Practicing The Plate Rack Drill

So I’ve decided that in 2017, I’m going to do more shooting videos – practice, drills, and matches.  In keeping with that goal, I decided to bring out the video camera and get some footage of the plate rack drills I ran today.  I posted two days ago about running a new 3-Gun pistol drill at my practice range.  It was evident to me after shooting that drill that I needed to work on my speed and accuracy on the plate rack.  The footage is courtesy of my trusty Canon G7X, mounted on my Manfrotto MKC3-H01 video tripod.

As indicated in the video, I was shooting with a SIG P320 Compact, with a Trijicon RMR mounted to the milled slide.  Note that this is not the P320 RX – this is a gun I had custom milled which pre-dates the P320 RX.  Also note that, as of this writing, my P320 has had no trigger modifications – I’m shooting with the factory trigger that has a pull weight just over 6 lbs.

Each run was timed (using the ever popular PACT Club Shot Timer 3) , drawing from the holster on the “beep” and shooting from a distance of 10 yards/30 feet from the target.  My best run going one for one on the targets was 4.05 seconds:

Overall, I was pleased with the session and thought it helped me a great deal.  4.05 seconds isn’t particularly fast, but I think it’s darn respectable for the gun I was using.  Here’s a video showing the legendary Rob Leatham shooting a plate rack with a 1911 style handgun (which I’m guessing has had some competition enhancement work done to it) in 2.50 seconds (fast forward to the 9:45 mark in the video to see it):

If you want to see some CRAZY fast times, here’s a video showing a plate rack duel between Bob Vogel and Tarran Butler.  Skip to the :52 mark to see Bob Vogel lay down a screaming 1.71 on the plate rack, and

My goal isn’t to challenge a Rob Leatham, Bob Vogel, or Taran Butler.  My goal is to be the best I can be, and I think I can get to the point where I can shoot a plate rack from 30 feet in about 3.5 seconds with my SIG P320 Compact.  Consistency is the key.