Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Gabe White Standards.

I read about Gabe White on the site of an author that I read. The author apparently attends 2-3 courses a year just because. Anyhow Gabe has a test he runs and hands out pins for. Since I haven't shot in a while I decided to try them.


Target: USPSA or IDPA target with 3×5 card or 4-inch circle added to the head box.

Distance: 7 yards for all drills

Starting Position: Hands at sides, hands together high in front of the torso (prayer-type position), or hands high at surrender position

Scoring: Hits in the A-zone or -0 zone receive no penalty
Hits in the B/C zones or -1 zone receive a +.25 second penalty
Hits in the D zone or -3 zone receive a +1 second penalty
A missed shot receives a +2 second penalty
Attempted head shots that land in the body count as misses
Body shots that land in the head are “lucky hits” that will be scored

Equipment: The time standards below are for open-carried non-retention gear. Concealment or duty gear with retention gets a -.25 second bonus on all drills

Bill Drill
Draw and fire six rounds to the body.
Turbo Pin Award: 2.00 seconds
Light Pin Award: 2.50 seconds
Dark Pin Award: 3.50 seconds

Failure Drill
Draw and fire two rounds to the body followed by one round to the head.
Turbo Pin Award: 1.70 seconds
Light Pin Award: 2.25 seconds
Dark Pin Award: 2.90 seconds

Immediate Incapacitation Drill
Draw and fire two rounds to the head.
Turbo Pin Award: 2.00 seconds
Light Pin Award: 2.50 seconds
Dark Pin Award: 3.00 seconds

Split Bill Drill
Draw and fire four rounds to the body followed by two rounds to the head.
Turbo Pin Award: 2.60 seconds
Light Pin Award: 3.50 seconds
Dark Pin Award: 4.70 seconds


My times were mediocre I thought. I used a P09 out of Safariland Kydex starting from the surrender position.


Bill Drill 2.66 +.25

Failure Drill 2.65

Immediate Incapacitation Drill 2.5

Split Bill Drill 3.23


I'll do it again in a couple of days.

I did some reading and apparently during the course they practice each of the drills separately and then near the end are tested on all of them doing each drill twice and taking the best time. I plan on doing some warm up next time just to see the difference between cold and warmed up.

I thought Gabe Whites standards were shot cold and at 10 yards concealed. Maybe I’m mixing it up with F.A.S.T.?

I've been shooting competitively for over 12 years, never heard of Gabe. Who is he? Or how big is the rock I'm under?

I found the standards listed in several places including a forum where Gabe White posts. I thought FAST was seven yards TBH. I haven't done FAST in under 5 seconds anyhow. I think my best on it was just under 6.

I have several drills written down that we do and I always have to re-read them as we set them up.

The hardest one for me is the devil drill. At one time or another I’ve made time on every one we’ve shot except this one.

Another one I like is the Bill Wilson CHP drill.

I don't know much about him other than what is listed on his website. He seems to be pretty popular as a concealed carry/ defensive type instructor. He posts on another forum that I browse and seems pretty well respected there.

I have a bunch of drills written down and saved on my laptop. Unfortunately I dropped it and busted the screen. I should make up a binder with document protectors for them. I have a bunch of Police quals typed up I was planning on doing.

I haven't heard of the Devil drill, I'll look it up.

The devil drill is 6 shots at 6 yards in 6 seconds from a concealed draw. Mandatory slide lock reload in there but your buddy loads your first mag with 1-5 rounds so you don’t know when you’re gonna run dry. Everything on a B8 target, one out is a fail.

It is pretty simple but I haven’t made it clean under 6 seconds yet.

I like the Bakersfield PD qual and the Federal Air Marshall drill too. The PD qual’s we run slick but we try to do everything else from concealment.

Lucky Gunner channel on YouTube has a bunch of drills on it. And there are plenty of others, Larry Vickers, Ken Hackathorn, and Kyle Lamb have various drills on the tube to watch that are excellent also. It's the internet, there is a ton of information out there if you look a little. Get a shot timer and start monitoring your progress. My son and I have been doing this for years now, bs'ing each other when we muck up and goading each other on to improve. Our shooting has improved dramatically since starting this. And, it is fun!

I bought some B8 targets just because some of the quals I've got saved use them. I've been meaning to do the Bakersfield qual and just haven't got around to it.

I did this drill 3 times today although not from concealment. I managed a 5.33 on one run where I nailed the reload the other two runs were a 6.36 and 6.45 with neither reload being particularly smooth.

I also did the Gabe White standards again and the results were okay although I didn't beat any of my previous times.

I've shot USPSA matches with Gabe. He lives in Oregon and is a very good shooter. I know he's done quite a bit of travel where he teaches. He uses appendix carry.

I managed to get under 6 running it slick but I just creep over 6 drawing from concealed IWB. Not knowing how far the first mag will go kinda throws me and when the slide locks back, I’m looking for a malfunction for a split second instead of dumping the mag and finishing.

Our match will probably be rained out this Saturday, if so I’m gonna run this one again.

Running it concealed I'd probably be around 7 seconds with an occasional 6 second run. Most of my practice is 2 or 3 rounds from the holster with some accuracy work and left handed thrown in there. I almost never do 6+ round drills.
I'll probably do all the same drills with the addition of a couple of FAST runs next time I shoot. Or maybe I'll just do a couple of runs at the LA SWAT test.

I've been looking for matches to shoot, but all the ones reasonably close want you to sign up with Practiscore. I just want show up and shoot a match.

These days most matches are on Practiscore. I think it's a good tool.

Practiscore is just a tool that ranges use to expedite the scoring process and billing process. Match scores can often be posted a few minutes after the match. With paper it can take hours to tally each shooters scores.

Yeah I understand that it's great for scoring the match. I just don't want to be bothered with setting up a Practiscore account in order to shoot a couple of matches a year.

It's worth it. Setting up an account just involves entering an email and password.

Besides easily registering it'll let you choose the squad you want. And when you check scores you can do a lot to compare yourself against other shooters stage by stage to help you progress.