Editor’s Note: This article is a special contribution by competitive shooter Caleb Giddings. Giddings has worked for years in the firearms industry and is well-known for winning three challenges as part of the History Channel’s shooting competition show Top Shot.
Do you want a simple, straightforward skills assessment drill that allows you to compare your times to an established database of highly skilled shooters? Then have I got good news for you – the IDPA 5×5 Drill is the perfect choice for you. Originally created by legendary gunsmith and competition shooter Bill Wilson, the 5×5 drill now serves as IDPA’s short-form classifier, allowing match directors to get shooters classified quickly and efficiently.
Setting up the IDPA 5×5 Drill
Set up for the drill is super easy. You need a single target and 10 yards of distance. It can be shot on an indoor single lane range so long as that range allows holster draws, or any outdoor range. For target selection you should use an IDPA target, but you can set this up and shoot in on any “action shooting” type target, so long as it has a lower scoring zone and a head box. Despite this being the IDPA classifier, concealment is not required. To shoot it, you’ll need a belt, holster, mag or speed loader pouch, and one spare magazine or speed loader. It’s broken down into 4 strings of fire, which we’ll go over now.
First String: Draw and fire 5 shots at the lower down zero zone.
String 2: Draw and fire 5 shots strong hand only at the lower down zero zone.
Third String: With 5 rounds loaded in the gun, draw and fire 5 shots and the lower down zero zone, reload from slide lock and fire 5 more shots at the lower down zero zone.
String 4: Draw and fire 4 shots at the lower scoring zone and 1 shot at the upper scoring zone (head box).
Your score is the sum of the time of all four individual strings, plus any penalties for points down. The 8 inch circle in the lower scoring zone and 4 inch circle in the upper scoring zone add zero seconds. The larger area, what USPSA shooters would think of as the C-zone, adds 1 second per hit there. The D-zone adds 3 seconds per hit, and misses add 5 seconds.
Strategies for Success on the IDPA 5×5 Drill
Caleb, the author, reloading while shooting the 5×5.
This drill is deceptively easy. Because it’s so straight forward, shooters can fall into the trap of thinking that they can just hose the drill and they’ll be able to get a good score. But there are two traps built into this drill:
1) the distance, and
2) IDPA’s scoring system.
If the 5×5 was shot at 7 yards, it would be much easier. For comparison, I’ve shot it at 7 and saw my scores improve by 20% when compared to my times at 10 yards. Those three yards may not seem like much, but they’re significant. To put it in mathematical terms, at 10 yards an 8 inch circle is exactly 76.4 MOA. At 7 yards that same circle is 109.1 MOA, which is more than 40% larger in terms of available target area. That’s significant.
Lots of shooters get used to working at 7 yards, so that small distance change to 10 on the 5×5 drill can trip them up. The other thing that catches them off guard is the IDPA scoring system. Remember, in IDPA a single bullet out of the down zero area will cost you an entire second in penalties. The consequence of that is when shooting the classifier, there is almost no margin for error. You really can’t afford to drop more than 2-3 points on the whole 25 round course.
String 1: Draw and Fire 5 – all to lower scoring area
This is a straightforward string of fire. Treat it like a slowed down bill drill for best results, and you’ll be fine. The most important thing is because you’re firing five shots in a row is to make sure your grip is rock solid before you break the first shot. If we’re trying for a Carry Optics Master time, you want to be around 2.00-2.50 seconds clean for this.
String 2: Draw and Fire 5, strong hand only – all to lower scoring area
For me, the biggest trick here is not shanking my first shot. If I connect with that one, I find that the remaining four follow up shots basically all go right where I want them without issues. I’ll give myself more time on that first shot to make sure my sight picture is good as well. A generous goal time for this is in the 4-5 second range. 2.00 first shot and four 0.50 splits gets you 4 seconds.
String 3: Draw, fire 5, reload shoot 5 – all to lower scoring area
This is my favorite string of fire because it’s the longest, but it’s also where the most things can go wrong as a result of that. You have to keep your brain locked in over 10 consecutive rounds, which can be challenging for some people. I like to break this one down to 2.5 seconds for the first five shots, a 2 second reload, then 1 second (0.25 splits) for the last four shots. That puts the total time at 5.5 seconds.
String 4: Draw and fire 4 shots to the lower scoring zone and 1 to the upper scoring zone.
The final string ads a vertical transition to the 4 inch head circle in the IDPA target. At 10 yards I find it’s especially important to pump the brakes every so slightly on that transition and make sure I see a really clean sight picture before I rip that head shot. I can’t count the number of times I’ve just bumped the gun up into the target’s head and ripped the trigger hoping for the best. Hope isn’t a plan.
A reasonable time for this in my opinion is around 3 seconds.
Determining Your Classification
Alright, let’s add up those hypothetical times, assuming you’re shooting the most popular division, carry optics.
- String One: 2.50
- Second String: 4.00
- String Three: 5.5
- String Four: 3.00
Total Time: 15.00.
That’s good enough for Master Class in every division except PCC. It also demonstrates my point that if you’re going for Master Class, you can’t really drop more than 2-3 points and still have success. Shooting a 15 raw time in Carry Optics means if you drop 3 points you’re still good…but if you drop that fourth shot you’re now bumped down.
Hopefully, this article will get you out to the range and shooting! The IDPA 5×5 Drill is fun, simple to set up, and straightforward to shoot, and gives you a solid benchmark to measure yourself against other shooters.
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