LAV's 666 Drill

[ST911]

I'm always on the lookout for simple, practical drills to use on the range. Especially those that incorporate multiple component skills, can be run quickly, and with a minimum of ammunition.

I recently came across LAV's 666 drill, as seen on this TAC-TV clip (01:35):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XzSYeQUU8w

Starting from concealment, it requires the shooter to accurately fire 6 rounds in 6 seconds at 6 yards. A slide-lock reload is conducted somewhere along the way. In the video, it's depicted as a D3R3. While not a particularly difficult drill it does require you to cleanly execute each piece in order to meet the standard.

I ran the 666 this afternoon as my starting, cold drill. I added a new dimension and made it a 666(6), performing a total of six runs. Time was managed on calibrated turning targets true to time. Target zone was an 8"/-0 scoring ring. Runs 1-4 were clean. I ran the wheels off the bus on run 5 and dropped 3, with time on the turner to spare. I dialed run 6 back only a little and dropped 2.

This is a great drill, and is now added to the range bag.

[SeriousStudent]

Great minds think alike. I had seen that Youtube clip this week, and wondered about running it this weekend.

I definitely agree about drills that require executing multiple skills cleanly under a time limit.

[newyork]

Like that drill. I'd like to try it next time I'm at the range.

[signal4l]

I like those type of drills

Very simple to setup and encourages the shooter to balance speed and accuracy.

LAV has a 3 second drill that's very good as well

[Surf]

I like the nice easy to set up drills. If you like this 666 drill the Triple Nickle is another good one, but it does require more targets set up, but you get multiple target transitions and a reload. Once you start smoking these drills decrease hit zone size or add more shots with the same par time. So for the 666 it would be the 668. Six seconds, six yards, shoot 4, slide lock reload, shoot 4. Or for the Triple Nickle shoot 3 shots per target instead of 2.

Cool drills. Bill Drill is always a classic.

[Koshinn]

I like the nice easy to set up drills. If you like this 666 drill the Triple Nickle is another good one, but it does require more targets set up, but you get multiple target transitions and a reload. Once you start smoking these drills decrease hit zone size or add more shots with the same par time. So for the 666 it would be the 668. Six seconds, six yards, shoot 4, slide lock reload, shoot 4. Or for the Triple Nickle shoot 3 shots per target instead of 2.

Cool drills. Bill Drill is always a classic.

I swear I saw a video of you running this 66 6 drill or something similar a while back. Maybe it was at 3 different distances?

[Surf]

I swear I saw a video of you running this 66 6 drill or something similar a while back. Maybe it was at 3 different distances?

Yes, you're correct I had numerous drills run on video and some very similar to the 666 and I had 4 or 5 back to back runs of the Triple Nickle on video so that is what you may be referring to. Also many drills are just variations of other drills, which is not a bad thing. Common variations of the 666 are simply variations of reload drills and I still frequently use them in my own practice. I generally like to run steel as it provides instant feedback. I run FMJ so I won't shoot steel closer than 10 yards, so my steel drills were always 10 yards on 10" circle steel popper type targets.

A real common variant that I run might be called 10-6-6. Broken down as 10 yards, 10 inch steel, shoot 2, slide lock reload, shoot 2, slide lock reload, shoot 2 for the same total of 6 rounds but working in an additional reload over the 666 and shooting for a consistent 6 second or less par time. I do believe heavily in posting cold runs and felt I should be at 5.5 consistent Cold and sub 5 warmed up. Of course par time is shooter skill related and can be varied according to the shooter and the times can be decreased as skill increases. I will also go 4 or 5 mags for 8 - 10 rounds and get even more reload repetition. But I would commonly run 2 or 3, slide lock reload, shoot 2 or 3, slide lock reload, shoot 2 or 3, for a total of 6 to 9 rounds.

Overall the variation I prefer the most, so as not to automatically know when slide lock will happen is to load mags with 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, rounds depending on how many mags you use. IE. with 3 mags, 1 mag is loaded 1 round, second mag is loaded 2 rounds, third mag is loaded 3 rounds, and so on. A partner helps with setting up the shooter, shuffling and not knowing which order the mags are in is key. This very much helps in understanding slide lock and not automatically knowing when it is going to happen. Doing this cold is a good one.

And again you are correct. I will run targets at various distances and might even incorporate movement with reloads between target to target engagements. Many "tactical" or "defensive" shooter types might think this is a bit to "gamer like" or "competition" oriented. They generally cannot comprehend the practical benefits for their genre of shooting.

[ST911]

Shot this again tonight with partial box that happened to be 30 rounds, 8"/-0 circle. I'm liking this a lot.

5.18 sec, clean
4.87 sec, -1
5.12 sec, -1
5.16 sec, -1
5.09 sec, clean

I'd like to push this down to ~4.0-4.5 clean.

[Surf]

Very cool. What kind of splits are you getting on the draw to first shot and the reload? With your current times, a 4.5 sounds reasonable fairly quickly depending on the draw and reload splits as that is where you are going to shave time the most.

[ST911]

Very cool. What kind of splits are you getting on the draw to first shot and the reload? With your current times, a 4.5 sounds reasonable fairly quickly depending on the draw and reload splits as that is where you are going to shave time the most.

Shot these tonight. G19, 3:00 OWB, open front winter parka, 8"/-0 target.

5.12 clean: 1.69, .31, .23, 2.35, .28, .26
4.96 clean: 1.56, .36, .30, 2.21, .30, .23
4.72 clean: 1.68, .29, .23, 2.02, .29, .21
4.56 clean: 1.56, .26, .21, 2.10, .24, .19
4.75 clean: 1.57, .33, .27, 2.13, .24, .21
4.54 -1: 1.44, .27, .22, 2.18, .24, .19
4.95 -1: 1.70, .33, .30, 2.13, .28, .21
4.81 -2: 1.69, .26, .21, 2.21, .23, .21
4.87 clean: 1.67, .30, .30, 2.01, .34, .25