How Do DEA Dot Drills Work?

The DEA Dots are a simple target consisting of 6 dots (2 columns x 3 rows). Each dot has a number (1 through 6). See rough example below:

1 2
3 4
5 6

As far as how they are used, it's up to the imagination of the instructor or person practicing. Their versatility and simplicity make them easy to use.

Now that I've got a few spare minutes I'll answer your drills question.

Some examples of drills you could do:

1 or more shots in each dot from a set distance away from the target

Have a friend call out a few dot numbers and you have to shoot that dot the number of times of the number in the dot (3 rounds in the 3)

Cognitive drills - Someone else can call a round count and a dot number (3 in the 5) and you have to complete the drill. Make it more complex with more dots and different round counts in the same string of fire (one in the 4, five in the 2, four in the 6).

The 21 drill - One round in the #1, two in the #2, three in the #3... You should shoot 21 rounds total with no misses.

Variations on the 21 drill. Shoot it one handed. Shoot it at different distances. Shoot it faster. Shoot it transitioning between rifle and pistol between dots. Shoot it on the move. Shoot it with only your non-dominant eye.

Make up some of your own. The possibilities are endless.

One of my favorite takes on the dot drill is the 'Options for Personal Security Precision Pistol Target', which was given to me by a couple of Shay's colleagues at a Tactical Response class.

The target consists of twelve 1" dots on a letter-sized piece of paper. The drill is simply to five shots, minimum, per dot inside of each dot at 12 feet. It's a great way to get some physical evidence of just how lousy your trigger press is -- particularly after running a bunch of drills on steel or something. Everybody rolls their eyes when someone drags this drill out - but they quickly quiet down when they see that they can't clean the first dot....

Another personal favorite is David Blinder's aptly-named 'Dot Torture Drill', which it at least as humbling as the OPS drill and can be found here:


http://www.personaldefensetraining.com/showpage.php?target=dottorture.php&PHPSESSID=ae0ada1a1027f875050d0f84efbd9453

The one inch dots are not the same as the DEA Dot targets. Both are valuable though.

It's called follow-through.

In practice, one should be attaining another sight picture after every shot fired, including after the last one in each string. 1 shot, 2 sight pictures. 2 shots, 3 sight pictures.

DEA Dots target

Here are the targets:

http://www.letargets.com/html/targets1.html

Here's a discussion about them:

http://lightfighter.net/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1931084651/m/7921064462?r=7921064462#7921064462

Do we know if the DEA agent who "is the only one in the room professional enough to handle this Glock" used these targets...or were his printed with feet and legs ?

Thanks,
DFW1911

Here is one I made up from a class I took at Tac Pro. We shot it from 3 yards, putting one round into the center of each dot. Then repeat at a little more speed. When you begin to miss, you have reached your maximum speed. I always shoot a couple of these every time I go to the range. Great tune up of basic skills.

I attached a Word document and a PDF. Print em up and shoot all you like.

Here is an image of what a DEA Dot target looks like:

DEA dots

Mike Benedict (the holster guy from Talon Tactical) has a drill he uses on those targets:

You decide what distance to engage the target from. total of 12 rounds

1- On the top left dot, fire 1 shot from extended ready twice.
2- On the top right dot, draw and fire 1 shot twice.
3- On the middle row, from extended ready, fire 2 shots on left dot.
Reload and fire 2 shots on right dot.
6- On the bottom row, from ready, fire 1 shot on left dot, fire 1 shot on right dot.
7- On the bottom row, draw and fire 1 shot on right dot, fire 1 shot on left dot.

(I personally prefer to do drills like this from 5 or 7 yards or greater -- I've found that if you do them up too close, you forget to shift your focus from the threat back to the front sight before you break the shot)

Another fun drill is to do a dot target; but have different colors and/or shapes (i.e. red, blue and green dots OR triangles, squares and dots OR a combo of different shapes, colors and numbers).

You then do target discrimination drills where somebody calls out "triangles" and you shoot all the triangles. Or they may call out "Blue" and you shoot everything that is blue. Or they may call out a sequence of numbers and you follow that. It helps work on your target-to-target transition times while at the same time making your brain identify and discriminate between targets.