UKPSA NEWS
for this at home, with 4 dummy shells in the tube is to rack the gun as it comes up from the ‘trail’ position (by your side). What a lot of novices do when the beep goes off is look down at the gun, turn it so the bolt faces up, rack the bolt, turn it back, then lift the gun into the shooting position. You can shave off seconds by practicing racking the gun as you bring it up into the shoulder. You have to do this with your weak hand under the gun in a U-shape – rack the bolt with your index finger (your thumb is on the other side of the gun) and then move your weak-hand forward into the support position. It’s worth investing in an oversized charging-handle for this. With a bit of practice this all forms one smooth, and very fast, motion.
Option 3 is an empty gun. This is where your home practice with dummy rounds pays dividends. With an empty gun most novices start by picking up one shell, dropping it into the chamber, pressing the bolt- release button, then stripping their caddy. This seems like a lot of time for one round. I always start option 3 shoots with the bolt forward – load in 8 or 12 from my caddies and then rack the gun as I bring it up.
Once you get good at reloading from a caddy it quickly becomes apparent that the biggest cost in terms of time is moving your hand back and forth from gun to caddy – so why spend one transit for one shell when you can do it for four? All your dummy- round reloading drill is essentially for Option 3 starts or top-ups when the gun is running low on a course of fire.
A starter for a home drill is as follows. Notebook and pencil, shot timer or iPhone with the free surefire shot timer app, dummy shells and shotgun. Adjust the sensitivity of the app so that it picks up the sound of you racking the gun.
With gun at the strong-hand trail, your dummy rounds in your belt and the shot timer set to random start, wait for the beep, load your 4 dummy shells and then rack the gun as you bring it up into the shoulder. The timer will give you the time from the beep to the rack - note down that time. Do this drill in small batches – I do ten reloads whenever I can, note down all ten times AND try and analyse what went wrong if I fumble
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or take too long. Keep notes and read what went wrong in previous practices before doing the current practice. If you have a spread-sheet program like Excel, drop your times into it and plot your practice- averages against date. I guarantee you (a) improved reloading times and (b) fewer fumbles after only 2-3 weeks. Remember, poor quality practice only enforces bad habits – don’t practice unless you are focused and don’t do it for too long – little and often is better.
A good live-round drill on the range is to have five metal plates at about 15m – plates you can easily hit (poppers are best). Load three shells into the gun (one in the chamber, two in the tube – safety ON) and have the gun in the strong hand trail. On the beep, shoot one target, load 4, then shoot the remaining targets. Get the RO to note down your time and you should log it to monitor progress. Shooting against yourself like this is a good way to ‘stress-practice’ and benchmark your home-practice improvement. Keep notes and be critical and analytical (of yourself).
That’s my technique explained – I’m nowhere near the fastest at comps but, I no longer finish a shoot feeling frustrated because I fumbled shells or needing a calendar to measure my times. The best long-term advice as you build your own skill is ‘watch the fast shooters and nick their techniques’.
Have fun. Be safe.
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