Drive Improvement

When first learning to shoot, people work on the basics with the goal of being able to accurately hit the target.  How precise that accuracy is can be honed and in no time a shooter can go from just hitting the target to placing accurate shots in scoring zones.  Which is all well and good, but is only one piece of shooting well.  

Can you shoot with that same level of accuracy when further from the target?  What about when the target is just smaller?  With no pressure and all the time in the world, sure.  As soon as the speed component comes in though, that carefully crafted, perfect sight alignment, and slow, straight to the rear trigger press goes out the window.  To shoot well at speed, you need to train at speed.

So how do we train at speed?  How do we know how fast or slow we are going?  If we have improved our speed over time?  Where are we slow and what is costing us precious time?

Shooting is often measured in seconds and milliseconds.  We can’t simply rely on our ears and an internal clock or feeling, we need to record and quantify the course of fire.  Enter the shot timer, a tool that is incredibly useful, but also a bit intimidating.

What is a shot timer?

A shot timer is basically a stop watch that uses the sound of the gun shot to create event time stamps as you shoot.  When you look back at what it recorded you will see the time to first shot, and the timing of each shot after that.  It seems simple but there are several metrics being captured at once.

What metrics does a shot timer display?  

The shot timer uses a buzzer as the go signal and once done shooting there are 4 main metrics to look at.

Shot #1 is the draw to first shot (or time to first shot if not using a holster) and includes reaction time, presenting and pressing the trigger.  This is how we measure draw time, something most shooters are forever trying to speed up in the chase to that elusive sub-second draw.

Shot #2 and onwards time stamps show when each shot occurred in the overall total time as well as the split time, which is how much time elapsed between this shot and the previous one.  Another place in which shooters want to get faster, measuring how quickly but still accurately you can press the trigger.

When done shooting the course of fire you have an overall total time, it took X amount of seconds to complete the given task or course of fire.  This is good to know, but most shooters are trying to get work done quickly.  That is where a par time comes in.  Set the par time to get an end buzzer, with the goal of beating the buzzer.  Par time is incredibly important, it helps you up your skill by dwindling down what the par is set for, taking as small as a tenth of a second off the clock at a time.

Overall, a shot timer allows shooters to capture additional metrics that can’t be seen on the target alone.  What gets measured gets managed, which makes a shot timer a simple but valuable tool.

Shot Timer Options

There are several ways in which a shot timer can be obtained.  There are apps for your smartphone and some websites that have free tools, but if and/or how well they detect any shots is variable.  

There are also products that, while not a shot timer exclusively, have timer capability.  Many of them are tied to dry fire laser training systems and while great for practice aren’t going to be useful on the range.  Our MantisX products are designed to help shooters improve, and while driven by capturing and correcting the shooter's technique also includes shot timer data.  The shot timer feature is inherent in every drill and allows shooters to set buzzer and timer information as well as analyze the same metrics mentioned above.  This isn’t just for dry fire either, the X3 and X10 Elite models both work with live fire as well.

Most shooters still prefer a dedicated device for the range as they are easy to use with multiple people, have simple interfaces and a fair number were bought before smartphones even came out and are still running.  These devices have evolved over the years with new features, incorporating customer feedback, and some updated technology like connecting to an app or pairing with video feed.  Pact and Competition Electronics are two of the most common ones shooters will run into in classes or competitions but it is worth doing some research to see what shot timer is right for you.  

Some considerations when shopping for timers include how simple or complex it is, does it pick up live and dry or just live, and of course budget.  When it comes to budget think of this in cost per use, while they may seem pricey, consistent use and improvement is worth it.

6 Ways to Incorporate a Shot Timer

There are so many ways in which a shot timer can be put to good use in shooting, but here we will go over six of them which can apply to a large number of skills any shooter may be looking to master.

#1 Par Time

Simply put, par time is a beat the buzzer game.  Many drills have shooting standards in which a reasonable goal time limit has been placed based on the difficulty of the course of fire.  Famous drills have a generally agreed upon time, for example a Bill Drill is 6 shots in the A-zone from 7 yards in 2 seconds.   

That 2 second par time is the expert level though, so rather than throwing it the towel cause “I’ll never be that fast” use the par timer to chip away at your time.  Run the drill live, with a shot timer, and see what time you naturally achieve this in.  

Say that run shows up as 4.5 seconds, the next one for sure isn’t going to be 2 seconds. So set the shot timer for 4.8 seconds and run it again.  There is three tenths of a second breathing room there for any hiccup that may happen along the way.  

After a few repetitions the time starts to fall, it may even plummet, but as the natural limit of your skill is reached a plateau will hit.  Work to beat that new par time and with consistent practice it can be whittled away a tenth at a time.

#2 Split Times

Split times, or just splits, are the time between each shot.  A very comfortable pace for shooters is .5 second splits, which may sound fast but .5 splits will never achieve that 2 second par time on a Bill Drill.  Pressing the trigger sooner after the previous shot will speed up the overall time and must be done to achieve the par time.  Of course there is a skill and ultimately a human limit.  While we can kind of hear if shooting was faster or slower, we can’t pinpoint it to a time, only the shot timer can tell us this information.

Take that same Bill Drill par time of 2 seconds, if you have a 1 second draw to first shot, that leaves 1 second left for the remaining 5 shots.  Splits then have to be .2 or less, plus accurate.  That’s a pretty tall order for the average shooter, so with that information having a 3 - 3.5 second Bill Drill is still a highly proficient time.  

Splits are also a good way to measure target transitions and improve that transition speed.  Shooting rapidly at one target is hard enough but maintaining that cadence while transitioning targets is a masterful skill.  Part of what makes great shooters is that they are doing everything in sequence sooner than the average shooter.  It is the overall efficiency that makes it fast, not tremendous effort, power, or speed.

