Test Your Marksmanship Skills Against the Dot Torture Drill 

I like to believe I’m a good shot. This is mostly because I’ve had opportunities to fire a whole lot more firearms and rounds than the average shooter. As part of my career, I’ve gotten to send a lot of rounds down range. 

Because of this, I spend most of my range time performing drills, outside of accuracy and performance testing. I’ve long figured I have the fundamentals, such as stance, grip, sight alignment, breath control, trigger control and follow through, down. However, every now and then I get to thinking about testing that theory. One of the best ways to do so is via the Dot Torture Drill. It has been a while since I ran this drill. 

The Dot Torture Drill 

Designed to test marksmanship, particularly trigger control, the Dot Torture is aptly named. The targets are dots and missing is torture. Developed in the 90s, this drill forces shooters to focus on the mechanics of shooting. Get in a hurry and you fail. Yank the trigger and you fail. Misalign the sights and, you get the picture. It takes a single sheet of paper with 10 dots and 50 rounds to shoot the drill. Every bullet must hit inside the 2-inch dots. A single miss is a fail. The course of fire must be shot clean to pass. Each dot has varying scenarios that include strong hand, weak hand, shifting aim and drawing from a holster. 

• Dot 1: Five shots slow fire.
• Dot 2: Draw, one shot; five times.
• Dots 3 & 4: Draw and fire one at 3 and one at 4; four times.
• Dot 5: Draw and fire five shots with strong hand.
• Dots 6 &7: Draw and fire two shot on 6 and two shots on 7; four times.
• Dot 8: Ready position and fire five shots with weak hand.
• Dots 9 &10: Draw and fire one shot on 9, perform a speed reload, fire one on 10; three times. 

This all adds up to 50 rounds fired, and a miss can be truly irritating toward the end. Even 49 perfect hits with a miss on round 50 is still a fail. Shooters start at 3 yards and shoot the course, moving back to add difficulty. 

In the Dot Torture Chamber 

After getting everything ready, I loaded five Blazer Brass rounds into my Ruger RXM, stepped off to 3 yards, aimed and pulled the trigger. The first shot was just outside the dot; fail. Figured I was just overconfident and rushing. 

I set up another 8 by 11 sheet of paper and started over, putting effort into drill. Dots 1 through 4 showed all holes inside the 2-inch circles. Strong hand on Dot 5 came out perfect as well. Loaded full for Dots 6 and 7, putting eight holes in each dot with no problems. Then, I got ready with five rounds for the weak hand from ready. Raised up, aimed and jerked the trigger for a fail on shot 40. It was a little humbling. I shot the Dot Torture Drill clean on the third try, ending the session on a win, along with a couple of ideas for being successful. 

First, know your handgun. Even a small variation of the sights can lead to a miss on a 2-inch target. Second, don’t get in a hurry. It is kind of hard for self-defense shooters to not flash sight at close range and pull the trigger. We are used to running rounds fast into center mass. That seemed to be my biggest problem. 

Abbreviated Dot Torture 

Of course, not everyone wants to fire 50 rounds every time they want to test their skills. Well, Tom Givens of Rangemaster Firearms Training Services has put out an abbreviated Dot Torture Drill that uses the same target with half the round count. He recommends shooting the drill at 5 yards. 

• Dot 1: One round from ready position; three times. 
• Dot 2: Two rounds from ready position. 
• Dots 3 & 4: One round on each from ready position; two times. 
• Dot 5: Five rounds from holster. 
• Dots 6 & 7: Two round on each from holster. 
• Dot 8: Two rounds from strong hand, ready position. 
• Dot 9: Two round from weak hand, ready position.
• Dot 10: From ready position with one round in the gun, fire one round, perform speed reload and fire two rounds. 

While running drills for controlled pairs, reloads and malfunctions are extremely important for self-defense, so is basic marksmanship. Not every scenario will require speed and force of action. There could be a time when a pinpoint shot will be required. The Dot Torture Drill prepares one for that possibility.