One of the best perks of becoming a Rangemaster-certified instructor and diving into firearms instruction is the network you join. Through that network, I met and became friends with Jim Shanahan, owner and chief instructor of Advanced Performance Shooting. I also had the chance to attend his live-fire block at TacCon 25, where I first encountered his “Helluva Little Drill.” I mentioned this drill in my TacCon 25 after-action report, but it’s worth revisiting in detail, especially since I’ve been exploring it recently.

The Course of Fire

Target: Anything works—a five-inch square, a two-inch circle, a B-8, or even a playing card. Just define the hit zone before you start.

Distance: 3–5 yards

Start Position: Holstered

Procedure: Draw, fire 1 round freestyle, fire 1 round strong-hand only, fire 1 round weak-hand only, fire 1 round mirror-image freestyle, fire 1 round weak-hand only, fire 1 round strong-hand only, fire 1 round freestyle.

Par Time: None

Scoring: Pass (all hits within the target boundary) or fail.

For a visual, check out the YouTube video of me shooting the drill at TacCon 25:

Thoughts on the Drill

At first glance, this drill might seem easy. No par time, no high-speed gun handling, and close distances—hardly the stuff of viral shooting videos. But don’t be fooled; it’s far from easy. Simple? Not even that.

The drill’s purpose is to refine and ingrain fundamental marksmanship processes. Done right, you’ll punch a seven-leaf clover—a single ragged hole—into the target at the prescribed distance. If you’ve ever tried a cloverleaf drill, you know that’s no small feat. It’s tempting to fixate on the result (that perfect hole) instead of the processes needed to get there, but that’s where the challenge lies.

If you don’t know Jim Shanahan, you might not know he’s a grip guy. His focus on grip is evident when he teaches this drill, emphasizing processes like his “TWA” approach for the two-handed grip (used in the first and final shots). TWA stands for trap, wrap, and anchor. Trap: Index the support hand’s contact point with the trigger guard to “trap” the gun. Wrap: Envelop the strong hand with the support hand. Anchor: Adjust the elbows’ rotational position to create grip pressure tailored to the gun and shooter. That’s a lot of process just for the grip.

And that’s not all. Every shot involves additional processes: aiming, trigger control, even breathing. Since we can only consciously focus on one thing at a time, these processes either happen sequentially or run subconsciously in parallel. If they’re not executed correctly—often because you’re obsessing over the result—you won’t get that seven-leaf clover within the target boundary.

This deceptively tough drill is a fantastic tool for polishing marksmanship fundamentals.

Relative Difficulty

With no par time, this drill shares a problem with the NRA Basic Pistol Qualification we covered a few months ago: it’s impossible to calculate relative difficulty. The math requires dividing by the par time, and with no time limit, you’re dividing by infinity, yielding a 0% difficulty rating. That’s nonsense—this drill is far from zero difficulty, and it’s definitely not as easy as the NRA’s five-leaf clover.

To give this drill a difficulty framework (sorry, Jim, this might give you heartburn), I’ll suggest some par times to gauge your ability to execute its processes. I’ll work backward from an estimated USPSA Grand Master (GM) speed, adjusting for the unprescribed target and variable distance.

Let’s use a B-8 target, specifically its 10-ring (5.5″ diameter), at 5 yards. This approximates a 7.7″ target at 7 yards, close enough to use 8″ A-zone GM performance data (from Karl Rehn and John Daub’s book Strategies and Standards for Defensive Handgun Training) for estimation:

• Draw to first shot: 1 second (1.3 seconds from concealment)
• Two-handed split time: 0.2 seconds
• One-handed split time: 0.4 seconds
• Two-to-one-hand grip transition: 0.2 seconds
• Strong-to-weak-hand grip transition: 0.4 seconds

This gives a GM speed par time of 4.6 seconds (1 + 0.2 + 0.4 + 0.4 + 0.4 + 0.2 + 0.2 + 0.2 + 0.4 + 0.4 + 0.4 + 0.2 + 0.2) or 4.9 seconds from concealment.

Using the difficulty categories from the  the first post of this series, here are suggested par times (rounded to the nearest 0.1 second):

• Expert (75%): 6.2 seconds (6.6 seconds from concealment)
• Hard (60%): 7.7 seconds (8.2 seconds from concealment)
• Normal (40%): 11.5 seconds (12.3 seconds from concealment)
• Easy (2%): 230 seconds (245 seconds from concealment)

To stay true to Jim’s intent, don’t obsess over these par times. If you want to measure performance while focusing on process, use a timer without a par time stop signal. Compare your time to these benchmarks to gauge your skill, but remember: this is a pass/fail drill. A single hit outside the 10-ring means you fail, so stay focused on the process.

Closing Thoughts

Jim’s Helluva Little Drill lacks the John Wick razzle-dazzle, but I love it. One-handed shooting is often an afterthought, and mirror-handed work? Most shooters only care when an injury forces it or when instructors work with opposite-handed students. This drill is a rare gem for honing these neglected fundamentals.

It’s also a great dry-fire drill (yes, even with a dead trigger after the first shot). It forced me to refine my strong-to-weak-hand transitions—a detail I rarely considered because it’s so infrequent in matches or qualifications. Mediocre transitions often suffice, but this drill demanded I examine and improve that process. The practice itself isn’t thrilling, but getting better at it is pretty darn satisfying.

Bottom line: Jim’s Helluva Little Drill is interesting and worth trying. It shines at refining less-practiced processes and executing a sequence of varied tasks—key for solving complex shooting problems with accuracy at speed.