Public ranges, or ranges open to the public, can be a convenient place to get in some training time, but most public ranges have restrictive rules limiting your ability to work on many of the things law enforcement officers need to practice. I’ve spent a fair amount of time at public ranges, and it can be a great place to people-watch. The things some people do at public ranges with firearms is amazing — stupidly amazing. A lot of people are downright ignorant when it comes to firearms safety, and a public range is a great place to observe some fantastically ridiculous behavior.

It’s no wonder the owners of these facilities put rules in place limiting what users can do. Frequently, these rules include things like no shooting on the move, no rapid fire and no drawing from the holster. Range rules like these can make it very difficult to get some quality training time, but it can be done.

Keep in mind that different ranges will have different rules, so you need to familiarize yourself with the rules of the facility you’re using. Each of the drills in this article can be modified to comply with those rules, so use your imagination and get creative while staying within the lines of the range rules.

One of the best resources for training drills is a new book titled 101 Drills for Handguns (and Rifles and Shotguns) by longtime law enforcement firearm instructor and writer Michael Boyle. It contains a myriad of drills, including some of the ones I’m going to cover here. Here are a few challenging drills you can use when you need to follow some of the rules you’ll find at public ranges. All of these can be run with a pistol or patrol rifle. If using a patrol rifle, start with the safety engaged, and do not shoot these drills using steel targets!

Use your imagination and get creative while staying within the lines of public range rules.

10×10 Transition Drill

Objective: The shooter must demonstrate the ability to make accurate hits quickly while transitioning between targets.

Targets: Two IDPA or USPSA targets work well, or two A/C zone steel targets if available.

Distance: 10 yards

Course of fire: Load with 10 rounds total. From a ready position, on the signal, fire one shot to target 1 (T1), transition to target 2 (T2) and fire one shot to T2. Continue until all 10 rounds have been fired. If you miss, continue to the next target.

Scoring: Total time + penalties. Low time wins!

Penalties: IDPA or USPSA targets: +1 second outside center mass; +5 seconds for a miss. +5 seconds for each miss if using steel.

Confusion

Objective: This takes working on target transitions to the next level by adding a little cognitive twist to the mix. The shooter must demonstrate the ability to make accurate hits on multiple targets in a compressed time frame.

Targets: Any paper or cardboard silhouette target with a realistic scoring area can be used. It could also be good to use an anatomical overlay on the target to further increase the relevance and difficulty of this drill. Targets will be designated T1–T5 and spaced approximately 3 feet apart.

Distance: 7 yards

Course of fire: Load with a total of 14 rounds. From a ready position, on the signal, fire one shot to T1 and T2, T1 and T3, T1 and T4, T1 and T5, T1 and T4, T1 and T3, and T1 and T2 to finish.

Scoring: Total time + penalties. Low time wins!

Penalties: +1 second outside center mass, +3 seconds for peripheral hits, +5 seconds for a miss.

Switch Hitter

Objective: This is a drill designed by the late Todd Green. The shooter must demonstrate the ability to make accurate shots with the strong hand only and the support hand only while under time duress.

Targets: Two 3×5 index cards

Distance: Targets are set at 3 yards and about a foot apart.

Course of fire: Set a shot timer with a 10-second par time. Starting with the pistol in the strong hand only, from a ready position, on the signal, fire one shot to the target on your strong-hand side. Carefully switch the pistol to the support hand, and fire one shot at the target on your support side. Pass the gun back to the strong hand and repeat the drill until the shot timer indicates 10 seconds.

Scoring: Only hits on the 3×5 cards count. The goal is to place two shots on each target in 10 seconds. Once you can do this on demand, move the target back to 5 yards.

Sooner, Faster and More

Objective: The shooter will demonstrate the ability to balance speed and accuracy while making precise hits on targets.

Targets: 4 ½-inch circle and two 1 ½-inch circles

Distance: 5 yards

Course of fire: This drill is shot from a ready position in four phases, as outlined below.

Phase I: Small circle

• 5 seconds, one hit
• 4 seconds, one hit
• 3 seconds, one hit
• 2 seconds, one hit
• 1 second, one hit

Phase II: Small circles

• 6 seconds, one hit on each small circle
• 5 seconds, one hit on each small circle
• 4 seconds, one hit on each small circle
• 3 seconds, one hit on each small circle
• 2 seconds, one hit on each small circle

Phase III: Large circle

• Five shots with 2-second splits
• Five shots with 1-second splits
• Five shots with half-second splits (if allowed by range rules)

Phase IV: Modified Bill Drill, large circle

• From a ready position, on the signal, six shots inside the large circle as fast as you can hit.

Scoring: 36 points possible. To increase the challenge, just increase the distance by moving the target back to 7 yards.

It doesn’t take many rounds or even very much time. If you take 128 rounds to the range, you can do each of these drills twice, making for a valuable and challenging training session. Give these drills a try and let me know how it goes. If you have drills that you would like to share, send them to me at todd@combativefirearms.com.