The Bill Drill is six rounds fired from the holster into the A-zone of a USPSA target at 7 yards, and a run only counts when all six hits land in the zone. It is the most widely used benchmark in practical shooting for one reason: it isolates the two skills that decide almost every fast string of fire, your grip and your ability to track the sights through recoil.
A good Bill Drill time is not about a fast trigger finger. Shooters who clamp the gun with a consistent master grip watch the front sight or dot rise and fall in the same window on every shot, and the trigger simply breaks each time the sight settles. Shooters who grip inconsistently spray the gun around the zone and have to wait for the sights to wander back. The timer exposes the difference within one session.
Timer runs prep and par beeps for each step.
True 8-inch circle with a 1" center ring. The standard scoring zone for Bill Drills, failure drills, and C-zone stand-in work.
Load and holster. Stand at 7 yards facing a USPSA target. On the beep, draw and fire six rounds into the A-zone as fast as you can confirm your sights.
Draw on the beep and run all six rounds in one continuous string. Watch the sights lift and return through every shot; the run only counts if all six land in the A-zone.
Cue: Grip wins. Clamp the gun consistently and let the sights tell you when to press.
Score the target. Six A-zone hits is a clean run; anything outside means slow down until accuracy returns. Log your time and repeat for six total strings.
Score six A-zone hits or the run does not count. There is no partial credit; a 1.8-second run with one C-zone hit is a failed rep, and the correct response is to slow down about ten percent, not to accept the miss.
Record the total time from beep to sixth shot. Splits between shots should be roughly even; a clean run with one long gap usually means you lost the sights mid-string and had to recover.
| Level | Standard | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | Clean run under 5.00s | Ignore the clock until all six shots stay in the A-zone on demand. |
| Intermediate | Clean run under 3.00s | The traditional standard for a solid practical shooter. |
| Advanced | Clean run under 2.00s | Requires a sub-1.0s draw and roughly 0.20s splits. |
| Master | Clean run under 1.50s | GM territory. Top USPSA shooters have run the drill in the 1.5s range in competition. |
The drill is credited to Bill Wilson, the founder of Wilson Combat and an early competitor in practical pistol shooting during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Rob Leatham gave it the name, calling the six-shot string a Bill Drill after watching Wilson run it in practice.
Some histories float other candidates for the original Bill, including Bill Jordan and Bill Rogers, but the Wilson and Leatham account is the one told by the people who were there, and the drill's structure matches Wilson's IPSC-era training focus: accountable hits delivered at maximum sustainable speed.
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