Favorite Targets and Distances

3x5 cards combined with paper plates make excellent surrogates for the high chest and ocular cavity target areas.

For sheer plinking fun, charcoal briquets are fun. :)

Clay pigeons are excellent reactive targets, but .223/5.56 tends to drill through the center and make you think you've missed.
 
I recently got some steel plates that I'm really enjoying.

When I go to the range (as opposed to plinking around the back yard some), I usually just take some old printer paper and make some mark on te back as a target. Been trying to get around to making a stamp or something to save me some sharpy time.
 
The sharpie mentioned above reminds me of another trick I do.

When I'm using paper and really monitering my shots (usually cardboard, especially pizza boxes) I will often mark my previous shots with a sharpie after every magazine. After awhile the target looks pretty goofy, but it helps me keep track.
 
At my gun club (indoor range): training silhouettes at 50 feet. We have to run the carriers all the way to the backstop, so 50 feet is the only distance.

At a local outdoor range: NRA 25yd targets from 5-10 yards. We try to stack rounds in the black in rapid fire. Good times.

Rifle: I like shooting bolt guns at small (equivalent to 2" at 100yds) targets. So far, I've only been able to shoot from 50yds and 100yds, due to range limitations.
 
I usually use man size silhouette targets similar to the ones my agency uses for qualification. The distances are 1.5 yards, 3 yards, 7 yards, 15 yards and 25 yards. I usually do fairly well 279 average out of 300.
 
Balloons on a string are great fun on a windy day. (as long as you have some kind of compressor to inflate them!)

But one of my favorites is walking along mountain game trails and engaging "attacking pine cones" with an AR-15.
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That sounds like a lot of fun and a nice break from the norm. I usually shoot at silhouette targets from what I would consider normal self defense ranges. 7-10 yards.
 
Today I cut some 3 1/2 " yellow pine landscape timbers into 16" long pieces and nailed them together side by side. Basically I was shooting at a 10" by 16" target 7" thick. I shot at ranges from 25 yards to 75 yards. After a few shots, the wood starts flying off and reminds me of the old westerns. The .45 Colt 250 grain RNFP would travel through the first timber and about halfway through the second. I am pretty certain that my 300 grain sp jacketed load with H110 will travel through both.
 
Ever since I bought some steel plate targets a couple years ago I very rarely shoot at paper now unless sighting in a pistol or rifle, punching holes in paper loses it's appeal pretty fast. I built a wooden frame and screwed in i-hooks that I can hang different size steel plates from with some chain that I bring to the range and set up at various distances. When shooting paper out to 50 or 100 yards with iron sights it's almost impossible to know what you are hitting without using a spotter, with steel you actually know you are hitting the target. Another favorite of mine is bringing a big block of ice to the range in the winter and chipping away at it with a .22.
 
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