Best paper target design

[Waterfish]

I've been shooting since I was old enough to hold up my dad's old Colt Woodsman Match target pistol when I was about five years old. I did a hitch in the Marines, and that training vastly improved my shooting. I am not involved in any kind of competitive shooting and all my rifles are hunting rifles, not target rifles. And I am not into reloading either. But as the average shooter goes, I do pretty good. Years ago I invented my own target that works better than any other target design I've ever seen. It's so simple I can't patent it. Maybe I've invented something that's already on the market, but I've never seen targets like the ones I make. These home made targets work at any distance with any rifle or handgun, and they work especially well when shooting or sighting in with a scope. Here is my big invention: Get a big piece of white paper and a straight edge. Now take a Magic Marker and draw a vertical line from top to bottom, right down the center of the paper. Next draw a horizontal line through the middle. What you have now is a big cross. If you are shooting pistols up close, the lines can be skinny. For long range shooting, make the lines thicker. The beauty of this is that you can better line up the front sight on the vertical line, and the rear sight on the horizontal line. With a round bulls eye target there is nothing much to line up on except to try and guess where the center is. My target is perfect for scopes because you just overlay the crosshairs over the lines on the target and squeeze off the shot. And you can tell exactly how many inches high or low, or left or right, your rifle is shooting. Last fall before elk season I went to a rifle range to sight in my rifle with a friend who belongs to a rifle range. He couldn't believe I was using homemade targets instead of the range targets. Then I shot two groups with my 7mm mag at 100 yds that were smaller than a dime. Two of the shots were touching. And the last time I had fired this rifle was the previous hunting season. When my friend saw the groups I was shooting, and I explained how overlaying the crosshairs over the cross on the paper made it so much easier, he decided to try one of my targets. Then he was an instant convert. I wish I could patent this, but how could you patent something so simple? Maybe I should have found out if those Carrot Boys on the fishing board are into hunting; and traded them this tip for their carrot juice formula... Give it a try.

[Lured In]

Waterfish....great idea, especially for sighting in as you said. Keep in mind though, I have yet to see a critter with a BIG cross on it for me to line up my sites on.

I have been making my own targets for awhile and will definitely have to give yours a shot for my first few groups. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Rauly]

Lured In

You better tape 3 or 4 of those sheets of paper together width wise and make them about 6 feet tall. You will have a better chance of hitting them. Oh, and don't move back more than 10 yards and use a shotgun. :grin:

Sounds like a good target.

Rauly

[skein]

Great idea! I help out with hunter sight-in days at our local rifle range, and that will really help the guys who just got a rifle and need to zero it in. Cheap and easy to make, too.

Thanks for sharing.

Skein

[Waterfish]

This design not only works well for initial sight in but for fine, fine tuning too. If you think about it, whether you are shooting at targets or elk, it all comes down to ballistics, (distance from rifle to target), wind, etc. Once you've compensated for those factors, when you make that final squeeze on the trigger it all comes down to horizontal and verticle. The cross design target forces you to think that way. Round bulls eye targets don't, at least not in such a direct way. Also, I think there are too many distractions on some range targets I've seen, with all those little square boxes and grids. No, animals don't have big crosses on them. In 1996 I shot a beautiful 6 x 7 Cascade Roosevelt. And another 6 x 7 in 1999. That same elk season, my son who was 13 at the time, killed a big 6 x 6 that is now the Oregon State Record Cascade Roosevelt (youth division). There is a photo on pg 91 of the Oregon Record Book (3rd edition). Last fall I shot a nice 6 x 6 Cascade Roosevelt bull. I honestly think that practicing with our home made cross targets made a difference when it came time to pull the trigger on these big bulls. By-the-way, If you've ever heard that big old bulls make tough steaks, that's no myth! Maybe I will make another post on the ways we've learned to make tough meat tender (we tried just about every method before we learned the best way). My wife keeps telling us to shoot a nice tender spike or a cow, but its hard to pass up those big bulls for a spike!

[Waterfish]

Now that hunting season is about here and people will be sighting in their rifles, I thought I would bump this to the top. If anyone sighting in their rifle tries this method, post your results and let everyone know if it made a difference compared to the standard bulls-eye type target.

[Artwo]

Waterfish,
I plan to go out and site-in in the couple weeks and will try your method. I am very anal with the sighting in of my rifle (Remington 30-06) and it has to hold a quarter size group at a hundred yards or I'm not satisfied/confident. I have finally found a over the counted shell/bullet that shoots very well in my rifle that will hold those tight groups so now I just need to do some fine tuning. I'll let your know how it goes.......

PS. How big of piece of paper do you use ?

[ 09-17-2003, 01:16 PM: Message edited by: Artwo ]

[Waterfish]

Artwo,

Paper size is usually at least 8 1/2 x 11", or whatever size I have. Often I have taken a standard range target and turned it over to use the blank side rather than the side with the bulls eye target. If your rifle is already fairly well sighted in, 8 1/2 x 11" paper would be big enough. If you are sighting in from scratch, just like with any target you will need a big enough piece of paper to see where your first shots are hitting.

[highdesertdrifter]

WF i have been doing the same thing for years. Only diffrence is i measure and mark target in i inch incriments [sp]. Verticaly and horizontaly from the center. Makes it easyer for this old guy to sight in, HD

[fish forever]

I like the idea so I found some free printable formats on the Web.

check this out:
http://www.mytargets.com/

several different formats.

shoot away
FF

[Waterfish]

Fish Forever,

That's a good target web site. The very first target is the most like my design, minus the increments and the red bull's eye. I think the 1" increment marks may be handy for measuring how far off center your shots are hitting. However, the red bull's eye would be a visual distraction and may defeat the whole theory of the crosshair design. Just the two lines crossing in the center allows you to get very precise.

[StickFish]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Waterfish:
[QB] Fish Forever,

Your idea is sound, but I'd suggest that you not use a Black Marker. Bullet holes in black lines can be difficult to locate at times.

I have my own target that I've created over the years. Simply a 1 inch grid with lines that are .04" across. The center has two circles, the bull is 1" and the outter ring is 2". I put an orange target paster in the 1" circle for 100 yards and 2" for 200/300. The pasters I use have 1/8" black diamonds on the middle and that is the aim point. The grid uses your principle of the lines for the reticle. I personally use the center diamond on the orange paster. My 22BR can get boring at times cuase the little diamond usually disappears in the 5 shot one hole groups that result. Sometimes I have to liven things up with a little peanut butter and jelly on the target and wait for the yellow jackets to find it. It is quite cute to see yellow jacket wings stuck to the paper on each side of the bullet hole :grin: