Saturday, October 20, 2012

Hackathorn 1 2 3 4 5 Drill

I'm not sure where I first came across this drill, but the "Ken Hackathorn 1 2 3 4 5" drill is a fun exercise. I recently found it in my notes and we decided to run it during a recent range trip.

This is a 15 round drill so it's not too ammunition-rich to be run multiple times, but it's long enough to test things like consistent grip, target transitions, and for most folks, reloads.

Set up three USPSA targets, 1 yard apart at 10 yards. At the start signal take the following shots:

One shot at T1
Two shots at T2
Three shots at T3
Four shots at T2
Five shots at T1

The version of the drill I found called for a draw from concealment, with all A-zone shots within 20 seconds or less. We ran it drawing from an open holster. While it sounds short, 20 seconds it a long time to get off 15 shots. I started out running it way too fast before realizing that I was leaving 5-6 seconds to spare. We didn't record times, or score the targets other than noting how many non-A hits there were before pasting for the next shooter.

While I could have loaded enough rounds to shoot the drill without reloading, I loaded either 10 rounds as I would for a USPSA match, or 8 rounds to match my M1911-toting companions. We didn't top off between turns, so a reload from slide lock would come up at random times adding to the stress.

No, none of us ever shot it perfectly in the 5 or so times we did it last week. But it was a lot of fun and a great learning tool. This will be one drill we will undoubtably return to often.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting evolution of the El Presidente'!
    Thanks,
    gfa

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the random reloads would throw me. Much easier when you're counting rounds and can be ready for it.
    Nice touch.

    ReplyDelete
  3. gfa, it's certainly more fun"

    MSgtB, count? Count? :-)

    ReplyDelete

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