I came home from Bill’s Gun Shop and Range in Circle Pines late last night. I was invited to help test out the new IDA Multi Round Live Fire course, designed primarily for…well, you!
I’ve often wondered if the stories were true about the soldiers in the Civil War. I’ve heard that many rifles were found with 4 or 5 balls and powder charges stacked in the barrel. This happened it is thought, because in the height of a war using muzzle loaders the soldier would pull the trigger and reload whether or not his gun went off.
Tonight made me a believer. Towards the end of the course that I’ll explain in detail later, I pulled my trigger on my Glock and it went “click”….AHHH! No round in the chamber! I only have 10 seconds to make 10 holes in my target! No problem, I’ll rack the slide…and still have plenty of time….wrong! I squeezed off the trigger again ….”click”!!!! What the…??? NO MAGAZINE IN THE GUN! I slam a 10 round mag in and I had time for ONE SHOT! In those ten seconds I lost what could have been 45 points!
By the end of the course all seven of us had stories to tell and excuses to make!
What is a Multi Round Live Fire course?
In a nutshell, it’s a experience based timed shoot with moving targets, reloading, shooting with one hand, your weak hand and shooting around a barricade. All in low light.
I was talking with Ryan the manager a few weeks back about having another IDA shoot, but thought we should have something different from shooting at a stationary paper target. With the aid of his employees, they came up with this.
Position 1.
The target is on edge at 3 yards, when it turns to face you, you’ll have 20 seconds to shoot (here’s the experience base part comes in) 5 to 10 rounds, reload and fire 10 more rounds. Sounds easy eh?? Well, to score points the shots have to be in two areas of a silhouette target. Newer shooters would use 5 rounds (giving the shooter more time to place the shot correctly) and the more experienced shooter would use 10 rounds…which of course give them less time. I’m going to use 10 rounds in the rest of this example.
Position 2
The target turned towards me at 10 yards. I have 25 seconds to shoot 10 rounds, reload and shoot 10 more rounds one handed. Since I was the only one using the laser everyone could see my dot and some asked me why my laser was on they’re target!
This is certainly not the laid back plinking we are use to!
Position 3
The target will turn towards me at 15, 7 and 5 yards. I’ll have 12 seconds at each stop. I pull off my 10 rounds at 15 yards, reload as the targets moving closer at the 7 yard position. It turns and off go another 10 rounds using my one hand only…then reload and when the target turns at the 5 yard position off go 10 more rounds from my WEAK hand supported by my strong hand. I’m proud to say that I didn’t lose any skin off my knuckles tonight. That normally happens to me shooting left handed.
Position 4
The target will turn at 18, 12 and 6 yards. I fired my 10 rounds, then reloaded as the target was moving towards me. Popped off 10 more rounds at the 12 yard position and at the 6 yard stop, 10 more rounds went to a smaller area on the target!
Sound confusing? It’s not at all! At the end of position the next position is explained until everyone understands what they are going to be doing next…and time to reload.
Position 5
Using the provided barricade with the target at 10 yards, I placed my 10 shots well….I thought. The from the opposite side of the barricade, I had another 10 shots …I didn’t place them so well…I thought!
Position 6
HEY! I’m getting the hang of this! The target turns at 7 yards…CLICK…dang….CLICK…NO!!! As I was sliding in the magazine into the empty gun, for a split second my thoughts went back to the history of the Civil War and how the soldiers could have reloaded after reloading even though their weapons never fired.
I got one shot off before the target turned…and I knew I was going to score low without those 45 points.
I finished up the next 20 rounds with disappointment but I knew I could do better in the next session!
Some were shooting 5 round strings, some 10. That’s why the score is figured in a percentage. So everyone is even. Less experience, less rounds. More experience, more rounds in the same amount of time!
My score?? 71% Not bad for trying to shoot an unloaded gun!
That’s what’s fun and entertaining about this type of shoot. We can compete against others, compete against yourself or just practice for real life situations. It sure adds something to the stationary paper target shoot in a heart pumping way!
The first course will run about 45 minutes. Fifteen minutes of safety class and an explanation of the course, then about a half hour of shooting.
DATE: January 16th from 6 to 9 pm
Cost: $12.00 per 6 position session
As you can tell, this is not for the person that is not familiar with a handgun. Safety is the first priority at Bills. They will have bays open for the novice shooter and some of the more experienced IDA shooters will be there to assist you. Bill’s has rental handguns too!
Reply here or send a pm if interested or have any questions.
as long as I get the correct day 
Great idea!
er…back pockets! 
