Many serious shooters are familiar with the classic 700 Aggregate test, otherwise known as “The Humbler.” Several authors and instructors have written about it and posted their results. It was my friend Justin who reminded me about it recently, and I spent a lot of time reading up on it and the tips for shooting it.
The classic “Humbler” was popularized by Larry Vickers and has origins with handgun training at Delta. It involves 70 total shots fired on B8 targets at 25 yards using a variety of timing standards, positions, and draws. You use the standard scoring rings of the B8 to determine your points per stage. It’s not too dissimilar from timing in bullseye shooting with slow fire, timed fire, and rapid fire stages. The difference is that you repeat these timings over several iterations.
Once your pistol fundamentals are squared away, I highly suggest giving this test a try. Aim for an aggregate score of at least 560 across all 11 stages.
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The Modified Humbler
Lesser known is a variation that Larry himself put together and used for his training courses. He made a short post about it in 2019 on social media, and I’ve seen far less discussion about it. This version uses a different scoring system and shortens the distance to account for a variety of handguns rather than the accurized and highly-tuned 1911s Delta was famous for. It also only uses 60 shots instead of 70.
Setting Up & Scoring
The Modified Humbler takes place at 15 yards rather than 25. You still use B8 targets for the entire thing, and you’ll probably want three or so of them to swap in. B8 centers also work well for this if that’s all you have.
Rather than using the point value of the scoring rings, Larry suggested a much simpler system:
- In the 5.5″ black is -0 points
- Out of the black but inside the 7 ring (11″) is -1 point
- Any hit outside of the 7 ring but on paper is -3 points
- Any hit off paper is -5
Execution
The Modified Humbler otherwise follows the same procedure as the standard humbler, except that you drop the last two prone stages, making the total round count 60.
Here’s the stage breakout (again, everything is at 15 yards):
| Stage | Task | Rds | Execution / Starting Position | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slow Fire | 10 | Freestyle (Two Hands). Focus on precision. | 10 Min |
| 2 | Timed Fire | 10 | From Holster; freestyle. (2 strings of 5). | 20s (x2) |
| 3 | Rapid Fire | 10 | From Holster; freestyle. (2 strings of 5). | 10s (x2) |
| 4 | Slow Fire | 5 | Strong Hand Only | 5 Min |
| 5 | Timed Fire | 5 | From Holster; Strong Hand Only. | 20s |
| 6 | Rapid Fire | 5 | From Holster; Strong Hand Only. | 10s |
| 7 | Slow Fire | 5 | Weak Hand Only | 5 Min |
| 8 | Slow Fire | 5 | Kneeling | 5 Min |
| 9 | Timed Fire | 5 | Start Standing; draw and drop to kneeling on buzzer. | 20s |
Example of Scoring
Let’s assume you ran this drill and scored 54 hits in the black, 2 within the 7 ring but outside the black, 2 on paper but outside the 7 ring, and 1 off paper entirely.
That’s (-1 × 2) + (-3 × 2) + (-5 × 1) = -13
Alternate Scoring
Larry also suggested using the standard scoring rings if you’d like. That means adding up your points out of 600 total. This is a bit harder to do, so I suggest getting good with the standard scoring first.
Goals and Benchmarks
If using the -0/-1/-3/-5 scoring, your goal should be to drop no more than 10 points total.
If using the scoring ring point aggregate, your goal should be better than 480 points.
Regardless of the benchmark, this is a great way to periodically see where you’re at and identify where you can improve. Run the drill cold without any warmup or training ahead of time and see what stages you lose the most points with. Then work on those stages specifically with more practice, dry fire, and repetitions.
