Shot Timers (Not Just For Competition)

[BarryinIN]

I bought a shot timer a few years ago, and at the time, I didn't know how useful it would be for defensive shooting practice or other uses. I know some people think it's just a tool for match shooters, which is why I'm posting this. It can be a pretty handy training and practice aid.

One of the more obvious uses aside from matches is using it to measure controllability of a gun or load. A gun might seem like it's easier to shoot fast than another, but the timer tells you for sure. The split time is the time between shots, and obviously the lower the split time, the more control you have with that gun. What feels faster sometimes is not.

That little lesson shows up a lot.

I have tested out carry methods and found my "feeling" was off. Appendix carry felt like it allowed a much faster draw than behind the hip, but the shot timer showed there was little to no difference. At least not enough to offset the negatives I had with that mode of carry.

I thought I could reload faster than I could pull and fire a pocket gun. Nope. Going from the last shot from the empty gun to the first shot after either reloading it or drawing a pocket gun, the pocket gun was faster. The fact I had to clear the shirt to get to the magazines but could go straight into my pocket was probably the difference.

How many times have you heard (or said) an ankle holster is terribly slow? It might not be as slow as you think. I was real surprised.

I've used it try changing holster locations, mag pouch locations, mags forward or mag rearward with carbines, time from "ready" to "fire" with carbines, and all sorts of things.

Lots of things are not as fast or slow as they feel.

I think most people would be surprised to learn how long it takes them to get a shot off. Does two seconds sound like a long time from a random "go" signal to the first shot fired from concealment? How about three quarters of a second with a carbine held at low ready? It sounds like a long time because it is a long time if you need that gun. My concealed carry draw (IWB under a shirt) from a random delay beep to shot at 7 yards usually runs in the 1.8 second range. In the almost two seconds it takes me to go bang, an attacker can cover a lot of ground. But guess what? I've noticed I'm one of the very first to break a shot on drills in classes. I didn't say that to boast, but to point out that if I'm slow...

Well, it makes me realize the importance of moving. If you need to draw, you probably need to move also.

A guy whose opinion I value greatly studies a LOT of gunfights and thinks that you need to solve the problem within two seconds. A shot timer has shown that, for me, that's about enough time to get two good shots off. It has shown me how important those two shots are if they are all I might get.

Aside from playing beat the clock, my timer has been useful at the club's range where there is no rapid fire allowed. I will use it there just to provide a start signal to make rifle snap shots at 50 yards. That random start signal alone has made it worth having. Any decent timer can be set to a random delay mode. When you hit the start button, it will give the beep somewhere within a window of time (usually one to four seconds). Even though you know that beep is coming in the next few seconds, it's still a lot more random than going "...uhhhh...Now!" in your head.

I need to set it for something like a 15 minute delay sometime, for a real surprise.

My best friend refuses to spend more than 30 minutes at a time practicing. He says he starts losing interest and concentration after that and although it comes back after a few minutes, he would rather shoot 30 minutes four or five times a week than 2 hours once. He says he can almost always find 30 minutes to shoot, and that he benefits more from this regimen. He is probably right on all counts. When he gets there, he sets his shot timer to give him an alarm in 30 minutes and he stops then no matter what. You can set an alarm a lot on lots of devices, but since he is messing around with the shot timer at the range anyway, he always remembers.

You can buy a shot timer for maybe $120, or there are shot timer apps for some smartphones. I have the Surefire (flashlights) timer app on my phone, but I usually use the real shot timer because I think it's easier to use. The app is handy to have because it's always with me.

It would be a good way to try some things out if you don't have a timer.