It worked out pretty well.
Shots to COM (center of mass) that go a little high and either left or right land outside the bottle. There is about an inch of bottle and then you’re into the grey or even off the “torso” altogether. It’s realistic but definitely makes the penalty for such misses higher than you would get on an IPSC or IDPA target.
Like all paper targets, it can be tough to tell the difference between bullet holes and pasted holes when there is strong backlight. It was more an occasional annoyance than an actual problem, but somewhere down the road a cardboard version may be worth exploring.
In addition to all the obvious drills, we shot 3-Two-1 and Dot Torture using the pistol-training.com target. Of course, it’s purpose built for the F.A.S.T., too.
Not knowing how many targets we would go through in a class, there were a couple hundred left over afterwards. Most of the students grabbed a handful. So either they’re pretty good targets, or shooters like free stuff. Hrmmmm…
(note that the number “1” in the 3×5 head box and the “4” in the large center circle were drawn in and are not part of the target design)
Thanks to Tamara K. of View From The Porch for the great pic!
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
nice.
you mentioned you were going to go narrower than the normal 2ft wide for paper targets didn’t you? (too lazy to sort through messages right now). if so, why? if not, ignore this message.
cardboard targets would be great for indoors with returning targets. I know one of the complaints at the new Fed range up here is the paper targets getting wrinkled as they are sent out, and peoples scores being affected due to targets not all being all the same (yeah they whine more than IPSC shooters if you can believe it).
Cardboard would be worth a premium. Futzing with big sheets of paper in the wind here is always a PITA.
Robbie — Switched to the 20″ wide target so it wouldn’t have as much wasted white space hanging off the side when mounted to IDPA/IPSC-size target stands.
Josh — The key is to get a full sized backer. If you staple the paper to the backer, you get the stability of cardboard but the flexibility, portability, and lower price of paper. For example, we never had to change the cardboard backers during the entire Indy class, but probably used about 12-15 paper targets per student.
Todd – This is random, but when I opened the site today and saw the pic my first thought was, “Wow, this guy got a new camera”. Super Sharp. Must be cannon! She did a great job. You should upgrade 🙂
I’m always setting up stands/backers/targets from scratch anyway so paper targets are just an extra step over the cardboard version, but your comments certainly make the most sense especially in the context of your usage. They look like great practice targets with lots of functionality.
Stephen,
The camera is actually an old Nikon Coolpix 990 that’s a hand-me-down from Oleg Volk, so it automatically takes great pics of shooty stuff. 😀
I haven’t been following the target development thread closely, so please forgive any ignorance. Is this design, exclusive of the extras, basically: shots in the “bottle” are good, shots in the torso circle and smaller, horizontal rectangle in the head are ideal (sort of equivalent to IPSC A zone)? Do you find them more anatomically useful than some of the others? If there is already an explanation on the site, I would be glad for a link.
sirhcton — The bottle is a basic FBI/IALEFI “Q” target. The center circle and head box are what I would consider truly useful hits on a human target. The placement of those zones is specifically intended to habituate shooters to make shots to the upper torso and ocular window.
and strangely enough the target has a 6 pack. hmm he must work out a lot.
Dang I want the version with the 1 and 4 written in those are sweeet