Larger Than Life Targets

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Ezana4CE

Ezana4CE

Member
Jan 15, 2021
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Texas, United States
I’ve purchased various types of paper targets and found a couple that I really like to use in preparation for small game hunting and pesting. I recently came across the targets pictured below and somehow I failed to pay close attention to their dimensions while shopping. I’m pretty sure I caught them on sale online and just decided to try them. When they arrived the pictured squirrel looks larger than life, at least larger than the gray squirrels I typically see. Now I’m wondering, what practical purpose does shooting at a target this large serve for me? It’s a nice looking target and I haven’t shot one yet. I expect that it behaves as most splatter targets do.
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I guess my concern is shooting something on paper that isn’t a fair representation of what I shoot in the woods. Shooting at a smaller than life target can help, but shootin’ at this biggun may spoil me. I do like the multiple target areas on here though. I may give em go later today. 
 
From 2-13, 11” is really close to the actual size of a typ gray squirrel. You set that out to 50 yards and it would be the ideal size of a real squirrel at that distance. 


kinda sorta like full size deer and boar for archery targets
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I was kinda wondering about that. That’s about the farthest I’ve taken a shot and feel comfortable shooting at them. I am confident that I can shoot farther with certain rifles, but part of my enjoyment comes from stalking to get within 25 yards for a shot. Thanks for that information. I can use it to practice 40-50 yard shot with my Lelya. 


some parts of the country they get pretty big lol ... i remember getting out in the woods in colorado visiting my family and seeing one of those up in the treetops about 2ft long .. im like what in the world, need a dang 308 to hunt them things lol ..
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That’s crazy! Were they red squirrels? I was putting my hand up to the squirrel on these targets to get a feel for how large it would be in my hand and was like, “Nah. This thing is too big.”
 
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I don't know what style of scope you have, FFP, SFP, MIL, or MOAR, but a few out of the box ideas come to mind... 

You can put the picture targets out at 100 yards and practice on those long range shots. At that distance you probably wouldn't notice the larger size. 

Alternatively, if you have a second focal plane scope you can put the targets at a decent longer yardage that you are comfortable shooting and then focus the scope's power up until the hash marks match what the life size dimensions of the squirrel is in your area. This requires a little math to get right, but it will look realistic when using a FFP scope or full power holdovers with a SFP.
 
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HMMMMMMMMM dress maker pins! Imma get some of those!
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They make our normal toothpicks, matchsticks, and sandwich & cocktail pick targets look downright gigantic. Creates a little mess in front of the target array, but one of those 'magnets on a stick' cleans things up pretty quick.

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And a new idea came to me today. I have really started to prefer disposable target holders to use on our target stands. Then I saw a bunch of the foam pieces they use to protect pellets during shipment, and since I have boxes of those in my shed...

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I only had black duct style tape for the pin background, which needs to be replaced after the holder has been filled & shot about 2x. But Amazon had 2" black masking tape, so some of that is on the way to my house now.
 
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Aim small, miss small. Aim large... ;)

Some of the practice targets we've been having fun with recently - dressmaker's pins.

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@TMH You are on another level. I’m still trying to tackle some of the less complicated stuff. I’m more than confident that I would have a better chance at hitting close to some of those pins from a prone position as opposed to shooting from standing behind a tripod. I would think I’d need to at least start with charm pops. Although I’m not much for shooting from the table, I admire what some of y’all are able to do. From what distance(s) are you all shooting the pinheads? And if those are the practice targets, what are you shooting for competition targets?


I’m happy with the ability to hunt, shoot, and kill animals I or others can eat, that eat my food, are threats to pets, livestock, and the game population, and are just generally problematic pests. I do like to use smaller targets superimposed over animal photos. Yesterday I set out a smaller crow picture target out at 100 yards. I shot up the picture portion and missed plenty of my shots, but had a few head and neck shots I was proud of. One was just beautiful. I do understand what you’re saying about aiming small. That’s kinda why I was trying to figure out how to best use these big targets.
 
