The Best AR Drill For New Shooters

A Simple AR-15 Drill for New Shooters

New AR-15 shooters often make the mistake of attempting complicated shooting drills before they have developed solid fundamentals. Speed, movement, reloads, and unusual shooting positions may look impressive, but they can reinforce bad habits when basic skills are not already in place.

A better approach is to start with a simple accuracy drill that makes weaknesses easy to identify. This modified ragged hole drill requires very little equipment and can be practiced at most indoor or outdoor ranges.

Why New Shooters Should Start With Fundamentals

Advanced rifle drills combine several skills at once. The shooter may need to move, reload, transition between targets, manage recoil, and maintain proper sight alignment under time pressure.

When a new shooter attempts all of those tasks before mastering trigger control and stance, accuracy usually falls apart. The shooter may also repeat the same mistakes until they become difficult habits to correct.

This beginner AR-15 drill removes those extra elements. There is no movement, no reload, and no complicated target arrangement. The shooter can focus entirely on building a stable position and firing accurate shots.

Setting Up the Modified Ragged Hole Drill

Place a single target at a close to medium distance. Caleb uses a target roughly 25 feet away, but the exact distance is less important than maintaining a safe and repeatable setup.

The drill can be performed at an indoor range or an outdoor range. You do not need barriers, props, multiple targets, or a trench system.

Start from a standing position with the rifle held safely. Bring the optic into your line of sight and fire five accurate rounds.

Shoot only as quickly as you can maintain proper accuracy. For most new shooters, that will be a slow and deliberate pace.

Focus on the Basic Rifle Fundamentals

During each five-shot string, concentrate on the fundamentals.

Build a stable shooting stance. Maintain a consistent sight picture. Press the trigger smoothly without disturbing the rifle. Control recoil and allow the sights to return naturally to the target.

Shooters using a magnified optic should turn the magnification down to its lowest setting for this close-range drill.

A shot timer can be added to track improvement, but time should not be the primary goal. Accuracy comes first.

Inspect the Target and Diagnose Mistakes

After each string, inspect the target and study the group.

Look for flyers and repeated patterns. A low-left or low-right impact may indicate that the shooter is moving the rifle during the trigger press. A wide or inconsistent group may point to problems with stance, grip, sight picture, or recoil management.

Make one correction at a time. Then fire another five-shot group and compare the results.

This immediate feedback is one of the most valuable parts of the drill. It allows the shooter to identify problems before adding speed or complexity.

Practice Different Shooting Positions

Once the shooter can consistently produce accurate standing groups, the same drill can be performed from other positions.

Try the drill while kneeling or from a supported position. Each position requires the shooter to build a stable platform before pressing the trigger.

Competition stages and practical shooting situations often force shooters into unfamiliar positions. Strong fundamentals make it easier to adapt when a normal standing stance is not available.

Lessons From Action Shooting Competition

Caleb developed the idea for this video after watching first-time competitors during the Brownells Action Hero two-gun competition.

Some shooters struggled when they entered the trench stage and attempted to engage full-size steel targets from awkward positions. The targets were not especially small or distant, but weak fundamentals became more obvious when the shooters were under pressure.

A shooter who understands how to build a stable position can use walls, barriers, terrain, and other available support. A shooter who has not mastered the basics may struggle even with relatively easy targets.

Use the Same Drill for Handgun Practice

The same five-shot accuracy drill can also be used with a handgun.

Many handgun shooters carry habits they learned years ago without ever evaluating them. A simple, deliberate shooting drill makes it easier to identify problems with grip, trigger control, sight alignment, and recoil management.

Fire five careful shots, inspect the group, make a correction, and repeat the process.

Build Accuracy Before Speed

New shooters do not need complicated drills to improve. They need repeatable practice that develops good habits.

This modified ragged hole drill provides a simple way to improve AR-15 accuracy, trigger control, stance, sight picture, and recoil management. Once those fundamentals are consistent, the shooter can begin adding reloads, movement, target transitions, and time pressure.

Master the basics first. Speed and complexity can come later.