I acquired a few 5V targets. I thought I would post pictures with ring measurements for the historically curious. I don’t remember when these were discontinued, but I think it was in the middle 60’s. I recall reading in the American Rifleman that a shooter won the Nationals by one point, but the second place shooter had 73% more V’s. I suspect it finally became obvious that the 5V target needed to be changed to the decimal NRA.
I believe these targets were developed in tandem with the 03 Springfield sights. The 03 has an extremely thin front post and these targets are just about the width of that post at distance. You typically used a 6 OC or line of white hold with the 03 post. However the 03 sights are just awful combat sights and this was recognized in the design of the Garand. The Garand had a much wider combat post. Unfortunately it is very difficult to use a wide post on the 300 yard 5V and at 500/600 yards. At long range the target is a pin point, and is hard enough to find, never mind center in the middle of a wide post. With a wide post, it is just about impossible to use a center or fat tire hold. The fine “NM” Garand and M14 posts were developed to compensate for the small 5V target. . These posts are .062” thick.
I shot on the 5V. The smaller target was used at 200 yards and 300 yards. At 200 yards the bull is close to the NRA 200 yard target and is easy to see. At 300 yards this target is hard to use as it is so small. The 500 5V is even more difficult to see.
Since the bull is 5, and the 4 ring is huge, scores at the end of the day were usually close to perfect. If you dropped a point or two you were in a position to win the match, but if you dropped three or more, you were way out of it. Usually the match winner was determined by V count.
200/300 5V
500/600 5V.
Current 600 yard NRA target above 5V
I believe these targets were developed in tandem with the 03 Springfield sights. The 03 has an extremely thin front post and these targets are just about the width of that post at distance. You typically used a 6 OC or line of white hold with the 03 post. However the 03 sights are just awful combat sights and this was recognized in the design of the Garand. The Garand had a much wider combat post. Unfortunately it is very difficult to use a wide post on the 300 yard 5V and at 500/600 yards. At long range the target is a pin point, and is hard enough to find, never mind center in the middle of a wide post. With a wide post, it is just about impossible to use a center or fat tire hold. The fine “NM” Garand and M14 posts were developed to compensate for the small 5V target. . These posts are .062” thick.
I shot on the 5V. The smaller target was used at 200 yards and 300 yards. At 200 yards the bull is close to the NRA 200 yard target and is easy to see. At 300 yards this target is hard to use as it is so small. The 500 5V is even more difficult to see.
Since the bull is 5, and the 4 ring is huge, scores at the end of the day were usually close to perfect. If you dropped a point or two you were in a position to win the match, but if you dropped three or more, you were way out of it. Usually the match winner was determined by V count.
200/300 5V
500/600 5V.
Current 600 yard NRA target above 5V
