The Five-Draw Baseline: A Practical Protocol for Measuring Repeatable Handgun Performance

The Five-Draw Baseline is a practical field protocol developed to describe repeatable handgun performance more meaningfully than a single fastest attempt. Under one predefined starting condition, target, distance, accuracy requirement, equipment configuration, and timing method, the practitioner records five consecutive attempts without discarding unsuccessful outcomes. The protocol reports the mean time of valid attempts, fastest and slowest valid times, valid spread, and valid rate. Together, these measures describe central tendency, outcome frequency, and observed within-set variation while preserving the distinction between speed and successful task completion. This technical evidence note explains the measurement rationale behind the protocol, provides calculation and reporting procedures, identifies appropriate and inappropriate interpretations, and presents a staged roadmap for feasibility, test-retest reliability, measurement-error, rater-agreement, and validity studies. The Five-Draw Baseline is a practice-informed measurement proposal. It is not presented as a validated psychometric instrument, universal qualification standard, certification of competence, or predictor of performance during a defensive encounter. Its current purpose is to support standardized practice, transparent reporting, reproducible retesting, methodological criticism, and future empirical validation. The accompanying TMM Draw Baseline Scorecard is available at: https://www.abaintl.us/draw-baseline/