I wanted to title this:
Hey, My Steel Target Has a Hole In It!
but I thought better of it.
---------------------------------------------------------------
In the last year, I've spent more time behind rifles than pistols. I also got into reloading two years ago.
These two interests, rifle shooting and reloading my own rifle rounds led me to want to shoot farther out and with greater accuracy.
One of my highlights of the year, shooting wise, was a trip to INGO member 42769vette's farm and the opportunity to shoot at 700 yards!
https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/general_firearms_discussion/206008-aar_long_distance_shooting_with_42769vette_and_que.html
However, I am normally limited to 200 yards at my property, so I opted to put smaller and smaller targets around the place to provide increasing difficulty. Last November I built a set of steel targets across the pond from my deck.
https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/general_firearms_discussion/180685-built_a_6_position_steel_target_stand.html
The smallest targets on that stand are 4". That's 2.9 MOA at 132 yards.
The targets are mounted using a 1/2" bolt hole, so getting the steel target much smaller becomes a problem.
I contacted ZbornacSVT, owner of Bobcat Steel (Bobcat Steel - INGunOwners) and asked if he would cut a 12" round target with a 2" circle cut out of the center. Being the helpful person he is, he said "sure"!
I'm not sure if this is the right terminology, but I've been calling this steel target a 'negative' target because if you don't hear a 'ding' then you've hit the hole. (Assuming you didn't miss it altogether!
) TopShot did a version of this requiring the participants to shoot through the center of compact disks.
I received the negative target today due to the thoughtfulness of INGO member Noisy Cricket. She was in the area and dropped the target off!
Here is the new target on the existing steel target stand.
The center hole is exactly 2" in diameter. At 132 yards, that is 1.45 MOA.
Well, today was a gorgeous day and I had a long list of things I didn't want to do, so I decided to try out the new target!
I shoot from my deck toward this target stand. Here's a picture showing its location. The next pic shows what it looks like from the deck.
I shot prone using a bag and shooters mat. The rifle is a Remington 700 BDL chambered in .223 Rem. I was feeding it reloads I built for it. They are fire-formed Lake City cases filled with Benchmark powder and tipped with 55 grain Hornady V-Max bullets. The rounds are loaded long; just a few thousandths off the lands.
I took a few sighting shots at the 12" square and the 4" circle. Then I shot 5 rounds at the negative target.
In the picture, you can see the one hit I had on steel. The other 4 went through the hole!
The dark spots in the upper left portion of the target are patches of scale from the steel manufacturing. It appears that the fragments from the one hit or the hits on the target to the right scoured the slightly higher spots removing the paint.
In this very close-up view, you may be able to make out some of the places where the other rounds went through the rubber mat material. The hole you see is one of a series of mounting holes in the target straps. I didn't hit all my other shots in such a small area. (I wish!)
I decided to try my Savage .22 bolt gun using CCI Subsonic rounds.
I took many sighting shots and just wasn't getting consistent placement of the hits.
I went ahead and shot the negative target five times. Unfortunately, I heard 'ding' four times. Only one went through the hole.
I'm very pleased with this training target. It is a real turn-around...rather than wanting to hear the ding, the ding is bad.
Being Bobcat Steel in AR500 material means it will probably outlast me!
The one drawback I can see from this design is that you have to trust your shooting buddies when they claim to have hit the center when there is no 'ding'. They could easily just shoot wide. Depending on how much you trust your friends, you can always slide a piece of cardboard in behind the target without telling them!
We don't want to let shooting become like golf...a game where the ball lies poorly and the player well!
Hey, My Steel Target Has a Hole In It!
but I thought better of it.
---------------------------------------------------------------
In the last year, I've spent more time behind rifles than pistols. I also got into reloading two years ago.
These two interests, rifle shooting and reloading my own rifle rounds led me to want to shoot farther out and with greater accuracy.
One of my highlights of the year, shooting wise, was a trip to INGO member 42769vette's farm and the opportunity to shoot at 700 yards!
https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/general_firearms_discussion/206008-aar_long_distance_shooting_with_42769vette_and_que.html
However, I am normally limited to 200 yards at my property, so I opted to put smaller and smaller targets around the place to provide increasing difficulty. Last November I built a set of steel targets across the pond from my deck.
https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/general_firearms_discussion/180685-built_a_6_position_steel_target_stand.html
The smallest targets on that stand are 4". That's 2.9 MOA at 132 yards.
The targets are mounted using a 1/2" bolt hole, so getting the steel target much smaller becomes a problem.
I contacted ZbornacSVT, owner of Bobcat Steel (Bobcat Steel - INGunOwners) and asked if he would cut a 12" round target with a 2" circle cut out of the center. Being the helpful person he is, he said "sure"!
I'm not sure if this is the right terminology, but I've been calling this steel target a 'negative' target because if you don't hear a 'ding' then you've hit the hole. (Assuming you didn't miss it altogether!
) TopShot did a version of this requiring the participants to shoot through the center of compact disks. I received the negative target today due to the thoughtfulness of INGO member Noisy Cricket. She was in the area and dropped the target off!
Here is the new target on the existing steel target stand.
The center hole is exactly 2" in diameter. At 132 yards, that is 1.45 MOA.
Well, today was a gorgeous day and I had a long list of things I didn't want to do, so I decided to try out the new target!
I shoot from my deck toward this target stand. Here's a picture showing its location. The next pic shows what it looks like from the deck.
I shot prone using a bag and shooters mat. The rifle is a Remington 700 BDL chambered in .223 Rem. I was feeding it reloads I built for it. They are fire-formed Lake City cases filled with Benchmark powder and tipped with 55 grain Hornady V-Max bullets. The rounds are loaded long; just a few thousandths off the lands.
I took a few sighting shots at the 12" square and the 4" circle. Then I shot 5 rounds at the negative target.
In the picture, you can see the one hit I had on steel. The other 4 went through the hole!
The dark spots in the upper left portion of the target are patches of scale from the steel manufacturing. It appears that the fragments from the one hit or the hits on the target to the right scoured the slightly higher spots removing the paint.
In this very close-up view, you may be able to make out some of the places where the other rounds went through the rubber mat material. The hole you see is one of a series of mounting holes in the target straps. I didn't hit all my other shots in such a small area. (I wish!)
I decided to try my Savage .22 bolt gun using CCI Subsonic rounds.
I took many sighting shots and just wasn't getting consistent placement of the hits.
I went ahead and shot the negative target five times. Unfortunately, I heard 'ding' four times. Only one went through the hole.
I'm very pleased with this training target. It is a real turn-around...rather than wanting to hear the ding, the ding is bad.
Being Bobcat Steel in AR500 material means it will probably outlast me!
The one drawback I can see from this design is that you have to trust your shooting buddies when they claim to have hit the center when there is no 'ding'. They could easily just shoot wide. Depending on how much you trust your friends, you can always slide a piece of cardboard in behind the target without telling them!
We don't want to let shooting become like golf...a game where the ball lies poorly and the player well!
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