The gap between a shooter's prone group and their barricade group is the honest measure of their positional skill. For most people that gap is enormous, and it is invisible until they are on the clock in front of other people.
What it measures
- How fast you can build a stable position from a standing start.
- How much precision you lose compared with prone, per position.
- Whether your errors are position-related or shooter-related.
Setup
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Prop | A barricade, a tripod, a fence rail, a pack over a rock — anything you would find in the field |
| Target | Steel sized to roughly 1.5 MOA at the distance used |
| Distance | 300–600 m. Far enough that position error dominates |
| Rounds | Two per position per pass, four positions per pass |
| Clock | Sixty seconds per position, including building it |
| Baseline | A prone group at the same distance, shot the same day |
The drill
- Shoot the prone baseline firstFive rounds, unhurried, same distance and same target. This is your reference group for the day.
- Start standing, rifle held, clock stoppedNot already in position. Building the position is most of the skill.
- Start the clock and buildRifle on the prop, body behind it, load the bipod or the bag, find natural point of aim. Check the level — cant is the error you cannot see.
- Fire two rounds within sixty secondsIf you have not fired by the buzzer, that is a zero for the position. Recording the failure is the point.
- Rotate through four positionsFor example: barricade high port, barricade low, tripod standing, pack over an obstacle. Vary them between sessions.
- Score, then repeat the whole pass twice moreThree passes gives twenty-four rounds and enough data to rank your positions.
Scoring it
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Hits ÷ rounds fired | Raw hit rate. The headline number |
| Time to first shot | Position-building speed. Track it separately |
| Hit rate by position | Which positions you are weak in — this is the actionable one |
| Positional group ÷ prone group | How much precision the position costs you |
That last ratio is the most useful and the least commonly measured. A shooter whose barricade group is three times their prone group has a position problem, however good their prone group is. A shooter at 1.5× is doing well.
Pass mark
- 80 per cent hits on a 1.5 MOA target across all positions.
- First round away inside 25 seconds from the standing start.
- Positional group under 2× prone group on your best two positions.
What actually fixes positional shooting
- Loading the prop. Weight into the barricade or bag, not just resting against it. An unloaded position moves under recoil and you lose the spot.
- Bone support over muscle. Muscle shakes and tires within seconds; a position built on skeleton holds still.
- Natural point of aim. If you are muscling the rifle onto the target, it will drift off between the last check and the break. Shift the body, not the arms.
- Level discipline. Awkward positions induce cant, and cant error grows with dialled elevation. Check the bubble every time.
- A repeatable build sequence. Same order every time so it survives adrenaline: rifle on prop, body in, load, level, natural point of aim, break.
Making it harder
- Cut the clock to 45 seconds, then 30.
- Add a movement. Ten metres of walking before the position starts.
- Unknown distance. Combine with reticle ranging so you must range from the position too.
- Weak side. One pass entirely from your non-dominant shoulder.
- Cold start. Run the drill as the first thing you do, before any warm-up.
Common mistakes
- Rebuilding between the two shots. The second round from the same position is testing whether the position held.
- Only practising positions you are good at. The drill exists to find the bad ones.
- Skipping the prone baseline. Then a windy day looks like a positional failure.
- Not logging by position. An overall hit rate hides the one position that is costing you every stage.
Log each pass separately with the position noted — the training journal's per-session notes make the by-position breakdown possible after the fact rather than requiring you to remember it.
Frequently asked
What distance should I run this at? +
Far enough that the position, not the rifle, is the limiting factor — usually 300 m and beyond. At 100 m almost any position produces hits and the drill teaches nothing.
Should I dial or hold at these distances? +
Dial elevation before the clock starts if the distance is known, and hold wind. Fumbling turrets in a sixty-second position is a different skill from building the position.
How often should I run it? +
Every second or third range session in the run-up to a match. It degrades faster than prone marksmanship because it is a physical skill rather than a knowledge one.