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I don't know what style of scope you have, FFP, SFP, MIL, or MOAR, but a few out of the box ideas come to mind... 

You can put the picture targets out at 100 yards and practice on those long range shots. At that distance you probably wouldn't notice the larger size. 

Alternatively, if you have a second focal plane scope you can put the targets at a decent longer yardage that you are comfortable shooting and then focus the scope's power up until the hash marks match what the life size dimensions of the squirrel is in your area. This requires a little math to get right, but it will look realistic when using a FFP scope or full power holdovers with a SFP.
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The long range scopes I’m using are SFP with MOA and MRAD reticles, but have been using the MOA reticles since stretching out to 100 yards. 


I like the concept and I want to try it, but I usually shoot smaller targets. I frequently shoot 10 meter NRA targets at 50 yards in .25. So I get what Tom is saying about aiming small.


I want to get comfortable at 100 yards before pushing these large targets out any further, BUT they may be a good incentive to do so at some point. 
 
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My pesting consists of ground squirrels mostly within 50 yards (as that is the length of our bays/berms at the Cowboy range). I have gotten to be able to make clean kills shooting off benchtops or off-hand supported.

For the local group of Cowboy shooters who I have hooked on air guns, all of our shooting so far has just been for fun off the bench. The pic below was taken when we had 6 benches, and now we're up to 8. No one has to wait yet on our weekly shoots, but that day is coming soon.

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My main target area is at 25 yards, and this is where we shoot the sewing needles (and all kinds of other toothpicks, matchsticks, cocktail pics, etc. Note the coiled wire card holders - these hold playing cards for card splitting ;) ).

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We also have a 52 yard target trap which is shootable from the far right 2 shooting benches.

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I've normally used 2" splatterburst targets there, but have recently been putting up a board of paintballs instead. One of my shooters told me that the .50 cal paintballs I provided last week were 'too easy', so this week we're down to .43 cal balls. Shoot them consistently and you are shooting sub-MOA. It always surprises folks how difficult shooting 50 yards can be as compared to 25 (more than 2x as difficult even though distance has only increased 2x. But good shooting fundamentals become so important),

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These are all shooters who have taken up airguns after me, so I try to keep the target arrays interesting and challenging. When we shoot out at the Cowboy range we have longer distances available - up to 120 yards plus. Out there we normally set up our close target array at 40 yards (just inside the creek), and will then set up other arrays at about 75 yards and mounted to the existing 100 yard steel target. We will still shoot the cocktail pics out to 75, but out at 100 we go larger - Golf balls suspended on 1/8" steel wire, some mini clay birds I got from a friend which are 2.25" diameter, and our re-setting steel prairie dog targets.




 
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I just wish that I could shoot off-hand better (or at all, really), but I think I've given up on that. Anyway I'm having too much fun hitting little things while rested on the bench.

Some folks out at the range asked me what I aimed for when hunting the squirrels, and I replied 'the eye'. They were initially surprised - until they looked through the scope, and maybe tried out one of my guns to see what it was capable of.

And I've hooked more folks on air guns with the Charms Mini-Pops than any other target. Same sound when hit squarely as a pellet impacting a squirrel noggin'. And if the wind is blowing right, you get the sweet sugary smell of the candy when you vaporize it.

One of the ladies who shoots the Cowboy matches saw these picks when shopping and just had to get them for us:

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These are great as sight-in targets when we move to 75 yards, as they are pretty large and you shoot right through them (so you can see where you are hitting). Very pleasurable when you get sighted in well enough and you can then cut the hats and boots off the sticks.
 
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A TN grey squirrel would be that perhaps even a bit larger. I like using .43 cal paintballs for practice and find it pretty equal to a good head shot at any range.

Cool looking and should be fun to shoot at. How about an FT target with a 1/2" KZ, you would want a sping loaded one so you can mount it sideways in Trees & such. Good fun there.

John
 
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