Paul W. Shotgun Drill

This drill is one of my own creation. The Paul W. Shotgun Drill is essentially a Bill Drill, but modified to work with a wide range of shotguns. This is a speed drill, but due to shooting it with a shotgun, your recoil control and precision need to be on-point too. 

Setting Up the Drill: Place your USPSA torso target 7 yards away from your firing line. Load 5 rounds into your shotgun. Starting position is low ready, shotgun loaded, safety ON, and the muzzle at 7 yards (not your footing).

Drill Instructions: On beep, raise your shotgun and fire 5 rounds into your USPSA torso target. Only C-zone and A-zone hits will count. This is a speed drill, but you’ve got to keep control of your scattergun to maintain the accuracy standard. 

Scoring and Handicaps: We’re using hit factor scoring. Points ÷ Time = HF. 

• A & C-zone requirement: All 5 hits must be in the A & C-zones to score. If any shot is outside the A or C-zone, the string is a zero.

• Shooting with an autoloading shotgun = no handicap.

• Shooting with a pump shotgun = − 0.15 sec bonus.

• Shooting with a lever-action or bolt-action shotgun = − 0.2 sec bonus.

• Shooting with a double or single barrel shotgun (good luck) = –1.0 sec bonus.

• Safety note: Any unsafe gun handling voids the run.

Considerations: With this being a new type of firearm drill for us, I wanted to highlight some considerations that I came across while developing this drill. 

• Round Count: Dropping the drill from 6 round to 5 opens it up to a wider range of shotguns. Many popular shotguns (Remington 870, many autoloading shotguns) have a standard capacity of 4+1 rounds. If doing a 6 round drill, those common shotguns would not work. As such, I dropped a round to make it more accessible. 
• Muzzle At 7 Yards: The modified starting position was to level the playing field for folks shooting with longer or shorter shotguns. Rather than to give an advantage to someone with a longer shotgun, everyone is starting from the same point. 
• Scoring & The Wad: Shotguns launch their payload, which is kept inside of the shot cup & wad inside of the shell. The wad separates from the payload after it leaves the barrel, but there is a likely chance that it will impact the target, generally in a separate spot from the payload itself. As such, wad hits outside of the scoring zone will not invalidate a run. That said, competitors and RR staff will need to closely look at submissions to make sure that missed birdshot or buckshot do not get reported as a wad hit. The video accompanying this article shows what wad hits look like on the target. 

Summary: Shotgun shooting is not too dissimilar from carbine shooting, but we have a lot more recoil, and need to contend with the expansion of shot as the distances go long. Doing the shotgun version of a Bill Drill seems like a great place for us to introduce the scattergun. Recoil control and precision will be key here.

For some tips, I would recommend that you understand how your shotgun patterns. Every shotgun patterns a little differently, and knowing how much leeway you have for precision would be handy. Additionally, I’d recommend packing some printer paper in your range bag, as this drill will be destructive to your targets, and big sheets of paper will make it easier to patch up your targets. 

I’m looking forward to the submissions! Winner gets our normal prize, but will also be awarded a “Dick Cheney” role in the server! 

– Paul Whaley