The Casino Drill is a 21-round, 21-second pistol test built around counting under stress. You fire an ascending count across six numbered shapes at 5 yards, one round on shape 1, two on shape 2, and so on through six on shape 6, drawing from concealment and running two reloads forced mid-sequence. The name comes from the numbers: 21 rounds, 21 seconds, loaded three magazines deep at seven rounds each.
What makes it hard is not the shooting; it is thinking with a gun in your hand. The magazines are loaded to seven, so the pistol runs empty in the middle of a shape's count and you have to reload without losing where you were. The drill trains cognitive load, target identification, and keeping an accurate shot count while your hands are busy, the mental skills that fall apart first when a shooter is rushed.
Timer runs prep and par beeps for each step.
Numbered, colored shapes for cognitive drills. Run the 21-round casino sequence or call shapes for a partner.
Load three magazines with exactly seven rounds each. Insert one and chamber a round, holster concealed, and stow the other two on your belt. Stand at 5 yards facing a target with six numbered shapes.
On the beep, draw and fire one round on shape 1, two on shape 2, three on shape 3, four on shape 4, five on shape 5, and six on shape 6, in numerical order. The gun runs empty twice inside the count, so reload wherever it locks back and pick the count up where you left off.
Cue: Say the number to yourself as you shoot it. Losing the count is the miss, not losing the sights.
Score it clean only when all 21 rounds hit their numbered shapes, each shape got the right count, and the sequence ran one through six. Add one second for each miss and each procedural error, then log your time for three total runs.
A clean Casino run means all 21 rounds landed inside their numbered shapes, every shape received exactly the count its number calls for, and the shapes were engaged in numerical order one through six. Par is 21 seconds. The standard penalty is one second added for each shot that misses a numbered shape and one second for each procedural error, such as the wrong number of rounds on a shape or engaging shapes out of sequence.
The counting errors matter as much as the hits. Firing three rounds on the four-shape, or jumping from two to four because you lost your place during a reload, is a procedural error even if every round is on paper. Score the sequence and the count first, then the hits, because losing the count is the failure mode this drill exists to expose.
| Level | Standard | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | Clean run under 30.00s | Ignore the par at first. Get all 21 rounds on the right shapes in the right order before you worry about the clock. |
| Intermediate | Clean run under 21.00s | The standard Casino par. Clean means zero misses and zero procedural errors across the full one-through-six count. |
| Advanced | Clean run under 15.00s | Requires smooth reloads under 2 seconds and no hesitation on the visual search between shapes. |
| Master | Clean run under 12.00s | Fast draw, fast transitions, near-instant target identification, and reloads that barely register in the count. |
The Casino Drill was created by Tom Givens of Rangemaster Firearms Training Services, and it is one of the best-known exercises associated with his school. Givens designed it to force students to process information rather than run a memorized script: identify the next shape, recall its number, deliver that exact count, and manage the reloads that fall wherever the seven-round magazines run dry.
It is fired on the Rangemaster DT-2A target, which carries six kindergarten-simple shapes, paired triangles, circles, and squares, each numbered one through six. Because the shapes and their numbers can be arranged differently, and because instructors often shuffle the magazine loads, no two runs demand the same reload timing or the same visual search, which is exactly the point. Any multi-shape target numbered one through six reproduces the same cognitive demand.
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