Drills are important tools for developing our skills as a shooter: they help build fundamentals, expose mistakes, and measure our current levels of competency. And, they’re just a lot of fun to shoot. Given the immense number of drills available, I thought I would do a series of posts discussing some of my favorite drills, either ones that I use now or ones that were helpful to me when I started defensive shooting and concealed carry.
This time, let’s discuss one of the most ubiquitous shooting drills of all time: the Bill Drill.
The Bill Drill
By Bill Wilson
At 7 yards, from concealment, draw and fire 6 rounds to an 8″ circle.
The Details
A simple drill that has been used for decades to assess general shooting abilities, the Bill Drill is easy to understand, quick to run, and often infuriating. In other words, a great drill.
When Bill Wilson devised the Bill Drill, getting all hits in 3.0 seconds was considered the mark of a great shooter. As the state of the arts of defensive and competitive shooting have progressed, a sub-2.0 second Bill Drill is now the goal for a great run at the drill. I’m not at that level yet, but I can consistently produce sub-2.5-second Bills. The 3.0-second mark has now become the general standard for a good shooter, while a 5.0-second Bill Drill shows competency as a foundation for growth. As with most drills, though, the real point is to pursue improvement in your performance over time. No matter how fast or slow you may be, just shoot the drill and then address the issues it reveals.
And what issues might be revealed? Well, a slow draw will have a huge impact on your time right out of the gate. If it takes you 3 seconds to draw the pistol and fire one shot, you’ll have a hard time completing the Bill Drill in less than 3 seconds. At the same time, if you’re not comfortable shooting quickly and it takes you 1 second to fire each shot, you’ll have a hard time completing the drill in less than 5 seconds. And of course, the point is not just to draw and fire 6 rounds, but to get all hits as quickly as possible. Hitting an 8″ circle from 7 yards is not a difficult task, but getting those hits as absolutely quickly as possible will reveal all kinds of visual-confirmation issues and sloppy trigger work. Over-confirming your sights will waste time, while disruptive trigger presses and over-driving the pistol out of recoil will throw shots outside the target.
One of the best things about the Bill Drill is that it demands both speed and accuracy. Many shooters want to pick one or the other at any given time, but in a defensive situation, you will absolutely want as much of both as you can get. The Bill Drill will push you to find both.
Variations
As with most all drills, you can adjust the Bill Drill as needed or desired. The official version is shot at 7 yards, but it’s helpful to run the drill at all different yardages, from 3 yds out to 25 yds. Obviously, the standard will change, but you will see different issues emerge at different distances. Of course, you can also change the number of rounds fired depending on what skills you’d like to emphasize. There’s also the Split Bill Drill, which is 4 to the body and 2 to the head on a full-size silhouette, or you can set up 2 or 3 targets and split the six shots evenly between them if you want to include target transitions. And if you want to focus just on recoil mitigation, sight tracking, grip, etc., you can eliminate the draw and start from low ready or aimed in.
Parting Shots
No matter what your skill level is, give the Bill Drill a try. Put in your best run and let that be your baseline. From there, pay attention to what the drill is telling you, and work to get your time down and accuracy up little by little. It’s not the only drill you’ll ever need or want, but it is a useful one that can help push you to improve your speed and accuracy.
Train for both.
