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50 Yard Target?

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When benching the rifle for load development, what’r yall using for a target at 50 yard?

The bright orange pasties warsh out in my experience. Anybody can recommend a mite better seein target for shootin’ out yonder?

-Smokey
 
The bright orange pasters come in a variety of sizes. I use a "grid" target with a 2in orange paster in the center for definition. The grid gives windage and elevation data and the guy spotting can call the shot like a grid system. Say I'm at about 4oclock and 3in out, that's +3,-3. The shot with the X through it would be at +1/2,+1
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I cut a large “V” letter from black paper. 4” tall with the “legs” 5/8” wide and staple it to a brown paper bag on the target stand. Aim at the base of the V and see the “wings” above. Really helps me center.
 
When benching the rifle for load development, what’r yall using for a target at 50 yard?

The bright orange pasties warsh out in my experience. Anybody can recommend a mite better seein target for shootin’ out yonder?

-Smokey

Good morning Smokey. For quite some time I've been using a squirt of black spray paint on a piece of cardboard. If I get the right size, the front sight bead will cover it up and leave a small black ring visible around the outside. Now I've discovered I can print 1 inch grid on a standard sheet of paper, so now I will use that for the center with the two or 3 inch black spot in the middle, and stapled the whole thing to a 3' x 3' piece of cardboard so that when I miss the 8.5 x 11 paper for some reason, I will know where it went. I discovered some years ago that I needed that backup cardboard for all of my experimenting targets was all my rifles. It even keeps my grandsons from missing the entire target.
Squint
 
I use a big plus sign type of cross made of 1" blue painter's tape on cardboard or a reversed target. For easy repeatability I can then hold the back sight level on the cross leg and line up the front sight on the vertical leg. It is easy to see at 50yds.
 
I've used dave951's target style for decades for all of my rifle shooting and my club also uses this style at its sighting-in shoots. We also put a similar target on the bench and have the spotter move a coin on the target to match the location of the last shot for the shooter to look at, saves confusion for both spotter and shooter. A lone shooter, without a spotter can find this useful as well.
 
This is my favorite target. Especially for shooting groups. it is not overly "busy" like some targets.

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The large square offers 4 distinct points of aim (the four corners of the big square) with horizontal and lateral lines to prevent the shooter from canting. Shooting at a corner creates a point that focuses everything to it. On this target I rarely aim for the center.
This target works well for all types of shooting and is especially nice for scoped guns and load testing.

I now make my own that is very similar consisting of a smaller orange square on a solid white background.
 
The advantage I see in using the grid is being able to quantify error and group size while looking through the spotting scope. Targets without the grid don't allow that. With that information known, do the math, it's easy to know how far to move the sights.

Back when I competed in IMHSA, we had a dry erase board with the target outline and the spotter could show on the target picture where the hit occurred so the shooter could adjust accordingly. Same thing is used in current rifle metallic silhouette competition.
 
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Our range has the orange grid target seen above

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I use black squares they also have to cover the centers to give my old eyes more contrast for aiming.

I also like just a magic marker cross centered on copy paper with a blacked out circle or diamond in the center for an aiming point. Use a size you can see. They are cheap and easily made.
 
I use a 6" paper plate from the dollar store with a red sticker in the middle of it. (red sticky dot that I put on).
 
Go to http://mytargets.com and take your pick. I like the simple grid one for sighting in, but use some of the others at times.
Me too, print mine out on standard letter size copy paper, hang 3 or 4 at a time.
I like to use several of these, from simple bull to the 1" grid (for those "others")
If I can't hit that at 50 yards, I need to fix something. (Me or the gun)
For longer range, I hang a B-27 ( I have a few hundred still from my LTC classes I used to teach)
 
White printer paper with a 1 1/2'' circle drawn with a black magic marker and a 6 o'clock hold. My accuracy took a major leap when I went to the 6 o'clock hold.
 
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