In 1865, while working as a scientific advisor for the Pope, Secchi was given the job of quantifying the clarity of the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, the Secchi disk was born.
It’s STILL used almost 160 years later for the same task!
Why?
The Secchi disk is picked up incredibly well by the human eye, even in unclear conditions…
Which is one of the major reasons it works so well as a target to improve shooting accuracy (more on that below).
It’s pretty common for the Secchi disk target (see the image below) to take you from shooting 4-8″ groups to 1-2″ groups from one mag to the next… with no change to technique.
2 Powerful Things The Secchi Disk Allows Shooters To Do Naturally That Rapidly Improves Your Shooting Accuracy (Quickly and Permanently)
1. Front Sight Shooting
Remember when I said that the Secchi disk can be seen well by the naked eye, even in unclear conditions?
When firing at a target with the Secchi design, a shooter can focus on their front site and let the target go blurry.
Thanks to the color combination and the design, the eye still knows exactly where the bullseye is, even when blurry.
This will allow you to become comfortable focusing on the front sight while using any kind of target.
2. Scopes and Red Dots
Using the Secchi target under these conditions, you’ll be able to quickly see how both stance and trigger squeeze disrupts your sight alignment.
You can baseline where you are and measure improvements, both over time and immediately.
The Secchi disk is part of of an effective and versatile self-standing dry fire target.
Besides the Secchi disk, this target allows you to do some amazing dry fire drills that will rapidly improve everything about your shooting, not just your accuracy.
Dry Fire Shooting Drill That Will Test Your Mental Limits
Here’s what you’re going to need…
1. Red, green, yellow, and blue post-its (even better – self-standing dry fire targets).
2. The free version of the SwitchedOn app or a Twister app on your phone/tablet.
3. A safe backstop and an inert training pistol or your pistol after you’ve removed ammo from the training area and temporarily rendered it inert with Dry Fire Cord or paracord.
And here’s the drill…
Set up your Self-Standing Target in front of your safe backstop OR stick your red / yellow / green / blue post-its on the backstop.
Set up the SwitchedOn app with red, yellow, green, and blue as colors.
You can set the “length” time and “delay” time however you want. I typically set the delay time to 2-3 seconds if I’m starting from a ready position.
Set up your phone/tablet so that you can see both it and your 4 targets at the same time.
Stand 6-10 feet away.
Your phone will be cycling through colors.
Hold your unloaded/inert pistol in a ready position… it could be low ready, high compressed ready, or something else.
Let’s say that the first few colors are
Red
Blue
Green
Red
Yellow
When the first color shows, say the color out loud, but don’t do anything with your pistol.
When the 2nd color shows, say the color that appears out loud while simultaneously engaging the LAST color that appeared.
So, if the first two colors were green then yellow, when yellow shows up, you’d say “yellow” while aiming at green and doing a dry fire rep.
Got that?
Then go back to your ready position and get ready for the next color to appear.
This is more challenging than it seems.
When that is easy, switch to engaging the color that appeared 2 turns prior…
So, using the above progression, when green shows, you’d say “GREEN” while simultaneously engaging the color that showed up 2 turns prior, which is red.
This is a drill that you can scale up and make however difficult you want… and trust me, this drill can get pretty intense.
It’s a great way to simultaneously practice fundamental shooting skills based on visual input, working memory, AND simultaneously speaking.
For a lot of people (myself included), speaking and hearing are two of the first areas of mental processing that drop off under stress.
This allows you to do dry fire training at-home that’s way more effective than what you can do at most ranges.
Want more drills like this that will help you build real-world skills quicker and cheaper than what’s possible with traditional live fire OR even traditional at-home dry fire training?
Of course you do… that’s why you need to check out these Self-Standing Dry Fire Targets.
They’re fun, there’s no other target like them on the market, and they come with more than 50 drills that will make at-home training more fun (and more effective) than you thought possible… all for less than the cost of a single box of range ammo.
And one of the target is the Secchi disk.
