Bill Wilson’s 5×5 Skills Test and Bill Drill II

Bill Wilson, the man behind the greatness that is Wilson Combat, is credited with having created the original Bill Drill. It was, and really still is, a staple drill of the shooting community. The original Bill Drill consist of drawing and firing 6 rounds at an 8″ target from 7 yards.

The original Bill Drill was created eons ago, and Bill Wilson has since updated his take on the drill with what he calls the Bill Drill II. It consist of the following:

Target	8” circle
Distance	7 Yards
Start Pos.	Holstered, hands relaxed at sides
String 1	Draw and engage target with 1 round
String 2	Draw and engage target with 2 rounds
String 3	Draw and engage target with 3 rounds
String 4	Draw and engage target with 4 rounds
String 5	Draw and engage target with 5 rounds
Scoring	Excellent = or < 12 sec, Very Good= or < 14 sec, Good= or <16 sec

It is almost like a test version of Mike Seeklander’s progression drill. I decided to give the drill a go shooting a Taurus 605 from an IWB holster under a polo shirt. My results were not spectacular, just under 16 seconds total, but it gives me a starting point to measure continued skill improvement off of.

More interesting to me is Bill Wilson’s 5×5 Skills Test. I feel this is the more comprehensive test, while still maintaining a relatively low round count.

Target	IDPA
Distance	10 Yards
Start Pos.	Holstered, hands relaxed at sides
String 1	Draw and engage target with 5 rounds
String 2	Draw and engage target with 5 rounds SHO
String 3	Draw and engage target with 5 rounds, reload from slide lock and fire 5 more rounds.
String 4	Draw and engage target with 4 rounds to the body and 1 round to the head.
Scoring	GM < 15 sec, M < 20 sec, Ex <25 sec, SS <32 sec, MM <41, Nov  <50 sec

I was running the same gun, a Taurus 605, and from the same holster. I decided to use a speed strip from a front pocket for my reload. My total time for the drill was 39.53 seconds. My reload time with the speed strip was 11.07 seconds. I think I can improve that time significantly if I switch to using a speedloader for the reload and spend a little more time with the revolver in dryfire. My splits were all over .50 seconds and that is simply too slow.

What I like about this drill is it gives me a standard I can apply to almost to any handgun and use to compare to other handguns. When I get a chance I will run the drill with a Glock 22 and see how the two compare. I anticipate being able to drop under 25 seconds with a G22, and maybe knock on the door of 20.