Spotting Tips For Seeing Your Hits On Paper And Steel - INSIDE MDT

"Where did it hit?" I heard the shooter ask as he opened the rifle's action and ejected an empty cartridge case. "I think it's high left," said his buddy while squinting into a spotting scope and studying a distant paper target. "But I can't tell for sure at this distance. Fire another one."

The shooter did as instructed. "How about that one?"

After a long pause, the spotter shrugged and looked away from the eyepiece. "I have no idea. It looks like we're going for a 300-yard walk."

Sound familiar? I've been on both sides of a conversation like the one above, and I've been a bystander to similar ones more times than I can count. Situations like this result in a lot of wasted time and ammunition. Both of which could be better spent than chasing invisible shots around a target.

We could ask, "What's the solution?" However, it's better to ask, "What's the problem." And the answer to that question is, "The target is the problem." You see, rifle shooters spend a lot of time fussing over their guns, scopes, and ammo but sometimes need to pay more attention to the targets, which will tell us how all that hardware is performing. Target systems can be simple and cheap or complex and expensive. Still, if they don't communicate hits back to the shooter, they're next to worthless.

Paper targets with black bullseyes are generally a poor choice for rifle shooters.

As you'd expect, the cheapest targets are those you make yourself, and most of the paper targets I use fall into that category. I make mine out of off-white 60 lb. cardstock bought in packs of 250 sheets at an office supply store. For aiming spots, I use orange stick-on dots made by target supply companies and available online or at most sporting goods stores. If I'm feeling particularly cheap, and often am, I'll make my own aiming points by cutting blue or green painter's tape into squares. The tape comes in different widths, making various-sized squares easy and quick to cut. I'll tape down a yardstick an inch from the edge of my workbench, then lightly stick three feet of tape to the remaining lip of the bench. With scissors in hand and a pack of paper handy, it's easy to go down the line snipping tape into perfect squares and sticking it to the middle of a target.

It's possible to make great targets using cardstock paper and blue painter's tape.

Note that my targets don't have black aiming points. That's because black bullseyes are the worst possible choice for communicating hits back to a shooter. Unfortunately, they are also the most common target color. Bullet holes in paper tend to look black, and black on black isn't a visible combination. Aiming points that are blue, green, or orange makes bullet holes much easier to see. But visibility is a variable thing and depends greatly on atmospheric conditions. On clear, cool days, with no mirage, you'll be able to see bullet holes much further than you can on hot, humid ones. Sometimes, spotting bullet holes through high-powered optics is like spotting pennies at the bottom of a murky swimming pool.

When conditions are decent, a white target with a colored bull should allow bullet holes to be readily seen up to 200 yards with a simple 9X rifle scope. You can stretch that distance to 500 yards with a spotting scope under excellent conditions. However, most of the time, conditions could be better, and if you want to see hits at long yardages, another kind of target is required.

There are two types of targets that effectively magnify the size of bullet hits and allow extended visibility—coated paper and steel. Paper targets that utilize a coating that flakes off around the circumference of a projectile strike will double the apparent size of a bullet hole. These targets break the 'no black bullseye' rule because the hit turns white, yellow, or orange due to the flake-off technology.

Steel targets break the no-black rule, too, because bullet splashes will look gray. However, even though black steel works, I like orange and prefer to paint steel that color; only because a black target can disappear in shadows at long ranges. White can work, too; however, white targets will vanish in winter when the background is snow-covered. Steel targets still require an occasional trip to the target line to re-paint their surfaces, but if properly constructed can last a long time.

Steel targets should be painted a color that contrasts with the background.

Both coated paper and steel targets make hits much more visible than those on plain paper. However, hits can still be hard to see at long range if conditions such as heavy mirage exist. And once the bullets start to cluster together and overlap, the invisible hits problem quickly resurfaces. At that point, the best optics in the world won't help; there are only two solutions, go for a long walk or go high-tech.

CAMERA TARGET SPOTTING SYSTEMS

Camera target systems are the most practical alternative for the individual shooter. These systems use a camera positioned at the target to photograph it and transmit an image back to a monitor at the firing line. Like many things electronic, when first developed, these units were expensive; however, their prices are dropping, even as their performance improves, and they are now within the budget of serious long-distance shooters. They can typically transmit target images to a shooter up to one mile away, where a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop shows the shooter's hits. In some models, the software makes the last shot flash to draw attention. The hits can also be color marked to differentiate between guns, loads, or shooters. For a techno-peasant like me, these are surprisingly easy to operate and offer the last word in seeing hits at long ranges.

Camera systems that transmit target images back to the firing line and save them are a high-tech solution to seeing hits.

Whether the solution is low-tech or high-tech, remember that time and ammo are better spent practicing than in a frustrating attempt to see hits. If you're encountering problems seeing hits, the problem might be the target.

OPTICS RESOURCES FROM MDT

• How To Test Your New Riflescope
• Red Dot Sights on Precision Rifles
• Optics: Understanding The Optical Triangle
• Rangefinders: Testing Beam Divergence And Reticle Alignment
• Shooting And Eye Health - Inside MDT
• Scope Levels: Take your shooting to the next LEVEL

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Al Voth calls himself a "student of the gun." Retired from a 35-year career in law enforcement, including nine years on an Emergency Response Team, he now works as an editor, freelance writer, and photographer, and keeping active as a consultant in the field he most recently left behind—forensic firearm examination. He is a court-qualified expert in that forensic discipline, having worked in that capacity in three countries. These days, when he's not working, you'll likely find him hunting varmints and predators (the 4-legged variety).