Tactical Tuesday: First Shot Accuracy

Firearm Training On Range
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Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

Check out this Tactical Tuesday video:

How much training do you do for consistency?

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That’s my TC! Hey JP! :wave:

A couple thoughts - I’m not currently drilling for first-shot accuracy but for group-size and accuracy at speed. I’ll add this drill so I can assess what my first shot accuracy is… I think it’s pretty good (if I’ve got strays in the group, they’re not usually the first round) but might not be up to this standard.

Second thought - in a real self-defense situation, where my feet are positioned isn’t likely to be my major focus, and may not be something I actually have much option in, depending on the environment, cover, etc. … so adjusting them to get the accuracy is unlikely to be what I am thinking about or even can change.

I get the purpose of the drill, and why the correction worked, but not really getting how this correction applies to the self defense setting.

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I had similar impressions of the drill.

First shot accuracy though is of paramount importance in SD situations. It doesn’t much matter who gets the first shot off, what matters is who gets the first effective shot on the target.

I got the impression in my instructor courses that the USCCA has turned a bit away from the , “Slow is Fast, Fast is Smooth” like of thinking. I’m not sure why that’s what was communicated but that was it.

The whole point of that thinking is that careful, thoughtful, repetition builds not only accuracy but the eye hand or muscle memory pathways. Once they are ingrained deeply and well practiced speed will increase dramatically while the reduction in accuracy is minimized.

Of all the practice I do the first shot accuracy is one I do more than all others and always from the draw with no consideration of angle or distance to the target.

As defenders, we can’t pick our battlegrounds, body position, attacker position, angles, distances, circumstances or obstacles in most cases.

As a result of that reality once basic skills are learned and developed I think it’s paramount to practice them in every reasonable scenario we can imagine but always with a heavy focus from most to least common situations encountered.

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