$10k rifle... but homemade target with Sharpie scribbles

[JimPag]

People are funny. I like the ones that bring me a $200 Savage axis and want me to put a 3k Nightforce on it so they can shoot 1000 yards.

Ya or the ones that spend 2K on a hunting rifle and put a Tasco scope on it.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Target is a target. Doesn't matter what it looks like as long as you can aim small to produce tight groups in testing

 

[ACard]

What kills me the most is that any one of us cares enough about a target someone else is shooting and not the results of their shooting or the question the OP may have had.... I cannot speak for anyone else but personally, I could not care less what target others use...

 

[Sub_Elect]

This is how I do it. Just pieces of paper on a piece of cardboard. Make notes on it large enough to see at whatever range then I can evaluate it at home and make notes for final loads on the squares that I cut out and place on the cork board in the reloading room. Can use it over and over.



I use lager targets at longer ranges obviously like below.

 

[Shawnba67]

unless you are color blind like me!

orange is useless!

Use the Grey ones!

 

[Gary in MD]

As long as the other guy is not spraying bullets over on my target then…..

 

[DiRTY DOG]

What kills me the most is that any one of us cares enough about a target someone else is shooting and not the results of their shooting or the question the OP may have had.... I cannot speak for anyone else but personally, I could not care less what target others use...

The point is, it's pretty difficult to evaluate the POA vs POI effect of load development and tuning if your POA is inconsistent due to uneven scribbled circle aiming points. Spend all that effort and money on gear and loading, then burn yourself on the target used to evaluate your gear. In the pic, the shooter spent at least $15 in components on 15 shots fired, but didn't bother to spend 5c on a printed target or heaven forbid purchase a $1 target etc.

I prefer to use small circle stickers myself but at least that way I have consistent POA for evaluation of my loads and dope.

 

[KMart]

I've seen it on the trap field. 20+k for a shotgun, piss and moan when their reloads with picked-up hull don't work!!!

I was saving up for a new MX-8!

 

[Sub_Elect]

The point is, it's pretty difficult to evaluate the POA vs POI effect of load development and tuning if your POA is inconsistent due to uneven scribbled circle aiming points. Spend all that effort and money on gear and loading, then burn yourself on the target used to evaluate your gear. In the pic, the shooter spent at least $15 in components on 15 shots fired, but didn't bother to spend 5c on a printed target or heaven forbid purchase a $1 target etc.

I prefer to use small circle stickers myself but at least that way I have consistent POA for evaluation of my loads and dope.

I figure people don’t have a better way so maybe they need to be shown.

 

[AckleymanII]

I knew many guys growing up that sighted in on knots on trees. Remington 760's in 30/06 can really chop wood. The more advanced guys would nail a paper plate on a tree and shoot at the nail.

 

[DShortt]

The point is, it's pretty difficult to evaluate the POA vs POI effect of load development and tuning if your POA is inconsistent due to uneven scribbled circle aiming points. Spend all that effort and money on gear and loading, then burn yourself on the target used to evaluate your gear. In the pic, the shooter spent at least $15 in components on 15 shots fired, but didn't bother to spend 5c on a printed target or heaven forbid purchase a $1 target etc.

I prefer to use small circle stickers myself but at least that way I have consistent POA for evaluation of my loads and dope.

I recently learned the hard way that if the target you are using to evaluate the accuracy of a load can not assist you in keeping rifle cant to a minimum then you are screwing yourself. The further from POA the POI is, the more you're screwing yourself.

Target choice matters.

I don't know how the shooter in the OPs example is evaluating anything. What is the aim point? How is rifle cant monitored unless it's a flat bottom fore end in a flat bottom rest?

This shows ignorance in my opinion. The guy doesn't know any better.

And I'll be surprised if folks don't want to burn me at a stake for saying so.

 

[BoydAllen]

For 100 yard load testing with accurate rifles and high magnification scopes.....

 

[Ledd Slinger]

I knew many guys growing up that sighted in on knots on trees. Remington 760's in 30/06 can really chop wood. The more advanced guys would nail a paper plate on a tree and shoot at the nail.

Yep. We used the paper plate targets nailed to a tree when I was a kid but made a dot with a sharpie to aim at. Worked perfectly fine

 

[Ledd Slinger]

I think the real question here is who ripped the poor guy off and conned him into spending $10k on a rifle???

