anybody else do this?

[johnson1942]

about 2 months ago i had a local black smith make me a man target. i wanted to get perfect at shooting at it. set it a 20 yards from the deck. i have since shot about 500 rounds of my handloads through my several handguns and not missed the target once. im now down to about 1 second between rounds. just did 52 round this morning. that is off hand and not from a rest. i even want to get faster. if i ever need this skill i want it to be automatic. my neighbor who lives close to me is also using the target. he was slower than me but now he is catching up. i dont like to be but both of us are constant carriers as the world isnt what it once was. i even mow my large yard with one of my handguns at my hip. the road in front of me is a well traveled highway and a lot of drug guys use it to get drugs to this area. one never know when the wrong one comes into the yard. anyways i want to know if anyone else is fine tuning their shooting like i am? tell me how you are doing it.

[Lloyd Smale]

be carefull. Ive got 6 man sized chest silhouettes cut out of steal plate. I made them to hang and swing. Problem is that cast bullets can sometimes bounce back. Ive caught small pieces of lead back in my face off of them even at 25 yards.

[johnson1942]

i had mine made so it is at an angle so the bullets go into the dirt in front of the target. you are right about a straight up and down one, again built mine to avoid loosing a eye. thanks for the info as you and i can keep others who have one made from getting hurt by the target.

[tazman]

I practice at the distances I am most likely to shoot in a defensive situation. For me that is the distance from my bedroom door to the other side of the house(approximately 30 feet).
I shoot enough at longer distances out to 25 yards that I feel comfortable there if I need to be. The closer distances get the most work.
I don't normally try for speed. In my case trying for speed develops bad habits. I have found that by practicing proper technique, my speed gets faster. It just takes time to get comfortable with it.
The targets I use have a small dot in the center that I use for an aiming point. I learned a long time ago when hunting to use the smallest thing I can see on the animal as an aiming point. If you aim at the tiny spot and miss, you will almost always hit the animal somewhere close. If you aim at the animal and miss, you got nothing. Aim small, miss small.
I would suggest you paint a small circle or dot where the heart would be on your silhouette and try to hit that. When you get comfortable hitting that spot or near it consistently, you are where you need to be.
Don't worry about the speed of your second or third shot at this time. Keep practicing, the speed will come with practice and confidence.

[Mytmousemalibu]

I put lots of holes in lots of IPSC targets every week, sometimes the whole weekend filled with shooting. The targets are vaguely a squared off human upper torso and head. We shoot a lot of steel of various kinds too and its pretty common to cstch splatter off steel, even at USPSA regulated distances. I have been hit right in the stomach with a fully intact 9mm FMJ from a an AR type 9mm carbine. It hurt and left a welt but nothing more. It stings most of the time but not anything I've been too concerned about. That's why safety glasses are mandatory and a good idea.

[johnson1942]

i do paint a small yellow dot in the middle of the man target but usually shoot it away every session.since i was young ive always shot for the middle of what im aiming at. aim small, miss small. the reason im going for speed as i have the hitting down and now i want the hitting to be as fast as i can.

[Plate plinker]

Frag happens. Speed up the rounds so they splatter better.

[huntrick64]

I don't have any "man-sized" targets, but I do have a lot of AR-500 plates that hang straight down. The biggest problem with shooting steel isn't usually the angle, it is the softness of the steel. Once it gets moon craters in it from previous rounds, it is constantly throwing shrapnel back at you. AR-500 steel will not get craters. Having the target at an angle does help though, once mild steel gets cratered. Wear good glasses regardless of what you shoot at. Sounds like fun practice.

Here's a different take, if you practice at a man-sized mild-steel target with craters in it, it might be more realistic to a bad-guy shootout because they will probably be shooting back at you too!

[johnson1942]

criminal activity has increased in the last 6 month around here. gangs come through and steel anything they can get there hands on. most people are on high alert here. my close neighbor and i have a deal going.if the phone rings and it is him calling me and no one is there or me calling him and no one is there we drive as fast as we can to each others place. about 3 minutes away. you get the idea. we block the drive way so no one can get back out. then wait behind our pickups for what happens next. if it is at my place or his, there will be guns in hand on both sides of the guys inbetween. the gang lost 3 of its members about 2 months ago but they regrouped and are back prowling again. if these guys get penned in and take off across county, 4 wheelers and horses can easily catch them.

[Edward]

Sounds like a target rich area

[johnson1942]

ed, i think every where is getting target rich. its sad that so many are doing drugs and stealing for them. they are not hard to spot in the daytime, they move at night only. the irrigation pivots are a good target for them. lots of copper wire in the big electric motors on those pivots. one neighbor has a collection of fire trucks at his place. was going near there a while back and caught 3 guys by surprise looking at those fire trucks through field glasses. they took off like nuts. went and told the rancher. he moved them into a machine shed. there are lot of copper and brass on those old fire trucks. every body is arming them selves around here of late.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

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