Rifle Target Color

[rmfield]

I'm interested in getting some opinions on the best "all around" color to paint rifle flash targets (i.e. 200 to 400 yard steel plates) for 3-gun matches. I'd be particularly interested hearing from iron-sight shooters and those who have difficulty discerning colors.

[P.E. Kelley]

rmfield,

In most cases BLACK....yes for Iron sights. Target contrast to background is what I like to see.

This allows me to focus on the sights. I have shot many a match where the drill has been; locate target, locate sights, loose target, find target, reaquire sights, shoot and repeat with limited degrees of success.

Thanks for asking

PK

[Helmut]

I will Second Black.....

[cottyw]

Tan

[pisgahrifle]

I think it depends on the background. I've shot rifle matches on dingy, gray steel against grassy banks, as well as black in the late evening against dark green grass. Neither turned out so good. I'd say to have a number of colors on hand (maybe black, white and orange) and make your spot decision on what you can see best (unassisted!) against your backstops. I've never shot a rifle match assisted, so I know what a pain in the a$$ it is for the RO (who has a fixed six on his flattop) say, "oh, but I could see that gray US popper in the high grass just fine at 200 yards.

Grumble.

[TRUBL]

Michael,

I've used white targets up against black landscape fabric at bigger matches in the past and this seemed to be the best for iron sight users. It did not matter as to the time of day (sunrise to sundown), cloudy or sunny. Now....I would say that the same can be had about a black target up against a white background as well.....I just found it easier to get the lands scape fabric in black. I would not be opposed to black on white....but it will probably be more difficult to achieve. The main thing is being able to have a "crisp" difference between the target and back ground.

HOWEVER.....there is a drawback any time you use a cloth back ground. No one will be able to see their misses as the bullets impact the dirt around the target, but if targets are set in the grass.....it probably would not matter anyway. The iron sight shooters have to KNOW how there weapon is shooting and the scope users would have to do the same.

I am a colorblind shooter and going with black and white is going to be the absolute best combination either way for me, and I also believe it will give the best resolution to all shooters thru out the day and from day to day.

[Mickster]

In Florida our berms and backstops are a beachy, sandy, sometimes dark tan color. We've tried bright green, white and black. The problem was that after a while they would start to turn grey from the bullet splatter and totally dissappear unless the sun was low and behind the shooter. Lots of complaints from everybody, scoped, dotted or iron.

We switched to bright surveyor orange. The targets remained visible much longer. We'll paint after about 20 or 30 shooters. Everybody likes them. Except the red dot guys and they don't complain too much about it either.

Now I know orange is not a "tactically realistic" color but it's been working very well for several years now.

[George]

Bright fluorescent orange is the best overall choice IMO.

Patrick is right about black being good if it is contrasted against something white like a cardboard backer. This is a bit of extra work and has the fault mode of blocking the impact area, which makes seeing where you missed a bitch!

All in all, fluorescent orange is the best I have found as long as you re-paint frequently enough (and it's not against an orange backdrop).

--

Regards,

[mike.45]

Mike,

I liked the orange flash colour we used last year at RM and having seen them in White, Black Blue and Green - Bright Orange was the easiest to see with irons for me. With no coloured sheet behind the targets to contrast them against I think it would be real easy to loose colours like Black and Tan with the surroundings.

Cheers

[TRUBL]

Being colorblind flouresant orange.....can be good at best or really really bad to see for me....depending on the sun. Now, this year I did buy a set of rose colored glasses for sporting clays to help me pick out the orange birds better.....so that may help me to see the orange steel plates better (but, then again, depending on the sun...it may or may not help).

Just to give you an idea from my side of it......when I was golfing (years ago) and used red or orange tees.....I could never find them after I tee'd off.

[mike.45]

Trubl,

Man that is too bad, not only do normal targets prove troublesome but even flash targets are tricky. Sorry mate !

Coming from a NON colour blind position I am glad Orange can sometimes suit your needs - if the sun is right ! From my experiance of RM3G it was always the case that the sun shone on the flash targets during the shooting day as compared to them being in shadow in the PM etc....therefore if full sunlight suits you then its all good !

Are you shooting RM3G this year ??

[TRUBL]

Oooooh I might be there....shooting He-Man. Yeah...there should be a law, colorblind people could only use scopes, but then I would have no excuses for my poor preformance.

[hoodhazard]

As an Iron sight shooter,"Bring It On"! I don't care.I'm 50 and yes you GM's will beat me by 20%-30%.But...I can still hit 8"at 200M with irons with my eyes and whatever color.Not every shot but enough to be competitive,So there.

[SGDM]

It depends on the backround, time of day, weather conditions. We have had one color in the morning and had to change it in the afternoon.