Just the other day, I headed to the gun range to get an adjustable-sight .357 Magnum revolver set up to print my chosen ammunition to point-of-aim at 25 yards. That took all of about 15 minutes. After that, I was done concentrating and spent another 20 to 30 minutes shooting steel plates at 100 yards, just for fun. It was a successful and pleasant morning.
Too often, in this busy world, we don’t get to the practice range often enough, and when we get there, we don’t always make the best use of our time. A person can only really concentrate for just so long. Not having practiced in a while, we may try to do too much for too long. That is when our skills suffer and the experience may become less than enjoyable.
Here’s what works for me: Before going to the shooting range, I try to identify one or maybe two things that I want to work on, and I try to pick a time to go so that I will be sharing the range with the fewest people possible to avoid distractions. Once set up, I will devote the first 15 to 20 minutes really focusing on practicing what I had planned to work on. It is surprising how tiring real concentration can be, so I try not to overdo it.
It also helps make use of our time to incorporate dry practice into the scenario. Let’s say that I’m planning to work on my trigger press. The evening before I go to the range, I’ll devote some time to the trigger press through dry practice. This seems to help me focus on the same drill with live ammo the next day at the range.
But, I also don’t just shoot for 15 to 20 minutes at the range and then head home. Once I’m done with that practice session, I may spend some time visiting with other shooters. Or, I’ll find some fun-shooting thing to do, like the steel plates at 100 yards. In spite of the fact that we go to the range to practice a defensive shooting skill, let’s don’t forget that shooting is fun and we need to just enjoy it and the fellowship of other shooters when we can.
So, I think it is an excellent idea for a person to give some thought to their plans for a practice session. Focus on improving the basics of defensive marksmanship, but don’t bite off too big a chunk for a single range session. It’s also a good idea to learn to really focus in during a short practice session, get your work done, and then set it aside. In my view, that’s how you make the most of those important practice sessions.
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