target

If I understand your question, a B-27 target is a human silloutte. These people say 24X45 I guess you could extrapolate from there. If I can find oen I'll post the dimensions it's a good question. I like a playing card or a 3X3 post-it, aim small miss small.

9mmepiphany is about right.

It's good to start with a smaller target at 7 yards like a 1" diameter dot or a 2x2" square. Aim carefully and take you time. Pay attention to trigger control, etc.

Go to a 3x3" or 4x4" box for rapid fire and see if you can keep all shots in the box.

tipoc

I like paper plates with a 1" (or so) black dot drawn at the center. Cheap and shows bullet holes quite well.

A tennis ball hanging from a string makes a nice 7-yard target.

There really isn't a "correct" target unless you're competing/practicing for a particular event. You should be shooting a target that is challenging, when it becomes non-challenging, make it challenging again by:
# increasing distance
# increasing speed
# reducing target
# adding more targets
# etc etc

For a beginner shooter at under 10 yards, keeping your rounds on a regular sheet of paper (8.5"x11") with rapid controlled fire is a good starting goal. A 9" circle can substitute if you have a surplus of paper plates.

My eyes are 81 years old and I can't even see a 1 inch dot clearly. It's all relative and IMO you should practice with real world sizes for the siduations you might find yourself in.

The smallest paper plates you can find are a cheap target source, and you darken an area in the middle with a big felt-tip if you want something that allows more precision.

One of the problems with SMALLER targets or things like a ball hanging from a string, is that unless you've got a good backstop, you can't really tell "HOW" you're missing, when you do. That's important if you want to improve.

I would mount the paper plates on a piece of cardboard, for example.

Yes, you have to be reasonably skilled to appreciate the joys of bouncing that tennis ball around. That's a skill-maintaining fun thing to shoot, not a skill-building plan.

Or just toss your ball/can/whatever onto a dry dirt berm, if you're outside.

I save all my larger cardboard for the range, there's a punch to make holes matching the hangers at the target line mounted to the wall, and everyone brings in cardboard.
For brand-new shooters, a big expanse of clean cardboard with a large target stapled to it is an ideal first target, by the end of a session I generally have them on 9" circles or regular printer paper, for something to take home and stick on the fridge.

I'm not much of a tennis fan but...I do enjoy a good game of 45acp golf. It's amazing how far a 160gr LRNFP will smack a golf ball suspended from a string when hit dead on. I've also threatened to drill a hole in a ping pong ball and fill it with tannerite but knowing what tannerite will do I'm hesitant to rebuild my target stands until my son-in-law ventilates them a little more.

Regarding the question though: Use what ever suits your needs, keep in mind that a compact really wasn't designed to be a bullseye gun though.

I use a National Target Company B-8 RC target for all my pistol shooting, regardless of the distance. The "9" ring is black and measures 5 1/2" across, the "10" ring is black and measures 3 3/8" across, and the RED X center measures 1 1/2" across. 5,6,7,& 8 rings are white, total size of 5 ring is 19 1/2". If I can keep all my shots in the black and red at 15 yards or greater shooting off hand then I'm happy. Obviously the closer the distance the more you expect to hit the RED X or 10 ring.
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Shoot at whatever distance you can comfortably group 10MOA or less at. That's the size of the 10-ring on a bullseye target. If you can manage 10MOA groups at 7 yards, that's solid shooting. When you can manage 10MOA groups at 25 yards...you will be a Master.

I use OnTarget to calculate my group sizes from pictures and it also does MOA calculation.



Now if your only goal is self-defense, not marksmanship, then get the B27 silhouette target and put it at 7 yards and keep all your shots in the 8-or-better zones.

Okay educate me...

First what is MOA? And second what is On Target? I looked for On Target and didn't find much other than ranges.

MOA is minutes of arc, or another way of stating how big your group sizes are. 1MOA is about 1" at 100 yards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minute_of_arc

So shooting 10MOA at 25 yards is about a 5" ring. Holding all your shots inside that would be considered master-level shooting.

OnTarget is a piece of software you can use on your pictures to calculate your group sizes. Or you can just use a piece of measuring tape or whatever. http://www.ontargetshooting.com/

I just use the cheapest 8.5"x11" copy paper and Bingo dauber. One will last you a lifetime and cheaper than stickers (I use blue and purple colors) and you can paint however many dots anywhere on the target.

So shooting 10MOA at 25 yards is about a 5" ring. Holding all your shots inside that would be considered master-level shooting.

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So as not to confuse those who are new to the idea of MOA terminology, didn't you mean to say that a 10MOA group at 25 yards would be approximately a 2.5" circle?

Targetz.com has free printable pdf targets ranging from standard circles to dynamite bundles and stars and squares. They will test your abilities and help you improve your skills.

So as not to confuse those who are new to the idea of MOA terminology, didn't you mean to say that a 10MOA group at 25 yards would be approximately a 2.5" circle?

Click to expand...

yes, you are completely correct, my mistake.

http://www.indecorous.com/bullseye/moacalc.html