load development targets

It's kinda funny how much we're willing to spend per round fired, for 3 and 5 shot groups, but go super cheap on actual targets... I'll easily spend $5-$10 in ammo shooting four groups on a single target, but hesitate going to Kinkos to pay $0.10 for copies of targets. It makes no sense. A good quality target, that you prefer, and that fits your reticle, makes it easier to shoot groups and evaluate loads. It's worth paying a few cents for a good target.

Anymore, I print my own on my laser printer using white cardstock (makes cleaner holes) unless my wife steals all the cardstock first for crafts. She always steels my roll of range masking tape too, drives me crazy. And my electrical tape. And my pocket knives... :love:

Regular printer sized paper, not commercial targets, because I keep all of my load development targets, and 8.5x11 paper easily fits in my binders unlike most store targets.
 
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I print my targets for free off the Internet now. Checkout:

www.targets.ws
www.mytargets.com
www.targetz.
220_Swift said:
I use the same sites for mine as well.
One thing I might add is I buy card stock paper when I print mine off. The thin papers don’t leave a clean hole when the bullet punches through depending on the backing board on the target frame.
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Great idea!! Never thought about using the card stock. Thanks for the tip.
 
I use to print them off and burn up ink in the process. I now just grab a permanent marker and draw a 1" square and then another square a half inch larger around it and then fill in between the 2 squares with black. I draw about a dozen to 16
..or more on on sheet of printer paper. Some people like diamonds. I like squares.

Looks like I got the originals of www.uspalma.com

I like them becuase they are so small I can cut them out and glue them in my load data books...

 
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Dultimatpredator said:
Some people like diamonds. I like squares.
Click to expand...
And I like circles:

5uEPb4l.jpg
 
I can't believe how cheap i am.....

The 1st thing i do when i walk in the shooting range is go look at all the targets hanging from the target stands rack. Then i take the best ones home, and tape the back end with cheap masking tape.

After reading this thread i have realized this is ridiculous!
 
I recently discovered PrintTargets.net and have been making free targets to print for load development and testing. It's pretty easy, you save the files as PDFs and print. Here's a few I've made so far.
20231211_123010.jpg
 
I shot Hunter Benchrest for almost 25 years, and kept virtually every target I ever shot, plus scooped up a few that people never took.

I just tape up the holes and keep using them until there's more tape than paper showing. Then I blast them with my pistols.

100 yard target:
oeWFgGW.jpg


200 yard targets are twice as big, & good for longer range playing:
8BWv82C.jpg
 
I go to wally world and get a 100 or 300 count 3x5 ruled index cards and put a 1in peal and stick orange target dot on it. Staple them to a cardboard backer and do my load development. when i find a load or loads that the gun likes I place the card in an index card box with the gun as the tab and you can write out the load data and shooting history on the card. It makes it easy to find your load data with the target for each gun. and it is cheap.
 
Heres a target I made by cutting squares in black construction paper and gluing them on a cardboard backing. I must have decided I wanted smaller centers becuase it looked like I used a marker inside them for sone reason that day. The little Orange circles were stickers used from left over “hole cover ups“ that someone left at The range. lol. these were some 100 yard load developments with Seirra 60 grain Hollow points and one Of my 243 BCA uppers.

 
I've found that my old eyes can focus better on the corner of a square aiming point w/common cross hairs than on the more common circle. I guess I bought the last of the Targ Dot squares a few years back, as I almost never found any back then and do not find them listed today.
1702400713281.jpeg

The large ones are 2" and the small ones are 1". Choose size based on power of scope and bracket lower right hand corner w/cross hairs. You can actually shoot more than one group on larger targets if you wish for comparison by choosing opposite corners as POA.

I put them on regular 8 1/2 x 11 copy paper and when developing a load, punch target and keep in 3 ring binder w/data. I always make a copy of my zero target and cut it small enough to fit in the lid of my ammo box for that particular rifle/load, making life simpler when picking up a box of ammo for specific hunt/rifle.
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If and when I run out I have a backup plan to use plain black pasters on white background (they offer the pasters in various colors) in the pattern shown below. W/standard pasters and 1/4" spacing, the resulting square is 1 3/4". You can vary the spacing to accommodate the thickness of your cross hairs for a very precise hold. Haven't actually tried this one yet, but thinking it might even be better than the Targ Dots.
1702400474901.jpeg


When forced to shoot on a round target, someone suggested bracketing the circle with your crosshair just as you would a square (vertical line on side of circle and horizontal on bottom). I found this to work better than center hold, and use the smallest dot I can see on these.

Copy paper punches clean with good backer. I mount my targets on old political signs, free for the asking after elections. Much better than cardboard and last a long time.
1702401384471.jpeg
 
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