I have full custom rifles with the best components money can buy...Bat actions, BnA triggers, top of the line scopes, etc...and not one of them adds up to anywhere close to $10k worth of parts and labor to put them together.

 

[DShortt]

For 100 yard load testing with accurate rifles and high magnification scopes.....

Notice there are plenty of ways to check for rifle cant on these targets. The shooter only needs to make use of them.

 

[BoydAllen]

Notice there are plenty of ways to check for rifle cant on these targets. The shooter only needs to make use of them.

Close to 40 years ago, I saw a small bore prone shooter post his target using a torpedo level. Since then that has been my practice. After the target frame is in place, I use a level to draw a reference line on the backer and align the top of the target with it.

 

[DShortt]

Even if the target is not perfectly level, being able to align the rifle with the target for every shot is essential. Those small orange dots or scribbled circles aren't going to allow you to do that.

Meticulous rifle build requirements. Meticulous reloading practices. Expensive optics. Wind flags and range finders.

Then someone sticks a paper plate out there with a circle drawn on it.

Think about that.

 

[DiffEQ]

The point is, it's pretty difficult to evaluate the POA vs POI effect of load development and tuning if your POA is inconsistent due to uneven scribbled circle aiming points.

What is the aim point? How is rifle cant monitored unless it's a flat bottom fore end in a flat bottom rest?

I've never made the time to compete, because I don't care enough about that.
However, I learned long ago, what I see and what someone else sees can be vastly different.
In the OP, I see a target with all sorts of crossing lines. All I need is that x or tiny dot.
Don't need to see the cant, or align my cross hairs with the target.
I'd ask, how many of you forget something in trips to the range? I've forgotten targets, ammo, mags, a bolt, my tools, spotting scope, load notebook & pen, etc.
However, if I get to the range (even forgot my gate ID card before), I've already burned 3-4 gallons of gas to get there, so I'm going to put trigger time in come hell or high-water.
Yeah, I've pulled more targets out of the trash than I can count, pulled staples out of other targets and driven them in with my Leatherman when I forgot my staple gun.
The struggle is real....

 

[DShortt]

I've never made the time to compete, because I don't care enough about that.
However, I learned long ago, what I see and what someone else sees can be vastly different.
In the OP, I see a target with all sorts of crossing lines. All I need is that x or tiny dot.
Don't need to see the cant, or align my cross hairs with the target.
I'd ask, how many of you forget something in trips to the range? I've forgotten targets, ammo, mags, a bolt, my tools, spotting scope, load notebook & pen, etc.
However, if I get to the range (even forgot my gate ID card before), I've already burned 3-4 gallons of gas to get there, so I'm going to put trigger time in come hell or high-water.
Yeah, I've pulled more targets out of the trash than I can count, pulled staples out of other targets and driven them in with my Leatherman when I forgot my staple gun.
The struggle is real....

I don't compete either, might consider it at some point but not right now.

My point is, I do engage in load development and accuracy testing. And I recently realized I've been making a fundamental mistake. It's common practice during accuracy testing to not shoot to POA, just evaluate POI for dispersion, or group size as it's usually referred to. If your POA and POI differ, it's critical to monitor rifle cant. The further POA and POI differ the more critical this becomes.

If you aren't concerned with group size then this doesn't matter, but I think most of us are. And a scribbled circle or colored dot won't allow you to check for cross hair alignment with your POA. So unless your using a mounted level or a benchrest stock with a wide, flat fore end and a front rest with a corresponding flat pad you have no idea how much rifle cant may be affecting your group size.

I won't beat this to death but I encourage you to test it for yourself. I think you'll be astonished if you haven't been doing so.

 

[DiffEQ]

a scribbled circle or colored dot won't allow you to check for cross hair alignment with your POA.

Yes, I have a mounted level on many of my rifles.
I am OCD about my scope being mounted square with the rifle, and go to great lengths on each one to make it so.
My "zero" at 100 is typically 1" above POA, so any cant to my rifle shows up on target as an angle. Plus, tracking tests show up funny.

I also practice "seeing" level, and it has more to do with practice and posture than anything. Visualize hanging a picture.
On an aside, it drives me nuts that my 70 y.o. house has so many walls and surfaces that aren't square. I gutted and remodeled my kitchen, and there's 1/2" ceiling difference from one end to the other. It also makes coping outside corners interesting.