The Business Of Shooting: Getting Schooled by Eric Grauffel

Photos by Muneki Samejina

Getting lost in the mall as a kid was a traumatic experience. It wasn’t the getting lost part; it was what my mom was going to do to me when she found me. Child abuse, by today’s standards. I learned later in life that this was not normal. Other parents were so happy to see their kids. I had accepted the premise that getting lost was a punishable offense. I remember thinking it might be better to just remain lost and start a new life at 10 years old.

We have beliefs thrust upon us at early stages that become part of who we are. Revisiting these ideas and making changes can be hard. I still get a little pissed off when my kids wander off but I don’t let them see it. I don’t want to create a narrative that they have to overcome in their future life. Plus, you can’t hit kids in public anymore.

After taking a class with Eric Grauffel, I caught myself revisiting many of my shooting beliefs. Eric is arguably the best practical pistol shooter to come along in the last 20 years. He is a Frenchman, but we can’t hold that against him. He hasn’t lost a world championship since 1999. Think about everything that has changed in the world in the last 25 years. For reference, Eric has been on top longer than the current U.S. champion has been alive.

The opportunity to take a class with Grauffel doesn’t come around very often, as he’s based in Europe, so U.S. classes are fairly rare. We got lucky and secured a spot in a two-day pistol class held at Rio Salado sportsman’s range in Mesa, Arizona. With a 1,500 recommended round count, it was safe to assume this was not just a theory lecture. There might be some shots fired. The cost of progress is many reps. 

A simple question started things off: “What do you want to learn from this class?” At first this was a bit off putting. This guy hasn’t even put together a curriculum? But as we progressed it wasn’t that he wasn’t prepared, it was that he has mastered so many facets of practical shooting that he could base the class on any of those aspects. He’s developed such a comprehensive understanding that he could take us down the rabbit hole of our choosing. 

The consensus for most practical shooters is to shoot fast and don’t miss. This notion of the simplicity of practical shooting is how I spent most of my ballistic career. Keep it simple and don’t mess up — shooting was a working problem, not a thinking problem. I’ve since figured out that this is a way to survive, but not how to truly master the business of shooting. Here Grauffel differs from most. His mentality is one of a professional athlete, not just a shooter. Eric goes at the business of shooting with brainpower, instead of just strength and speed. It reminded us of formula one where everything gets tested and measured to find the fastest line.

The ideas taught by Grauffel will have you changing the narratives of practical shooting. For the sake of time and space we can only focus on a couple of these ideas that we feel had the biggest impact.

REINING IN THE HORSES

For many shooters, when the timer goes off, they lose control of their fine motor skills. The tick of the timer pressures you to focus solely on speed and nothing else. Sight picture and trigger control are an afterthought, but if you cannot rein in the horses, there is no point to any of it. 

Eric had an interesting drill to focus on the reining in of these horses. The entire class stood on the firing line. At the signal each shooter was to fire a single shot. The goal was to shoot a center hit but not to be the last one to fire a shot. If you were the last shooter or hit outside the center A-zone you had to sit out — essentially, don’t be last and make sure you hit the center zone.

This did a couple of things. It created a great sense of urgency and gave parameters that the shooter had to adhere to at the same time. The shooter not only needs to know how to break a solid shot, but to do it with the pressure of not getting knocked out of the line in front of your peers. This is a simple way of making sure you are focusing on the fundamentals at speed. 

SWITCHING GEARS

You must understand the scoring system to truly understand this concept. Hit factor is what is used to gauge a shooters performance this comes down to how many points a shooter is earning per second. A higher hit factor means you have to score more points in a shorter period of time. 

For example, in a 10-hit factor stage you should be scoring at least 10 points, or two A-zone hits on average per second. This makes speed paramount. Eric explains that in higher hit factor situations you should focus on speed and can afford to drop a couple of points outside the center A-zone. Conversely, with a lower hit factor score you must focus more on accuracy. In a five-hit factor stage, you have to score one A-zone (5 points) per second so it is important to get as many of those center hits as possible, and you can spend the extra time on the sights to get them. 

