"El Pres" & Target Stands

"El Presidente" IPSC Classifier

"El Presidente", a shooting drill created by Col. Jeff Cooper some fifty-ish years ago, is still part of IPSC, as a classifier stage.  It consists of two rounds on three targets spaced 1-3 yards apart (depending on the sport), a magazine reload, then two rounds again on each of the three targets. Par is getting all 12 rounds on the "A" zone of the target, in 10 seconds or less.  See the diagram at right (hat tip: Handguns Magazine).

Ol' Backwoods is dry-fire and live-fire practicing the "El Pres" these days to try to become a better pistol shooter.  It has all the elements required to be a better shooter: sight (re) alignment, trigger control, and magazine reloads.

The drill is shot left-to-right, then reload, then left-to-right again, with 2 rounds on each target as it is passed.  Watch the video of champion shooter Max Michel doing the drill, first at Grand Master speed, then at C-class shooter speed.  The latter is more like Ol' Backwoods' speed!

To be able to shoot the drill at the outdoor range, or on private country land, I'm building 3 target stands, like this one:

To build one of these target stands, you'll need:

• About 12' of 1-1/2" Schedule 40 PVC pipe; the longest pieces are the uprights, at about 20" long;
• (4) 1-1/2" Schedule 40 PVC Tees;
• (1) 8' 2"x2" lumber, cut in half.   Actually, these are around 1.5" square, and are small enough with some trimming to fit tightly in the PVC Tees.
• (4)  1-1/2" Schedule 40 PVC 90-degree elbows, to use as "feet"
• PVC cement, screws
• Masonite (which I used) or cardboard backing, so cheap paper practice targets can be used.

I've recently gotten Ben Stoeger's dry-fire book, and have been listening to Triangle Tactical Podcast a lot.  Luke from Triangle Tactical is an acquaintance of mine, from my GRNC days.

Happy shooting!