cheap target--link
Bpyboy
http://www.sportshooter.com/improving/brownbagtarget.htm
what do you guys use for defensive handgun practice? I had been using some
with "zones" on them--ones you could clearly see. And a cop friend of mine
said one day when I came back from the range "good shooting--just better hope
your bad guy has a zone painted on him!"
Anyways, check out the link for making targets from old grocery bags. Any way
to cheaply and quickly put in some features? Perhaps a cheapo camo spray paint
job on the torso? things that will purposley confuse your eye, so you can
correct for it?
any thought on it?
Gunner
I use paper plates. Balloons are good also. Particularly if you put
one behind the other in a simulated hostage/perp setup.
If there is an old style butcher shop in your area, see if they will
sell you a roll of Butcher Paper. It runs in width from 24-36" and
the brown stuff makes great target material (particularly for shotgun
patterning)
If you live in a city, check the yellow pages for a packaging
materials distributor. The brown wrapping paper used to wrap boxes for
mailing is dirt cheap in large rolls, and its easy to make a target
frame to hold an entire roll. Simply spool of what you need, attach
the end with alligator clips, shoot as needed, cut off and pull a new
section.
Large targets are great for initial sighting in of scopes etc.
Gunner
"To be civilized is to restrain the ability to commit mayhem.
To be incapable of committing mayhem is not the mark of the civilized,
merely the domesticated." - Trefor Thomas
Bpyboy
hammering away at an aggressor, then running away or hiding, and thinking they
missed every time. Then later realizing that the attacker got nailed 3 or 4
times with solid torso shots. Maybe it's just nervous energy, or dope? But I
have shot enough large animal to know that even wounds that would seem
immediatley fatal, allowed the critter to run hundreds of yards. They don't
respond like hitting a 2 liter, or better yet, a piss warm beer! (cool as that
is to do)
That was sort of my query. I don't really WANT to know where things are
hitting, until after the shots are fired. I'm trying to develop rapid firing
skills, against opponents (as you pointed out) at various ranges.
I was thinking that I would try and set up something rather realistic, perhaps
a couple old barrels to take cover behind... Then engage the targets, practice
reloading...
then AFTER the "encounter" tally it up, and see if I would probably have been
killed or not.
I don't do particularly well with a handgun even with the big scoring zone
targets that I was using, but thought using something without the zones would
work better.
It's a problem I see in a lot of hunters too. I mean, you look at a deer (or
bear, or elk, whatever) and you see an enourmous animal. so you shoot at it.
A real sportsman/responsible hunter only sees that 2" window that slams the
animal right into the vitals (the "center of mass" for a deer is somewhere in
it's guts, from the side view--not a good shot to take)
So I wanted to try and get away from shooting at targets, and train to just
know where the center is--without a bullseye to sight on.
And as far as realism goes--pop up and things are great, but there is no real
way to REALLY simulate battle stress, real targets....
I have never been in that position, and have no idea what it must be like (an
awesome responsibility!), but my cop-freind pointed out a humongous flaw in my
practice.
I'm pretty mean too--shooting at bulls, and I get your point--it won't really
do me a damn bit of good if it comes down to it.
anyways, thanks for the insights.
John