The El Presidente Drill: How to Run It, Par Times & How to Score It (2026)

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0800

The El Presidente in 60 seconds (BLUF)

What it is: Face uprange at 10 yards, turn on the beep, draw, fire two rounds on each of three targets, reload, and fire two more on each — 12 rounds total against the clock.

Who made it: Jeff Cooper, who built it to gauge pistol proficiency for a South American presidential security detail — hence “El Presidente,” or “El Prez” for short.

What’s a good time? The classic benchmark is a clean run in 10 seconds (all 12 in the A-zone). Solid club shooters break 8s, and top competitors run it in the 5–6 second range.

Why it’s the decathlon of drills: One run tests your turn, draw, target transitions, splits, a full reload, and recoil control — no single skill can hide.

Train it anywhere: The turn, draw, transitions and reload are all pattern skills. Run par-time reps with an airsoft pistol or dry fire on a free Airsoft Shot Timer app between range trips.

Ask a room full of shooters to name one pistol drill and more of them will say “El Presidente” than anything else. It’s been on range programs for fifty years, it shows up in USPSA classifiers, and it’s the first thing a lot of instructors reach for when they want to see whether a new student can actually run a gun rather than just shoot groups off a bench. If the Bill Drill is the honest test of your grip, the El Prez is the honest test of everything else.

El Prez on Airsoft Shot Timer

The El Presidente Drill: How to Run It, Par Times & How to Score It (2026)