Wear reading glasses when selecting a target … or you could just pay attention.
This reminder came from an attempt at a range assessment using a smaller-than-I-normally-carry pistol, the Taurus GX4. A far better pistol that it gets credit for, it can be just the thing when weight and size are at a premium for transport, storage and something to quickly clip on when you leave one of those silly non-permissive environments.
You still have to be able to shoot it and to be able to make some kind of time/accuracy standard. If the drill calls for a B-8/B-8 repair center, use that – or the FBI-IP, essentially the same target without a tie-breaking X-ring.
Do not use the NRA B-16 repair center. What’s the difference?
The B-16 is the analog for the B-6 50-yard slowfire bullseye; it’s to be used to shoot the NRA “short course” bullseye event when all you have is a 25-yard range. It’s the slowfire target for 25 yards.
It is not for the Tom Givens-inspire Baseline Assessment Drill. I shot that drill with the aforementioned GX4. While the XS Sights-brand R3D sights I had on the slide make shooting that little gun easier, I still have little real estate to hang onto. It’s a small gun and grip means everything.
Besides that, if you try a slide-lock reload and drop the stubby spare 11-shot magazine, life isn’t good. That’s just what I did. That caused me to be 2.5 seconds over time.
But it’s a baseline assessment; shot cold, it let’s you know where you stand so you can work on deficiencies. Any rounds fired over time were counted as 10-down apiece,
But you have to use the right target.
So, I shot it twice.
When shooting the gun on the proper target – improperly having shot it once on the wrong one, so this one doesn’t count – I went over time on two strings. The final score, after time penalties, was 168/200, a dismal performance – for time.
The target score was 188 – and while 190 is “good,” that’s when fired with something more substantial than the truncated 9mm pistol. At my age, with that gun, I don’t feel terrible about anything but the time lag.
When did the time drop out and by how much?
The dominant-hand only string went over by .07 second. I count it as a miss, but that was a close one. The reload stage with the stubby magazine – it actually went well this time – was a quarter second over. Again, I’d be more concerned if I was shooting a service or service-compact size pistol like the Taurus TX9.
After the sad performances on the Baseline Assessment Drill, I finished with a little slowfire on the trade-mark of a target from about 20 feet. There were five hits, touching, just under the mark – the distance between hits and aiming point corresponded to the height of the sights over the bore, considering the distance.
I always try to finish with a deliberate marksmanship drill when doing range work. Regardless of what skill I’m working on – or doing a gun test – I want the last reps in the mental computer to be precision shooting.
This gun handles that fine; now if I can just get to shooting it better.
- Rich Grassi