This is Rangemaster’s “Drill of the Month” – a piece that has become a part of our feature rotation. It is part of that company’s monthly newsletter. As always, start slow before trying to progress. If you’re not familiar with use of the holster – especially from concealment – and, not familiar with the most dangerous thing you’ll do at the range, putting the gun into the holster – seek education first. You can shoot the whole thing from low ready, just to see how you do. The Rangemaster instructors travel. Check the website.

From the Rangemaster newsletter: 

DRILL OF THE MONTH 

Throughout 2026 we will be running a Drill of the Month in each edition of the newsletter. The goal is to help motivate folks to get to the range and actually shoot their defensive weapons, and to have some fun in the process. Each month we’ll post a drill or a short course of fire. You are encouraged to go to the range, shoot the drill, and then post your thoughts and a photo of your target on the Rangemaster Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/groups/rangemaster/.

MINI-CASINO DRILL 

Rangemaster’s Casino Drill has become a well-known industry standard, and it is a pretty good test of all around defensive skill with a handgun. If you can, on demand shoot it clean under the 21 sec par time, you are pretty competent with a handgun. On many ranges, however, the target stands are 18” wide, set up for cardboard IDPA and USPSA targets. The Casino target is 23” wide, and the numbered shapes line right up with the sticks on an 18” frame. Shooting the sticks to pieces on the first run sucks, so I devised an alternate drill for such ranges. 

On the Mini-Casino, start with the target at 3 yards. Your pistol will be loaded with 6 rounds, 1 in the chamber and 5 in the magazine. Have 2 spare magazines on you with 7 rounds in each. On signal, draw and shoot 2 rounds into the 2 circle, 3 into the 3 circle, 4 into the 4 circle, 5 into the 5 circle, and 6 into the circle bearing the number 6. Reload each time the gun runs out. Circles must be shot in numeric order. Par time is 21 seconds, with all hits if you want to run it as a time limit course. For hit factor scoring, take total time and add 1 second for each miss. Here is my run at the beginning of a range session, 17.52 seconds, clean. Here is a link to print your own target at home: https://tinyurl.com/march-dotm.

-- Tom Givens, Chief Firearms Instructor, Rangemaster Firearms Training Services