Showing posts with label Shotgun Patterning Targets Gun Club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shotgun Patterning Targets Gun Club. Show all posts

D.I.Y. Shotgun Patterning Targets


Do It Yourself (D.I.Y.)
Shotgun Patterning Targets are extremely large, cumbersome and difficult to obtain.

Commercial Shotgun Patterning Targets are usually incorrectly sized, expensive, sold in insufficient quantities and heavily creased after being folded small for retail packaging and shipping.

To produce your own correctly sized targets in sufficient quantity, simply purchase a roll of “Builder’s Paper” from a hardware store.





Attach (tape) the paper to a utility surface.






Trim the paper.



Find the center of the paper and draw a 30 inch circle using a permanent marker and a “compass” made from a Furring Strip and a nail.

(Shooting plain, unmarked paper and later drawing a circle around the densest part of the shot pattern creates an invalid, illogical sample)


Paste a “Post-It” note in the center as a Bull’s-Eye.

After a few target making sessions, I had a sufficient quantity of targets in a big roll. This roll was heavy and would be too expensive to ship.

Now you are ready to test the accuracy, shot pattern, shot density and range of your shotgun, choke and ammunition. You will need a lot of targets for this. These targets are very big and should be rolled up and secured with rubber bands.

You will need to find an outdoor rifle range to test nontoxic and steel hunting ammunition. Indoor shooting ranges do not allow homemade targets and only allow soft lead to be fired from shotguns. This is because indoor ranges believe nontoxic and steel hunting ammunition ricochet.

Unfortunately, Gun Clubs that do not have outdoor rifle ranges, cannot accommodate the testing of hunting ammunition at this time, because these types of clubs are not designed for the hardness of nontoxic shot. For patterning, these Clubs usually have an impenetrable board that is painted after each shot and can only be used with soft or low energy pellets to prevent ricocheting or damage to the board. If a non-rifle Gun Club offers cardboard for patterning, they will still forbid the use of hunting ammunition.