Rainy afternoon. Replaced crappy subfloor in a guest bedroom we’re renovating, made lunch and hung out with the wife for a bit, and decided to take a quick trip to the range to blow off the stink.
Shot a “Form drill” 2x, once at 50 yards with a 22lr set up for prs-type shooting, and once with a hunting rifle at 100 yards. Never shot a form drill before, but I believe I did it per “regulation” (grin): 7moa target standing unsupported, 5moa target sitting unsupported, 3 moa target sitting off the top of my pack, and 2moa target prone off pack/no bag. 2 shots at each with no time limit, 2 shots within 20 seconds at each, and then 1 shot at each as a set, within 60 seconds.
Scored a 12 on both rifles, which afterward Im a little disappointed in because I know I can do better when I’m a bit more practiced, especially offhand. My offhand shooting I lose fast, I knew that, but had one shot go 6” low on the 20-second stage and one off paper a bit high. Sitting unsupported felt the most “unfamiliar”, its not a position I use or practice much, and it showed. Sitting off a pack I scored the best of all 4 positions, hit all 5 on that with both guns. Prone I missed several even though its within the cone of the gun in both cases, including one in the un-timed stages…I claim “new drill jitters”. Nothing wild, but in both cases a misses just outside the circle.
Takeaways:
1) I suck, as always. But I knew that.
2) Im going to try this drill a few more times and see how I like it. Several of the positions are abnormal for me (prone shots ive taken I generally have a lot more time and Ive mostly used a bipod, sitting unsupported is not a shot Ive used hunting more than once or twice hunting) so I want to play around with the drill a bit and maybe also change it up for myself to also include some other positions I use more in the field.
3) I was surprised how easily it went shooting sitting off my pack, not just from a stability standpoint, but also time. This position felt comparatively easy and unhurried next to all the others. I may have to play with this a bit and see how far I can push it.
4) the pocket on the back of my MR Popup pack makes a convex surface that sucks to shoot prone off of. It did not feel anywhere close to as stable as I wanted. Need to figure out a better pack-position for this—possibly with the back-panel of the pack facing up.
5) 20 seconds goes fast when you are futzing with a new position/support. I can already tell I’ll have noticeably more time for the prone stage when I do it again simply having found a more stable way to position the pack.
