Target suggestions

[Bazoo]

I need targets for rifle work. I don't have a printer so that's not an option for me. I save paper plates for targets but they don't work so well at 100 yards. I like ez2c targets but they are expensive. Anything else out there?

[rancher1913]

clay pidgins

[Wild Bill 7]

Make your own shoot and see targets. Put a piece of paper (any color) on a cardboard. Cover it with clear packing tape and spray with flat black paint. Walmart has paint for $1.00 each. This is not my idea and I don't want credit for this cause someone else thought this up. It works pretty good also.

[richhodg66]

I use paper plates. Wal Mart's party favor section has 6' and 9' diameters in just about any color you could want. I buy and shoot a lot of the black, 6' diameter ones at 100 yards practicing from field positions.

Why don't paper plates work for you at 100 yards?

[richhodg66]

Make your own shoot and see targets. Put a piece of paper (any color) on a cardboard. Cover it with clear packing tape and spray with flat black paint. Walmart has paint for $1.00 each. This is not my idea and I don't want credit for this cause someone else thought this up. It works pretty good also.

A guy at the range I go to sometimes was showing me this once, actually worked very well. He said get whatever color construction paper suits you, cover it with the cheapest clear shipping tape you can find and then spray it with the cheapest spray paint you can find. I was surprised how visible the bullet holes were on a pistol range.

[Bazoo]

Paper plates don't work for me because they don't offer a small enough point of aim at 70-100 yards. Least I think that's it. Maybe it's because they are white and I can't see them as well to keep a consistent sight picture. I have some targets with a black 6" center that work better.

I like paper targets that have some extra room so that if my group is not on the bullseye, I can still keep the target for reference. I've been using a combo of things but I prefer paper targets I can save in a binder for reference.

[country gent]

I have made rubber stamps to make targets with. Not hard to do you need a dividers a exacto knife can be mounted in. The thread adjustable are nice and for accuracy add a lock nut to the inside. Cut a wood disk and glue a 1/8"-1/4" piece of soft rubber to it. Use the dividers to cut 3/32" rings the size you want. cut and pull out the ring leaving a 3/32 gap in the rubber. make a handle for the back. Spray with paint or dip in and press into paper on a flat surface. I used a piece of 1x8 maple cut round and cut it round by hand laying it out with the divider. glued the rubber on with contact cement and let cure over night. Cut the rings so the black bands were 1" with a 3/32" white ring between them. a flat pan and a thin layer of paint in it. I used a roll of brown construction wrapping paper that was 3' wide cut at 3'X2' 2 targets could be put on each sheet easily with room between them.

In a flat work bench set the pad of pre cut paper. set the paint pan close and with the stamp you can make a bunch of targets quickly. Not the shoot and sees but a nice target

[Smoke4320]

A sheet of printer paper and a 1" orange stickon dot. Cheap and works great

[Bazoo]

Thanks for the ideas and replies.

[bikerbeans]

Metal gong hanging on chains. You know immediately if you hit it and it is reusable if your not shooting a 30mm cannon.

BB

[bmortell]

I like decent sized packs of orange sticker targets, if im going no money I grab a marker and paper then use different sized rolls of tape to trace rings for a bullseye. for example trace the inside of electrical tape, then the outside, then inside of duct tape. or some combination like that. could also grab a straight edge and make a vertical and horizontal line and you got a fairly professional looking target.

[Tom W.]

I get small stick on dots at the teachers supply store, and a pack of paper plates from the dollar store. Years ago I got a bunch free from Remington, but I finally used them up.

I didn't buy the foam plates because the paper plates will decompose, at least the little shreds that fall to the ground. I always police my targets when I'm finished shooting unless someone asks if they may have it.

[Conditor22]

holographic smiley faces at the dollar tree stuck to the center of their colored plates or a plain piece of paper.

I also use their colored construction paper covered with clear shelf liners then painted.-- cut to whatever size target you want. = Shoot-n-see targets.

My Costco pizza comes on a round piece of cardboard.--smiley dot in the middle and -- I'm good to go.

or a compass, a marker, and a ruler

these are DIy shoot-n-see
https://i.imgur.com/cIg6jE3.jpg

[Reverend Al]

Since you don't have a printer another option since it sounds like you still want to use conventional paper targets is to go online where there are scads of free to download paper target options, save the style of targets you like the looks of, then take the file on a flashdrive to any local printing company (Staples, etc.) and print as many as you want. If you print in black and white and not colour the cost is very reasonable, and there are no copyright issues since they were freely available targets in the public domain.

[daengmei]

I work at a print plant...I got so much sticky back to choose from(always some scrap). I like the green best. Cut 1" strips and stick to cardboard. Even the wood stakes are from work scrap.

