A drill that may be different from what you’ve tried before. (Yes, I have posted similar drills before, but a refresher—?)

The goal is to hit the hostage-taker and obviously without hitting the hostage in front. Although the ultimate challenge is just accuracy like most other drills, the presence of a “hostage” that must not be hit adds another factor that many people find changes the tenor of the drill. I have seen some very good shots miss the HT evidently for that reason.








The actual drill is simple: shoot the desired number of shots from one’s position of choice. The second set above was fired today at 50 yards as indicated while I was standing using a tripod for support. Most of the time when I shoot the drill I start completely off the scope and rifle and I time how long it takes for me to respond to the start signal by finding and engaging the target. My goal is to do that in less than 10 seconds.

The second set pictured was not the best I’ve ever shot, but far from my worst either. One shot at the 130 yard equivalent target might not have been fatal for the HT, but was at least disabling, and my rule is that it’s okay to hit the hostage’s hair as I did a couple of times.

The pictures above were AI-generated with nothing more than: “produce a black and white photo realistic image of a man’s face partially hidden behind a woman’s face,” or something similar. In the first set the differing amounts of the man’s face that’s visible was specified in the task.

After the images were produced I pasted them into Word documents and used the picture resizing function to make them the size I wanted. The first set of pictures are all 0.25 of full size; if, for example, they are placed at 50 yards their size is equivalent to a full size image at 200 yards. The second set uses the same image for all three pictures, but they are individually sized so they’re equivalent to 110, 130, and 150 yards when the target is set at 50 yards.

The pictures posted were sized to be reasonably usable with the 22 Long Rifle cartridge. I have printed them larger, up to full size, for use with centerfire rifles.

(If you’d like Word document copies of the above target sets so you don’t have to go to the trouble of preparing your own, contact me at the address in my profile.)

I use these:
Sniper target
And these:
Other target

I can put 10 in the ear (or eye) with my HBar Colt using 77gr ammo but that’s from a rest.
Off a tripod I wouldn’t be sure…I need more practice, and my tripod sucks.

Yes, that Action Target series is a good set that I use at realistic distances with centerfire rifles. And of course more realistic than small B&W images.

It’s taken me a long time and ammo (love 22LR) to become as proficient as I am with a single tripod support, and I’m still not that great. But the challenge is fun.