Target suggestions

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I spray paint my steel targets white, then paint a small aiming dot with either orange or black. The impact show up well because of the splatter. Campaign signs also work well as target backers. Just clean up after the election.

[Gewehr-Guy]

The paper from feed ans seed sacks make good target backers when shooting at longer range. My problem is keeping them dry and mouse free till I use them. I need to make a set of target stamps as described by country gent, they would work work well for my intended uses.

[Land Owner]

Try this link to a wealth of targets that are printable:

Compilation (not comprehensive - but a good start) of Personal and Internet Targets

[JBinMN]

I make & use all sorts of targets, but for something for you to try that is easy to find & inexpensive is just to take a box cutter/razor knife/pocketknife and cut the large sections of cardboard flats out of beer/soda pop 12 & 24 packs. Not the smaller "edge" sides like the one for the handle.

If you are looking for a source more than you have yourself, then just go to a bar and ask them. They usually will have no issue with you having theirs.

For short distances 25 yds or less, I just use the plain side of the cardboard.

If you want to step it up you for longer distances you can step things up a bit by making your own "EZ see" targets with the colored sides of the cutout cardboard and use the packing tape & black paint.

I will add one more idea for ya for long distance & it is real good for when you are needing a larger area to shot to work on the sights/scoope to get closer to the bullseye.

The thing to get is a roll of that tannish/reddish brown looking resin paper from a local building suppler or the like. They are usually 3 ft across & I think about 50 or maybe 100 feet long. ( about the size of a roll of roofing paper(felt) or so) It is usually used to cover a floor to prevent dirt or scuffing in houses where the finish has just be done or redone, or the carpet freshly laid as a temporary surface.
Around here I think it is around $8-10 a roll.

Make a frame 3 ft x 3 ft. and nail tape staple the resin paper to the frame. put some rings on it by tracing various sized lids. put a sticker in the middle for the bullseye or any other details ya may want to add. Maybe spray paint a pattern using a template on to the paper...
Place the target out where ya want to try to sight in & blaze away.

If ya are handy & want to make one, you can make a setup that has the roll on the ground, then at the bottom you have a slot for the paper to come up thru, then another slot at the top 3 ft higher, & then you can just feed the paper up to the upper slot & fasten it with some staples or the like & then detail it/add bullseye/rings, whatever, & shoot. Then when you are done with that target, you can unfasten the top, pull the used part up, cut it off, and re fasten the top again for the next shoot.

I could go into more detail on how to make one, but I will stop now.

G'Luck! in whatever ya decide to do/use.

[WheelgunConvert]

You can make 2 torso targets from a single brown paper bag.

Simple shoot n see , heavy clear plastic (3’ unfolded @ HD/ Lowe’s) spray painted with cheap dark paint. Then a bright spot in the center. The nice thing is, keep the can of dark spray handy and you can repair the target without having to change it...sorta like shooting steel.

[popper]

Roll of butcher paper and marks-a-lot. Leftover (or dollar store) wrapping paper.

[Three44s]

I began my target series by hand and switched to Excel when it came along so it works either way, by hand or with a ‘putter.

What I do is take a standard sized sheet of white paper and form four solid black squares clustered close to each other in a form of a square in the center of the paper sheet. I adjust the white space between the four solid individual squares until it fits my black cross hairs with a bit of white paper showing around them.

Now I put my paper targets on those pesky political signs also but I built a special target stand such that the backers slide into channel iron rails so that the target can be rotated 90 degrees three times thus giving me the equivalent of four targets on one paper when I am sighted in for my obligatory 1 to 2 inches high at 100 yds.

When I am working up loads this gives me the opportunity to compare group size and shape more easily and also storage is simplified greatly. The rotation of the backer generally keeps the groups separated so there is less confusion about what hole belongs with what group. Load info is recorded on the target and this gives me a full report at a glance.