[Stephen Cohen]

I have used a set of cheap cup cake trays to cast plaster targets, use food colouring if needed and you can cast a little wire into mix to tie them up with, very reactive and easy to make. Regards Stephen

[40-82 hiker]

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. Stick-on dots work well, but they are limited in choices of size. I've used the spray paint through the template before, and it works. Just a suggestion...

[Bazoo]

Good suggestions thanks all. I do have a few pieces of steel I shoot when I'm working on field positions after I've got a load worked to my satisfaction.

40-82 hiker, dunno why I didn't think of that, I have some pieces of packing paper about 30" square that would work well with painted dots.

Strips of construction paper glued to a sheet of typing paper might help with my aiming.

[toallmy]

I keep magic markers , thumb tacks , and a assortment of little sticky pads in a box ready to go shooting all the time .

[bosterr]

I made stencils of various diamonds and circles from cardboard and used cereal boxes for the stencil. I use to buy cheap Walmart spray paint but the nozzle clogs way before the paint is used up so I buy Rustoleum instead. Mostly I use card stock printer paper for the target but the regular copier paper works too.

[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 (https://www.go2gbo.com/forums/56-hand-loading-rifles-handguns-sponsored-diamond-k-brass/296274-targets-post-your-favorite-here.html)

[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.

[Bazoo]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll try some different things and figure out what works for me with my sights and distance, I don't so much have problems with my eyes, but I have problems with certain combinations.

I have some old plywood for backing. I use pushpins most of the time to attach targets. Although I have stapled and taped them up. Used cardboard often, till I sacraficed an old piece of plywood.

[country gent]

For testing with a scope I like a square aiming point, around 3" at 100 yds. I bracket a corner of the square in the crosshairs and zero so group is high above aiming point. This gives 4 aiming points and group areas. Bracketing the corner in the cross hairs is easy to see the same, putting the group high holes don't change the aiming points. Learned this from an old bench rest shooter

[BudRow]

I use cheap white paper plates and put a black spot in the middle using black liquid shoe polish. I comes in a squeezable bottle with a round sponge applicator. I can make hundreds in 10 or 15 minutes and sponge cleans up with water. I shoot mostly open sight milsurps at 50 yrds. 68 year old eyes.

[WRideout]

As a certified cheapskate, I like to salvage everything I can find discarded. At the range I frequent, there are generally a large number of shoot-n-see targets in the trash, most with very few holes in them. Some of them even had the orange and black pasters still on the border. After reviving said targets by using the pasters provided, I found that I needed a lot more black ones. So the targets with many holes, still have large areas of black on them. The entire black portion of the target can be peeled away, and cut up into small pieces to cover a hole, or multiple holes. When I have a significant size hole torn in the target I am salvaging, I have used a large patch from a discard target on the back, and then cover the front with a piece cut to just cover the holes. The glue to glue effect tends to keep them together better.

At this point, I have saved enough targets I can scarcely use them all.

Wayne

[NyFirefighter357]

I've heard of Pizza places that have targets printed on the box so they can be used as targets.

[Bazoo]

I dont have any ranges to visit here, but thanks for the comment Wayne.

[2wheelDuke]

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.

That's my favorite, especially with a scoped rifle and a spotting scope. I can also get by with a magic marker on the graph paper, just fill in squares until the aiming point is of the desired size.

I need a bigger target for iron sights. I can't even see a 1" or less square at 100 yards with my naked eyes anymore.

[KCSO]

Make target dots from masking tape, blue works good just cut some out and paste on your paper plate. For serious target work I print up hollow 1 inch squares on a sheet of paper. The center of the square left white and sized to suit the power of your scope. Hold your cross hairs centered in the white, like a peep sight.

[OS OK]

A little time invested on a day off will provide you with targets for a month or two of regular practice...


https://youtu.be/9bM0ZiyLeVE

https://i.imgur.com/PLzJxX3.jpg

[country gent]

A testing target I like for iron sight with a front post is a black triangle inverted point down , Align sites and the front post at the point centered or pushed up to where each corner of the blade is just touching the edges. The plus to this is the distance doesn't matter as the point always tapers to a point. I usually make them about 8" on each leg.

[WheelgunConvert]

As a certified cheapskate, I like to salvage everything I can find discarded. At the range I frequent, there are generally a large number of shoot-n-see targets in the trash, most with very few holes in them. Some of them even had the orange and black pasters still on the border. After reviving said targets by using the pasters provided, I found that I needed a lot more black ones. So the targets with many holes, still have large areas of black on them. The entire black portion of the target can be peeled away, and cut up into small pieces to cover a hole, or multiple holes. When I have a significant size hole torn in the target I am salvaging, I have used a large patch from a discard target on the back, and then cover the front with a piece cut to just cover the holes. The glue to glue effect tends to keep them together better.

At this point, I have saved enough targets I can scarcely use them all.