Take a look at Kyle Davisson of Cowtown Range performing a bar hop drill in which he shoots 8 shots at two targets while moving, all with the same splits.  If you only listen it would sound more like an 8 round Bill Drill, however he is doing so much more work in that same amount of time.  His splits from shot to shot are the same regardless of if he has to transition or not.

Now you have a par time to beat, and you can see from the time stamps where you can focus effort to gain speed.  Do you have a lightning fast draw but slow follow up shots?  Maybe the splits are actually pretty fast but your draw to an accurate first shot is slow due to a messy presentation or that transition takes double or more time.  This can only be revealed with a timer, just shooting the drill and saying “that was pretty fast” doesn’t facilitate improvement.

#3 Speed of Movement

Our gun-handling skills of drawing and pressing the trigger aren’t the only pieces that impact our speed.  All the in-between movements also impact the time needed to accomplish the task.  How quickly do you react to the buzzer?  How fast do your hands, feet or eyes actually move?  Are non-shooting skills, like reloads, tanking your time?

Taking our Bill Drill example again, if you find your draw is taking up a significant portion of the time, hone in on that and improve a piece of the equation.  Further focus on breaking down the draw to see what portion of the presentation process is slow.  

It may be counterintuitive, but using a shot timer to not record shots is another way to use it.  The presentation can be broken up into steps so a way to speed up the draw is to use those steps to create micro drills.  

Set the par time for a short but reasonable time like .3 seconds. On the buzzer move your hands just to grip the pistol.  Did you beat the buzzer?  Adjust the time up or down as necessary but the goal is to move it down.  Repeat this for each step of the draw, make just that step as efficient as possible, then put it all back together again.

With consistency and effort these micro drills for time will come together cohesively and lower your draw to first shot.  All this did was teach your hands to move quicker and more efficiently.  

This can be applied to reloads, malfunctions, firearm transitions, shooting position, movement and more.  While you could do this without a timer, it isn’t really telling you much.  Humans are not great at time keeping, but we are good at analyzing data so capture some and make an improvement plan.

#4 The Command Drill - Achilles Heel Tactical

The Command Drill is brought to you by Rick Crawley, founder of Achilles Heel Tactical and simply changes the role the par time beep plays in the drill.  Rather than trying to beat the buzzer, the second beep is used to command the execution of the shooting phase of the drill.  It forces a breakup of the movements and allows for further evaluation of the skill.

While it can be used on many skills we will use drawing from a holster as an example.  The par time would be set to above what you need so you have enough time to segment the drill.  For example set the par time for 1.5 seconds, present the gun but do not shoot, once you hear the buzzer from the par time fire with the goal of executing the trigger press at the start of the beep, the “b-e” not the “p”.

Performing the draw this way gives you two phases to analyze.  The first phase is the draw itself with the pause forcing evaluation of the draw stroke.  Once extended were your sights/dot on target or did you need to find them?  Did you have a lot of wait time or did you need to hurry up and get aligned to shoot on the second beep?  Was it smooth and efficient with a good grip ending in a good sight picture or was it rushed and needed a lot of cleanup to actually aim?  How consistent was the draw over multiple repetitions?  How much time does your skill level need to actually be ready to execute a good shot?

The second phase is the shot after the second beep, or response beep, which measures your response time.  Teaching you to press the trigger with minimal sight disturbance sooner in the process, the goal is for it to be .25 seconds or less.  If you have a good sight picture you should be able to respond to the beep and get a shot off very quickly but if the sight picture is poor or being over confirmed that response time will slow down.  Further pay attention to what the sights/dot do during the trigger press, this will be particularly apparent in dry fire.

The time can be adjusted up or down, but the goal is to push the limits and increase speed through practice.  Put the phases back together and test for improvement on draw to first shot.

#5 Shot Timers Equal Stress

Whether you train for self defense, competition, or hunting there comes a moment when the stress builds knowing “this shot counts”.  That stress activates the nervous system, tension rises and performance drops.   

Most people get stressed out when they get put on the spot, that explains why about 75% of people have a fear of public speaking.  But what is the recommendation to get better at it?  Do more public speaking.  The shot timer works the same way, more exposure to it will lessen the impact the buzzer has on you.

Using the shot timer even just to initiate the drill is helpful.  Adding apar time will induce more stress and further help with getting used to the sound as well as the idea of being tracked.  Using a timer frequently makes the buzzer just another part of the range, and helps to align your body's natural reaction to practice, training, and competing.

#6 What Gets Measured Gets Managed

There are endless ways you can use a shot timer, but ultimately it is a tool of improvement.  When we measure things we are collecting data and then we can analyze that data to inform our training.  Record baseline times for skills you want to improve, analyze what needs to be worked on and develop a plan to tackle it.  

With consistent effort and data collection you can make huge improvements in a short amount of time.  As you reach the top of your skill level, don’t be afraid to fail.  If you can perform the skill successfully 10 times then it isn’t hard enough.  Change the parameters until you are successful 7 or 8 out of those 10 reps.  If you are failing at more than 2 or 3 of those reps you’ve pushed too far.  

Recording your shooting, live and dry, is akin to keeping a workout log.  It can be as simple as a notebook or more structured like the Firearms Training Notebook from War HOGG Tactical and Kelley Defense.  These journals are also a great way to keep yourself engaged in your practice.

Improvement at speed

Once you have achieved solid safety and fundamentals accuracy only becomes fairly easy, adding speed to that can be daunting.  No one likes to suck, but if you never incorporate speed you won’t have it when you need it.  Just trying to go faster won’t get you very far.  

If you want to speed up your shooting grab a shot timer, check your ego at the door, accept you will have some inaccurate shots and out right fails, then get to work.