Favorite target setup?

[professorharry]

I would like to hear about your favorite target setups, frames, stands and sizes.
I am a newly activated old shooter, in the old days just coke cans did well. (and the occasional starling if I was out of sight of grandma).
These days I shoot at a national forest range, nice 100 yrd backstop and shooting benches. I shoot a 317 2 1/2 inch barrel .22 so everything is very close range. I see every sort of target out there from cans/paper targets/cardboard boxes/2x4's/various produce (pumpkins are popular lately).
I have tried Walmart paper targets which are fine but I like to go thru 500 rounds in a practice session so the targets get so shredded it is hard to identify hits unless I go thru ALOT of targets.
I have been shooting Newbold Hang Tuff targets lately on a softwood frame, no nails. These are great targets, thousands of hits before you wear them out. They flip up when you hit them so hits are easy to identify. But recently a Rangemaster (out there on high traffic days) told me the Hang Tuff is not safe to shoot closer than 25 yrds. He is of the opinion that the round could deflect down and then ricochet back off the ground. Newbold has lots of info on how the rounds pass right thru the targets. Anyway I am not going to argue the point with any Rangemaster, if it is a safety issue even just in his mind I am not one to argue.
But my sight radius is so short it doesn't make sense to practice anything farther than 10yds max.
Anybody have a favorite close range target setup for lots of rounds?

 

[professorharry]

I would like to hear about your favorite target setups, frames, stands and sizes.
I am a newly activated old shooter, in the old days just coke cans did well. (and the occasional starling if I was out of sight of grandma).
These days I shoot at a national forest range, nice 100 yrd backstop and shooting benches. I shoot a 317 2 1/2 inch barrel .22 so everything is very close range. I see every sort of target out there from cans/paper targets/cardboard boxes/2x4's/various produce (pumpkins are popular lately).
I have tried Walmart paper targets which are fine but I like to go thru 500 rounds in a practice session so the targets get so shredded it is hard to identify hits unless I go thru ALOT of targets.
I have been shooting Newbold Hang Tuff targets lately on a softwood frame, no nails. These are great targets, thousands of hits before you wear them out. They flip up when you hit them so hits are easy to identify. But recently a Rangemaster (out there on high traffic days) told me the Hang Tuff is not safe to shoot closer than 25 yrds. He is of the opinion that the round could deflect down and then ricochet back off the ground. Newbold has lots of info on how the rounds pass right thru the targets. Anyway I am not going to argue the point with any Rangemaster, if it is a safety issue even just in his mind I am not one to argue.
But my sight radius is so short it doesn't make sense to practice anything farther than 10yds max.
Anybody have a favorite close range target setup for lots of rounds?

 

[ol timer]

Ice cubes are just about free, you know when you hit them, they won't attract flys like rotting fruit and there is no clean-up. The only drawback is the slower you shoot, the smaller your target.

 

[5Wire]

Here's what I've been using. Right Click (Control Click 0n Mac) to save to your computer. The sheet size was exactly 8-1/2 x 11 when the images were uploaded. you may have to scale them down for printing.

These are all NRA B3 size rings adapted:

 

[panamajack310]

I prefer the B21,27 targets that are the human silhouette. I can see my kill shots on them...For target practice I prefer numeral targets that are 5 circles that are numbered and small for accuracy training.

 

[Jellybean]

First question, Do you have a computer? Wait, I think you do.
Second question, do you have a printer?
There are a whole bunch of free target sites on the 'net and you can find just about any kind of target face you want. There are also CDs you can get with targets on them.
Then go to an office supply store and get a heavy stock paper and print all you want. Sometimes I just go into the paint program and put a red or orange dot or square in the middle of the page and print them out.

 

[badwhale]

YEAH,
I have been saving targets in PDF and regular image files for sometime.

Midwayusa.com has some nice ones.

Just Google targets, and off you go. Be prepared to have extra black ink cartridges on hand.

 

[professorharry]

Thanks everybody. 5Wire, those targets are GREAT. Printing now and can't wait to start shredding.

 

[5Wire]

Originally posted by professorharry:
Thanks everybody. 5Wire, those targets are GREAT. Printing now and can't wait to start shredding.

Thanks, Prof. I hope they work out for you.

 

[tom turner]

Hi,

I've made my own, that I swear by.

I've discovered that a black square of the ratio of 1" per 10 yards of distance puts the perfect size black target centered and "squared" just above your perfectly aligned front and rear handgun sights.

Thus, I use homemade sheets containing five 1" squares for shooting at 10 yards, two 3" black squares on a sheet of paper for 25 yards, and a 5" black square for fifty yards.

These are perfect for red dot sighted guns too!

Sometimes I also paste a florescent orange target circle, of the same diameter, for they packs of stick on Birchwood-Casey targets. These work really great for handguns with black on black front/rear sights!

Here are a few examples when I was testing a new (for me) 1964 J frame that I'd just purchased in the fall of last year. Targets were shot at 10 and 25 yards.

I'd be glad to email the Windows Publisher files to anyone interested in printing their own.

Square targets truly allow better horizontal alignment of the sights . . . as well as perfectly centering the sights side to side too, when the square appears only slightly wider than the sights do!

Also . . .

Here's a 50 yard version, when checking my Holosight for deer season, standing/unsupported at 50 yards. Again, very easy to center a red dot in a black square. NOTE: The edges of the notebook-sized sheet of paper was cropped before I uploaded this 5" square.

ALSO, I deliberately sight 2 1/2" high at 50 yards (top of the square) so the handgun will be good for all ranges encountered out to 100 yards on the 6" kill zone of a deer. Those 300 grain hardcast flatnose bullets are accurate and really thump 'em at all ranges where one can make a humane shot:

Hope this helps,

Tom

 

[RonS]

Recently discovered something I had not thought about regarding inkjet printers and targets. Rain and snow. Took my new 1911 to the range for function and POI check and found that my targets ran in the rain.

Here is a link to a lot of online printable targets.
http://dotclue.org/targets

 

[5Wire]

Originally posted by RonS:
Recently discovered something I had not thought about regarding inkjet printers and targets. Rain and snow. Took my new 1911 to the range for function and POI check and found that my targets ran in the rain.

Here is a link to a lot of online printable targets.
http://dotclue.org/targets

LOL, Shooting at running targets!