Wayne

This one will get used. Thank You!
Bevan

[JSnover]

https://www.midwayusa.com/s?userSearchQuery=target+pasters&uac=true&userItemsPerPage=48
Pasties. Any kind you like and they're cheap. I've used spray paint, tape, etc. but I find these are quick, clean, easy; slap'em on your paper plates or whatever and hang'em up.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I use red or green printer paper cut into varying size squares, taped/stapled/glued to heavy cardboard backer. For more contrast, I will use a white backing, stapled to the cardboard. Also use various red, green white 'dots' to cover bullet holes. Amazon carries many different colors, sizes of adhesive dots to cover bullet holes or use as targets. I cut 4'x8' fiber siding board(black on one side) into target boards, use roll of white butcher paper, red and green squares of printer paper for most load sevelopment and practice. Easy to see bullet holes in the red or green.

[woodbutcher]

:D At one time or another I have used probably all of the above suggestions.But my favorite when younger was Necco wafers and animal crackers.No clean up either.Hey,the bugs and birds have to eat too.Used these out to 50 yds or so with iron sights,or up to 100 yards with a scope.Used these with all calibers that I shot.From Daisy BB gun up to 30-06.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[daengmei]

Bazoo I'm sending a pm.

[EDG]

Why don't you eliminate a lot of the stipulations that keep you from using a common sense choice.
Shop in the local Craig's list for a printer or get a friend to print a target. Then take your targets to a copy machine and make copies or just print more off your printer. I guarantee you can often find a printer for less than $50 and possibly as little as $20. I know because I have done it.
Find a small CPA office - they often have older printers that still work they will give you. I am currently using an older high volume office quality printer that I got for carrying off. The owner had 2 more that he wanted me to carry off too.


I need targets for rifle work. I don't have a printer so that's not an option for me. I save paper plates for targets but they don't work so well at 100 yards. I like ez2c targets but they are expensive. Anything else out there?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Computer Printer:
I believe most all public libraries have computers with internet access, and they surely have printers connected. I use the local public library for my printing needs (20¢ per page), because my needs don't rise to the level of the cost of owning and maintaining a printer.

Back in the Day, my supervisory electrical factory job (that ended in 2003) was mostly office work. Lots of paperwork. I'd save/recycle used office paper, as one side was still blank. After hours (with permission), I copy targets onto this 8.5x11 used paper. I still have some of those target...and it's been 16 years since I made those free targets.

These days, as I am retired,
I go to the local printing shop, luckily my small town (Glencoe) still has one. They have a closeout shelf. Many times, they sell reams of Card stock for a few dollars each. I buy them, and have them run them through their super duty copier at a reduced price, since they are using paper I already bought from them. So for less than 10¢ each, I get some super nice 8.5" x 11" targets on colored paper that is similar thickness to a business card.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

A guy at the range I go to sometimes was showing me this once, actually worked very well. He said get whatever color construction paper suits you, cover it with the cheapest clear shipping tape you can find and then spray it with the cheapest spray paint you can find. I was surprised how visible the bullet holes were on a pistol range.

Now this is a neat idea...I'm gonna have to steal it

[Bazoo]

I don't know why I didn't really consider getting a printer. At one time i had access to a work sanctioned xerox machine and I used to print a few here and there and they added up. I do have a friend with a printer, but I haven't talked to them bout it yet. I might could get them to run off some if I bought the next ink refill.

.20 each would get expensive quick.

[6bg6ga]

holographic smiley faces at the dollar tree stuck to the center of their colored plates or a plain piece of paper.

I also use their colored construction paper covered with clear shelf liners then painted.-- cut to whatever size target you want. = Shoot-n-see targets.

My Costco pizza comes on a round piece of cardboard.--smiley dot in the middle and -- I'm good to go.

or a compass, a marker, and a ruler

these are DIy shoot-n-see
https://i.imgur.com/cIg6jE3.jpg

Nice targets

[Ramson222]

You could steal them from the local gun store, I did that once by accident went back into pay and was told to keep them. The guy ringing up my stuff forgot to add them.

I just buy Birchwood Casey Shoot-N-C 6-Inch, https://www.amazon.com/Birchwood-Casey-Shoot-N-C-6-Inch-Target/dp/B000GX80WQ?ref_=Oct_RAsinC_Ajax_3413711_4&pf_rd_r=S5Z8TMA76NCYNWNRB3Q6&pf_rd_p=0bd2e030-cd55-5e52-a8dd-46d352bded90&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-6&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=3413711&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I get 3 uses which brings the price down to .08 cents. I either stick them to foam board or poster board from dollar tree. after 3 uses i have spent something like .30 a target. IMO .30 for a target you can actually see at 100yrd isn't too bad. Also the targets can often be pealed of latter and stuck into a note book for reference.