This Target Really Tests Your Skills!

On MK#10 Fire & Steel - Gun & Knife Combat our Special Guest Laci Szabo shows an excellent portable target set up for handgun practice that consists of a square of titanium suspended on chains from two posts.  It's an ingenious design because it's very compact to move and take to the range as opposed to wooden target set ups.

For those times when you can't get out to the range though, here's a great little target I enjoy working with that's similar to Laci's, just much smaller!  It's something to use in the backyard with an airgun of some kind.

As you can see, it's simply a quarter with a hole drilled in it attached to a key-ring.  I do that so it will hang mostly 'flat' when on a horizontal string and present a better target face.  The string is then run between two long nails that act as ground stakes.

(Remember the Training Tips article on throwing spikes I wrote last year?  These are the same kind of nails used for that.)

Against a natural background this target is very hard to see.  You can paint it or put stickers on it to aid in visibility and to record new hits, or leave it as is.  After a while the coin will hardly be recognizable as a quarter any more, as you can see here.

How you shoot at this little gizmo is completely up to you!  We use them for doing unsighted instinctive 'snap' shooting at 10-15 feet but if you want to do sighted shooting on 'em, hey, enjoy - the target won't mind one bit either way!  When you hit them square in the center they will spin rapidly, a neat effect.

As always, employ caution and wear safety glasses.  Metal targets of any kind can cause ricochets.  Still, this is a neat little portable target set up and it really challenges your skills!  When you can easily hit these than any 'tactical sized' target you might need to engage will be effortless.
 

Modern Knives Issue #10 Fire & Steel: Gun & Knife Combat With Special Guest Laci Szabo