September 27th, 2023
7minute read
Rifle and carbine drills tend to fall on either side of a spectrum.
On one end are precision drills designed to emphasize the fundamentals of marksmanship and use positions to gain stability.
On the far side are aggressive tactical style drills.
Intended to be a foundational starting point, the Carbine Baseline Drill, or 1-2-3 Drill, is a simple tool for training a citizen with an AR-15 or other defensive-style rifle.
The Carbine Baseline Drill is intended to fill that gap for the armed citizen as a foundational starting point.
The 1-2-3 is fired at 10 yards.
There are several reasons for this.
The Carbine Baseline is a simple ten-shot drill focused on things that matter to the average defense-oriented AR shooter.
A distance of 10 yards represents a relatively long but realistic indoor shot inside most residential structures.
The roughly 4 x 5.5 rectangle has a quite similar area to the black bull.
Each string is fired within a time limit, or par time, of two seconds.
The drill has three stages: single shot strings, two pairs, and three rapid fire shots, each in the same aggressive two-second time limit.
Two seconds translates well to many defensive scenarios and may push some shooters out of their comfort zone.
However, there is just enough time to do things correctly and with deliberate confirmation.
If the time feels rushed, investigate which part of the sequence costs time.
The Carbine Baseline balances compressed time frames with deliberate confirmation and accuracy.
I sometimes get questions as to why I emphasize mounting the rifle from the high ready.
The mount is to the rifle what the draw is to the pistol.
They then repeat once for a total of four shots.
In addition to modern sporting rifles like theSpringfield Armory SAINT, the Carbine Baseline is also appropriate for pistol caliber carbines like this SAINT Victor 9mm Carbine.
Here again, the time limit puts pressure on aggressive execution but allows time for conscious effort and confirmation.
The two seconds can go by fast in the first few attempts.
Here, many shooters are likely to feel rushed.
The 10-yard distance requires AR shooters to offset their aim to compensate for the height of the sights over the bore; low hits indicate the shooter drifted point of aim to the center of the target.
Shooters attempting to rattle three off as fast as possible may find none of the hits are well-placed.
Scoring
The 1-2-3 has scalable scoring.
So, a possible would be 10 hits within the black all under the par time.
Nine hits inside the black with one late shot on Stage 3 would score an 8.5.
More-experienced shooters can simply score the drill by the rings, with a possible of 100 points.
Late hits deduct five points each.
At a more advanced level, I would expect to see a shooter scoring in the high 90s.
An occasional 10-shot drill is a great way to stay in better practice than overly long dry spells.
Most shooters will find the two-second and 10-yard layout to be plenty challenging.
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