An important part of the process of teaching is figuring out what it is people have to learn. What skills are they starting with? What strengths to they bring? What areas might need additional focus? To that goal, we’ve come up with a straightforward course of fire that we are happy to offer as a free downloadable PDF.

The assessment takes 25 rounds and touches on fundamental defensive pistol skills at 3, 5, 7 and 15 yards. Single shots, doubles and triples, single hand with both weak and strong hand only, and reloads from slide lock are all covered. This is not meant to be a comprehensive examination of pistol skills, but it does give us a great starting point to understand where a prospective student might benefit from instruction.

All strings are fired from low ready – firing from a holster draw is a vital CCW skill, but not one we feel comfortable asking people to perform as part of a basic skills assessment. They are meant to be shot with a par timer; if you do not have one, there are decent simulated timers with phone apps or web applications. Any shots fired after par do not count.

Scoring is simple. Any hit in the central 3″x5″ rectangle counts for 2 points; any hit anywhere else on the 8.5″x11″ sheet counts for 1 point. With 25 shots, there are a maximum of 50 possible points for the assessment.

String #1 – 3 yards. From low ready, fire one shot.

Par time: 1.5 seconds.

Repeat five times (5 shots total, 10 points possible)

String #2 – 5 yards. From low ready, fire three shots, reload, fire three shots (you will need two magazines loaded with three rounds each).

Par time: 10 seconds.

(6 shots, 12 points possible)

String #3 – 7 yards. From low ready, fire two shots, reload, fire two shots (you will need two magazines loaded with two rounds each).

Par time: 8 seconds.

(4 shots, 8 points possible)

String #4 – 7 yards. From low ready, fire three shots using your strong hand only (i.e., right hand if you are right-handed; left hand if you are left-handed).

Par time: 5 seconds.

(3 shots, 6 points possible)

String #5 – 7 yards. From low ready, fire three shots using your weak hand only (i.e., right hand if you are left-handed; left hand if you are right-handed).

Par time: 7 seconds.

(3 shots, 6 points possible)

String #6 – 15 yards. From low ready, fire two shots

Par time: 5 seconds.

Repeat twice (4 shots total, 8 points possible)

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Now that we’ve shared the drill, let’s talk a little bit more about the rationale behind it.

7 yards is a widely cited standard distance for defensive pistol shootings, and so this assessment focuses on 7 yards and closer:

• 5 shots at 3 yards, emphasis on quick single shots
• 6 shots at 5 yards, emphasis on speed and a reload from slide lock
• 10 shots at 7 yards, testing speed, reloads, and single-hand shooting
• 4 shots at 15 yards, testing the edge case defensive pistol shooting

What about the size of the target? There is a practical reason for using an 8.5″x11″ sheet, which is that it can be printed by anyone with a standard printer (if you’re not in the part of the world where A4 or another format dominates, of course).

The smaller 3″x5″ section represents the vital zone. Shot placement is key in defensive pistol shooting – to that end, our target’s vital zone is a bit aggressively tight. In comparison, the standard USPSA A-zone is roughly 5.9″x11″ – just over four times the area of our target’s vital zone. The total target overlaps a USPSA A-zone with spill on other side into the C-zone.

Why make our vital zone smaller? Higher standards, and a better tool for assessment. For the average shooter or student, we are not grading against a score of 50 – if you can clean this target up, there likely isn’t a lot we can teach you about shooting (though we hope you’ll get in touch!).

That said, we do have a very, very rough set of guidelines for score interpretation:

• 0-20 – We’ve all been there. Let’s work together! – A score in this range indicates a number of misses on the target as a whole, which suggests a need to work on the fundamentals of handgun shooting. We think we have a lot to offer someone who scores in this range.
• 21-30 – Good fundamentals – let’s tighten this up! – A score in this range shows someone getting hits on paper with most of their shots. We think we can help you to develop up those skills further.
• 31-40 – Strong work – let’s get you the rest of the way! – A score in this range indicates a number of hits on the vital zone – shot placement is strong, and this is probably the minimum standard we would expect out of a carry gun.
• 41-50 – Awesome work! Help out your friends! – A score in this range represents consistent shot placement with a majority of vital zone hits. A shooter scoring here has strong fundamentals and good application under time pressure.

We’d like to note another advantage of this style of assessment: it’s a great way for an individual to demonstrate to themself in a clear and consistent way their relative faculty with different handguns and/or sighting systems.

Here’s a case in point, using the beta version of the target, all from one shooter:

• A score of 30 with a Bodyguard 2.0 CC – a subcompact striker-fired carry gun in .380ACP, with iron sights. (this attempt also included two malfunctions that ended strings early, dropping two shots/four points from the possible total, in addition to some missed shots)
• A score of 39 with an 80X – a compact DA/SA carry gun in .380ACP, with a red dot sight (this attempt included one malfunction, a failure to feed that ended one string early, dropping one shot/two points from he possible total)
• A score of 44 with a 92FS – a full-size DA/SA service pistol in 9mm NATO, with iron sights
• A score of 46 with a 92GTS – a full-size DA/SA service pistol in 9mm NATO, with a red dot sight (target not pictured due to phone glitch)

Size of pistol clearly had an impact here, as did sighting system – red dot vs. irons (we will have another post getting into more detail about sights on CCW pistols soon, by the way). Even being generous and turning the carry gun malfunctions into the best possible scores, you’d see a move of 34 – 41 – 44 – 46 going up in size and with better sights. As it stands, 30 – 39 – 44 – 46 tells a solid story – and reminds the shooter to clean those carry guns.

Here are some other shooters’ targets and guns, split between five people.

The lowest score from the first round of beta testers was 30, which we’ve decided to assess as just below the minimum score where we’d feel comfortable carrying a particular gun for defensive use. The first batch, however, was a mix of shooters with light competition experience and ex-military folks, so the true baseline for a novice shooter has yet to be tested.

We will keep on checking this assessment with new shooters, and we’d love to hear from you how your experience with the course of fire goes. What handguns did you try? What’s your general level of experience? Any plaudits to share (competitive shooter classification, Pistolseed patch, etc)?

Stay safe out there, and always keep growing your skills and your community.

-The Grassroots Defense team

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