Target practice with a metronome?

[Prestantia]

I am a music teacher so this sounded interesting to me. Anyone ever heard of, or have any thoughts about practicing defensive shooting with a metronome fed to your ear? Starting at a slow, steady rate so that there is plenty of opportunity to focus on proper mechanics and then gradually increasing the tempo to develop a consistent "cadence" of fire on the target, or maybe across a line of silhouettes. Being able to increase speed in such small, exacting increments while monitoring and maintaining technique seems like it might be an interesting and beneficial exercise. Would love to hear any thoughts or experiences!

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[Diamondback]

Dunno, but it sounds like an experiment that might be worth trying... Let us know what happens.

 

[Scarint]

I like the idea. Is the metronome analog or digital (can the increments be set to discrete values)?

It seems very worth it to set up, say, 4 seconds; get that mastered. Move to 3.5 seconds, master that, then maybe 3 or 3.25 depending on how difficult the move from 4 to 3.5 was...

 

[Diamondback]

Maybe start at 5 seconds and take it down in notches of 1/4 or 1/10th second. Wyatt Earp used to say "Slow is smooth and smooth is fast, learn to shoot slow but in a hurry, and this sounds like it might be a good way to get that kind of party started.

Maybe not even tell the student you're tightening the timing at first... "What do you mean you can't do four-second timings, you've been firing at THREE the past week!"

 

[MikeE]

Check this out:

 

[AMProducts]

I don't like focusing on speed of shooting, I like feedback. This is a major reason why I tend to focus on reactive targets. My favorites are either steel/rubber swingers or boxes with balloons.

The main goal with training towards lethality is continuing to put lead on target until the target falls.

Given the video above... I'm not sure I've ever shot at a target that close. I usually use the little dot targets he's using at 50ft.

 

[Diamondback]

AMP, each drill has a different goal, and I'd argue each has a place--the Metronome Drill seems to be more about getting single perfect shots, which is more a "foundational" drill for the "tactical" ones like yours to build on.

 

[Gunguy45]

Awesome idea. And I LOVE the metronome.

Me, I can't HEAR the damn thing from more than 5 feet away and I'm not sure it would really help. Great IDEA, in practice, I doubt the utility, but encourage you to TRY it. -If it's a stupid idea and it helps, it's not stupid.

Personally, I use a shot timer, which isn't terribly expensive. If that's too much, a fellow shooter or friend who will hold a watch works fine.

Work towards draw and fire ACCURATELY in about 1.5 seconds. That's kind of the benchmark for all but very serious people. Trust me, it's not easy. Shooting is a cumulative sport. The more you shoot, using good techniques, the better you'll shoot. The key is to train RIGHT, not just shoot.

For that, you're going to pay some money and there is no substitute for a competent trainer who will teach and DRILL you on the basics and then up from there. As a self-taught shooter, I had no CLUE about how much I didn't know until my first training class. I was a pretty good shooter on my own. I was literally 100% better from a single 10-hour class, and better yet with another longer one.

Old saying: "The more a man realizes how little he knows, the wiser he is."

 

[AMProducts]

AMP, each drill has a different goal, and I'd argue each has a place--the Metronome Drill seems to be more about getting single perfect shots, which is more a "foundational" drill for the "tactical" ones like yours to build on.

I guess the definition of "single perfect shots" is much open to interpretation...

If it helps you, by all means do it. Back in HS, I was a very competitive small-bore shooter and went to matches all over the southwest and even tried out for the olympics, the problem I see with a metronome is that it's going to force a shot. Whether you're holding a 14lb free rifle wearing 2 sweatshirts, and a leather shooting suit on a 90degree day, or in shorts and a T-shirt with a pistol the natural tendency is going to be for your mind to try to synchronize actions with the metronome.

I know when I was practicing, especially offhand I would generally give each "attempt" at a shot about 20 seconds of attention: 10 seconds to get comfortable, 5 seconds to acquire target, and 5 seconds to calm and take the shot, if I didn't take the shot, I would rest the rifle on the stand for a few seconds and repeat the process. Frankly, I didn't care whether each 20 second interval was 20 seconds, 20 heartbeats, or just the time I needed to do it, but I had a solid routine that I would practice over and over and over for hours on end.

If you want to do a metronome drill... try it out, I would suggest doing dry firing first. Let us know how it goes. Personally, I don't think it's a good idea.