For several years now, there has been the Kraft Drill originally posted on SnipersHide by Chris Way. The purpose of the drill is to gather data from how people shoot in various supported positions. However, the drill does have value as an analytical tool. Shooting from different supported positions is relevant to practical field shooting for hunters. The Kraft Drill allows hunters to pinpoint areas of defiency and focus practice on those positions.
The Challenge
Before we break down the benefits and drawbacks of the test, we need to look at how to shoot the drill. The Kraft Drill is based around a target that has a series of squares nested inside of each other. Each square measures a certain number of inches from corner to corner. I made my own version of the target for practice but the measurements are the same. Below is a copy of the original target.
Shooting the drill requires twelve rounds, fired at 100 yards. All shots are fired from the four most common supported shooting positions. These positions are standing, kneeling, sitting, and prone. Additionally, each subsequent shot is fired from a different position. This means that you are building a new position before every single shot. Ultimately, your score is the highest number square that your bullet is completely inside.
First Attempts
Curious, I wanted to shoot the drill and see where I could improve. I printed off a number of targets and headed to the range. In order to get the various different barricade heights needed, I used an old wooden step ladder as a support. While not the sturdiest piece of equipment, it is easy to transport. In order to keep my rifle similar to what I use hunting, I shot the drill with my B14 Hunter in 6.5 CM and used and old sock filled with rice as a shooting bag. Finally, I shot the drill three times to see how consistently I would score.
On the positive side, the test was very consistent. On the other hand, my results were less than impressive. I averaged about an 8 on the 3 targets. While shooting, I noticed that I really struggled with my consistency from the standing position. Below are my targets from my first round of shooting.
Practice
After shooting the drill, I went home and set up the same ladder in my basement on my 10 yard dry fire range. Every day I would do 10-20 minutes of dry fire practice to try to improve my results. Because my worst misses all came from the standing and kneeling positions I focused my practice almost exclusively on those positions. Also, in order to improve my technique, I watched video of how top level PRS shooters like Austin Orgain shoot these positions.
Results
After several weeks of dryfire practice I returned to the range to reshoot the drill. Standing and kneeling accuracy were much improved and I shot a 5 for the drill. With further practice and a steadier barricade I aim to lower this down to a 3, which I think is a reasonable goal for a sporter weight factory rifle. In the future I plan to slow down and shoot 4 shot strings as firing 12 rounds in rapid succession from a sporter weight barrel appeared to cause a degradation of accuracy. Of course, this could also be due to shooter fatigue.
Criticisms
On the whole, the Kraft Drill is a great tool to diagnose weaknesses in one’s positional shooting. However, after using the drill for several weeks and listening to some podcast material put out by Chris Way, there are some criticisms I must level towards the drill. Fundamentally, my criticisms are related to the design of the target itself and not the methodology of the drill.
First of all, the targets should be circles instead of squares to be more representative of angular measurement. Chris states that squares are used because they punish combining windage and elevation errors together instead of having only one ‘type’ of error. This may be partially true for PRS shooters where rifles are perfectly fit to the shooter and triggers are measured in ounces not pounds. With hunting rifles, depending on the stock design and shooters body type, aiming error is not simply an x/y vector combination.
Kraft Score Is Not MOA
Secondly, Chris postulates that if your Kraft score is a 4 you should limit yourself to shooting at 4 MOA targets or larger and not shoot farther from specific conditions. This is an overly stringent limitation for a number of reasons. First of all, just because you are an overall 4 MOA shooter does not mean you might not be more capable from prone. I have shot game standing unsupported, from which I am about a 6 MOA shooter. Using the ‘only as good as your worst position’ logic, my maximum effective range on deer is around 160 yards!
The other issue with this idea is that shooting a 4 on a Kraft Drill does not actually mean you are a 4 MOA shooter. For example, a perfectly centered 2.75 inch group could score a 4 on a Kraft drill depending on shot location. In fact, looking at surface area, the 4 square of the target has a surface area of 8 square inches. In contrast, a true 4 MOA target at 100 yards has a surface area just over 13.75 square inches. That’s over 72 percent larger!
Closing Thoughts
In summary, the Kraft Drill is an excellent tool for evaluating your positional shooting ability. Forcing the shooter to build a new position for every single shot makes the drill much more challenging. While the drill is not an accurate measure of an MOA degree of accuracy, the score itself does have value in prescribing a number to a given performance. This is useful for comparing different shooters and setting goals. I plan to continue to use the Kraft Drill in the future, particularly if I end up competing in rimfire PRS once more.