Three44s

[missionary5155]

Good morning
We have used the "upside down T" for many years.
Black marker on white paper. Or black electrical tape on white paper. All those trash letters from the mail with unused backs work great.
As the years go by we have made the inverted T a bit larger at 100. Cheap and repeatable right at the range.
Mike in Peru

[trebor44]

I have been getting my targets from the cardstock advertisements the mail person delivers. Since I have a bunch of shoot-n-see target dots I use them on the cardstock (works great for air rifles and pistols). When they are gone, rattle can paint is my next goto. Plastic jugs (water filled, liquid or frozen) with a dab of paint for the dot are always another option.

[gpidaho]

A bingo card marker from the dollar store will add target dots to printer paper. That's the cheapest way I know to make targets without a printer. Gp

[kraynky]

Contact a local construction company or Architectural firms, and ask for old outdated blueprints. The back sides are white and they typically are 24" x 36" and larger. One set of old plans may have 40-50 pages, and up. I get them here at work and use the large sheets for patterning my turkey gun, and what you need, getting a gun on paper. A package of colored markers and you'll be all set.

[Texas by God]

Last year's desktop calendars make great targets. I use paper plates, too. Just sharpie an aiming point on them or just aim at the middle. They work great for iron sights.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[Conditor22]

You can do this with the kids:
mix food coloring with water then freeze targets in plastic containers. butter, yogurt, cool whip... put them on top of your pop/water in the cooler when you go shooting - keeps your drinks cold and no clean up when you're done and they look kind of cool when you/they hit them.

Fastfood places get everything in heavy cardboard boxes. They break them down and put them in a storage area out back until a recycler picks them up. Ask the manager if you can have some.####a great place to get free moving boxes####

[edp2k]

Paper plates and use a sharpie/marker to make a center dot, use any color you please
Cheap/simple/easy.

[toallmy]

Good call on the brown corrugated cardboard for the target backer .

[Bazoo]

Thanks for the replies.

I do sharpie a dot on my paper plates, I can't see the dot though past 50 yards. I mostly use these for pistol shooting.

Part of the problem is the sights on my winchester 94. A round bead front and a round notch rear. For whatever reason, I can't get it to line up as well as the square sights on such as my marlin 60. I changed the rear sight to a marbles, and that helped a lot as it gives a finer picture. Now I'm trying to find a target that will give an easy to reproduce sight picture for load development. Part of the problem I'm finding with the paper plates is the width is not right for my distance and sights, it plays tricks on my eyes. If I paste a 6" bull on a piece of cardboard I get a lot better sight picture. Problem is finding something cheap enough.

I'm going to try a sheet of paper with a big cross on it. I made up a few lat night by cutting strips of black paper and pasting them to white printer paper.

[Kraschenbirn]

Hey Bazoo! Make a template for the size target you want. Lay that over the brown paper (bag ?) and spray the bullseye onto the paper through the template. Cheap and easy. I've used the spray paint through the template before, and it works. Just a suggestion...

+1 except I use white paper plates with whatever size bull I need stenciled on...6" plates for handgun out to 25 yds and 8" plates for 100 yds. For longer ranges with my iron-sighted BPCRs, I use 16" cardboard discs covered with plastic bag material (trash or carryout) and sprayed flat black with a 3" white target sticker added after the paint dries.

Bill

[Tom W.]

And Domino's Pizza boxes caught a lot of round balls when I shot my smokepole with my son.

[facetious]

8.5x11 graph paper with orange stickie dots. It makes easy to measure your groups quik.

I like the idea of the inverted T. I can see how it could help when shooting groups with a scope. As long as I can hang it straight so as not to cant the gun.

I like the graph paper because I can get them ready at home, write notes on them or what ever. Then I use a acordeon file folder to put them in and to carry extras just in case. At home I then use a drafting templet with different size holes to circle the groups so it is easyer to see where the center of the group is.

[Tom W.]

At the sheriff's range the backing is cardboard. We staple or tape the target to it. I also use old playing cards as targets.