This concept is different from the way most shooters go through a course of fire. This is where shoot fast and don’t miss comes in. This idea is to just go as fast as you can and try to hit the target. Eric has taken this a step further by being able to adjust his shooting to the requirements of the course of fire. You must develop a level of control in your shooting that you can adjust to the requirements at hand. Switching gears from speed to accuracy efficiently is definitely an acquired skill. Shoot faster if speed is key but focus more on points when the hit factor is lower. Sounds simple.

Watching Grauffel shoot, it’s hard to determine when he is aiming and when he is focusing on speed as everything looks controlled and inside his ability. The numbers don’t lie, and Eric has admitted to having fired around 5 million rounds in his career. We assume you can pick up a few things with that many rounds downrange.

NO RERUNS

Simple repetition is another misconception according to Eric. While this might be good for developing basic shooting skills, in shooting groups or learning techniques it has no place in practical shooting practice. The fact is that in a match the course of fire is never the same, so your practice should reflect this. Never shoot the target array twice in practice, as you’ll never see the same array in a match. 

Conventionally, setting up a stage in a practice session usually meant shooting it as many times as it takes to get right. This is counterproductive according to Eric. This tricks your mind into thinking you’re getting better when in all actuality you are just getting to the point where you have memorized the course of fire. This is not what we’re doing in a match. You get one shot at the course of fire and there are no redos. Just like in real life.

Eric’s answer is almost to have a tactical mindset, where you’re constantly using brainpower during a stage. There is no autopilot or cruise control. You have to keep your mind working constantly. This is a very difficult way to attack a stage as it takes so much bandwidth. I got easily lost the first time I attempted this style of shooting. (I’m glad my mom wasn’t there.) 

Thousand round practice sessions were not unusual when ramping up for a big match, but this amounted to putting in so many repetitions of the same thing until you could basically put it on cruise control. 

Shooting Eric’s way will wipe you out mentally, and after a couple hundred rounds we were spent. I liken this to learning how to drive. Think back to those days when your hands were at 10 and 2 o’clock, watch the side mirrors, rear view mirror, speedometer, tachometer, the cars around you, the route your taking, ah, and you’re only going about 35 mph. After a few years, you’re driving down the highway adjusting the radio, eating a burrito, steering with your knees, and going 75 mph. It’s not simply what you are choosing to focus on but the speed in which you are processing information that has progressed. The goal is to get the shooter to highway speeds while still making sure they are making correct decisions.

RESULTS

When you try to grasp new concepts after doing things differently for years, your brain will turn to mush. There is a point when it becomes counterproductive. This is where you need to get the brain speed on the same level as the physical speed. If they are not on the same page, you are not going to have a good time or see results.

All of these concepts are predicated on something not too many novice shooters do, namely practice. Serious shooters practice. It’s a higher-level concept that most shooters don’t understand. “I use my local match as practice” or “I like to do X, Y or Z drills because they’re fun.” Shooters use these excuses instead of putting in the hard work.

Grauffel’s way of shooting is all about analytically doing what will get you the best results. Not about what feels good or looks cool, but actually collecting the most points in the least amount of time. This is the definition of the business of shooting.

This turned out to be more of a higher-level class. Being able to process information on the fly and still be as fast or faster than shooters that are on autopilot is not easy. It is a skill that has to be developed. Eric has admitted to shooting this way for decades. This puts him so far ahead of other shooters that it’s hard to see anyone catching up. It’s a numbers game and he has proven to be there time and time again. 

This is well past simplified shooting tips. These are advanced concepts that have to be understood and processed to get the real results, not to mention putting in the hard work in practice. Even then you have to put forth the effort to reach the point where these concepts will net some measurable results. You have to get to the level where you can execute the fundamentals on command. If you’re struggling to make solid hits, then these concepts will be moot. You first must learn how to shoot before you can become a great shooter. You can’t get lost and expect to not get in trouble.

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