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The whole setup seems like a Dilbert kind of thing..

Joe R

Joe R

Gold $$ Contributor
I have been shooting F-TR for almost two years and I have little historical knowledge so pardon my ignorance if my question seems silly.

From the very first time I pulled a target it was obvious to me, that punching a hole on black paper and then looking for it, seemed a little awkward. The whole setup seems like a Dilbert kind of thing. The hole is generally black on a black background, sometime the bullets are .223 or 6mm, somewhat small for the bifocal crowd/over 60 like me, and then we're supposed to give fast service to the shooters?

It seems to me that the obvious choice for target paper should be white not black. I've asked several people if they know why it is black and they all seems as clueless as I am. What am I missing here?

Joe
 
Iron sights are allowed in F class matches altho rarely used. would be hard to do with a white or blue bull . watch the target instead of BSing I am 76 and have a few friends that are around the same age we have no trouble giving good target service
 
Joe R said:
I have been shooting F-TR for almost two years and I have little historical knowledge so pardon my ignorance if my question seems silly.

From the very first time I pulled a target it was obvious to me, that punching a hole on black paper and then looking for it, seemed a little awkward. The whole setup seems like a Dilbert kind of thing. The hole is generally black on a black background, sometime the bullets are .223 or 6mm, somewhat small for the bifocal crowd/over 60 like me, and then we're supposed to give fast service to the shooters?

It seems to me that the obvious choice for target paper should be white not black. I've asked several people if they know why it is black and they all seems as clueless as I am. What am I missing here?

Joe
Click to expand...
Hey Joe! I am not a "Historian" either. However, it is my understanding that ALL of F-Class is an off-shoot of High Power or Palma matches where the "black" paper is a must for the type of sighting equipment they use. It is also my understanding that the only target change was to go to a 1/2M.O.A. "X" ring and 1 M.O.A. scoring rings. The rest is a "carry over" from High-Power shooting. I can understand why it would be easier to shoot and then see "hits" on paper if we had a light colored target. But, I think that changing something like this would take a LITERAL act of "N.R.A. "Congress" to do something like that.. Really, the only times you have a problem finding bullet holes in black paper is on the first match where many people are still getting their rifle(s) sighted-in! And the other is where you have a newer shooter who can't seem to at least stay primarily in the 9 ring or closer! But, I am not telling you anything you don't already know..
 
Target backings have more to do with the visibility of holes than the color in my opinion. Corplast has to be the worst.
 
I'm 36 with great vision and have wondered this same thing. It's not so much seeing them as it is trying to hussle for the shooter in hopes they do the same for me...this makes me miss the holes more often if that makes sense.
Not to hijack but on a related note, my rant on this...if we could ever get electronic scoring to be officially accurate enough to be approved or whatever the hold up is outside of cost, I think the sport would grow significantly. Think of how many more relays we could shoot and the amateurs like myself could spend more timing watching conditions from the mound to learn more about the wind.
Driving 2.5h each way to only shoot 40-60 rounds for a full 12h+ door to door trip is quite frustrating and hard to manage with wife and little kids.
Sorry again for the rant.
 
dsc02093-jpg.977059
I agree .kinda like this.
Click to expand...



Yeah, like mr45man said. Where on the world did you get those targets? You're a man after my own heart.

Joe
 
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The blue target is from bench rest shooting, and it makes your cross hairs really stand out.

As for those cloudy days when the F-class bull swallows the cross hairs try using your illuminated reticle. Mine works great for both F-class and hunting in low light or dark under brush.

Cheers
Jim
 
Ben,
You must be getting over the flu if you're posting again. Glad to see it buddy.
 
Joe,
One of the old timer tricks to target pulling is to watch the impact berm if there is one and figure out where an x-hit lands. Then you can correlate it to the other hits. If the next hit is a half foot out at 4 o’clock in a 1k match then start looking for the hit at 4 o’clock in the 9 ring.
 
It's the sling shooters fault. :-)
Watch the impact berm. As said above this gives you an idea where to look on the target. If you don't find it right away scan the lines and numbers. Bullet holes hide well in those. Especially when the shot is outside the black like we saw so many times in the BRUTAL conditions at Bayou Sunday.
Trust me, in a heavy mirage day at 1000 you would hate a white target with nothing but lines.
 
Wes,
You're probably right. But consider this, if the F-Class targets were white and the sling stay black we wouldn't have the problem of somebody putting on an F-Class face on a sling shooter's target and vice-a-versa. That seems to happen at least once every couple of matches.

ShootDots said:
I think that changing something like this would take a LITERAL act of "N.R.A. "Congress" to do something like that..
Click to expand...

I believe you are right. There is lots of resistance to change for the sake of tradition, and I respect that, but sometimes change happens and it is for the better, we call that progress. Look they've already changed the size of the target once for F-Class, maybe that will give the F-Class big wigs something to talk about and chew on, but it probably won't be in my lifetime.
 
Joe R said:
You're probably right. But consider this, if the F-Class targets were white and the sling stay black we wouldn't have the problem of somebody putting on an F-Class face on a sling shooter's target and vice-a-versa. That seems to happen at least once every couple of matches.
Click to expand...
That's a problem that can be solved with a plexiotomy. This coming from a guy who shot an entire 1000yd string on a 600 yd target and was wondering why his score was in the 180s?
 
Sorry to get off the original course of this thread but...
I believe that target color should be brought up for discussion further, with all powers that be. Maybe it IS time for a change. If it helps keeps shooters in the sport(s) rather than them hanging it up due to eyesight issues, it IS important. Just yesterday shot in a Smallbore F-Class league in SE Wisconsin. The targets used are NRA A-33, set at 100yds. The sky was very overcast and many shooters complained about not being able to see the 22 rimfire holes in the black target. Myself included using a 36X scope. A target with the pattern being reverse would have made all the difference. Or instead of black, blue like the image at the start of this thread. A friend and fellow shooter has decided not to participate at all in our league after trying a few times last year. Because of this same bullet hole visibility issue.
 
Before reading this thread, I swear I have never heard anyone complain about the color of the targets before.

And who is Dilbert?
 
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