Target Management for New Shooters

For a new or inexperienced Benchrest shooter, it is a good idea to have an understanding of the actual target and why it is designed the way it is.

The Benchrest group target consists of a top “record target” and the bottom “sighter target”. As the name suggests the record target is the one that will be measured for your score and must have the minimum number of shots required for the class you are shooting, that is 5 shots or 10 in the unlimited class. The sighter target can have as many as you like. However, the sighter target should be used efficiently in order to help you determine bullet drift due to wind or mirage condition.

I’ve been to many matches where I observed other shooters in action through a spotting scope and they all have their own style of target “management”. Some make sense to me and some don’t. I often see shooters put shots on the sighter bull with no apparent logical method. I have seen a competitor start off by shooting 3 or 4 shots on the middle sighter bull in one condition and then go straight to the record target when the condition obviously changed. This is not the optimal way of working a target.

The sighter target has the middle bull as well as a bull on the left and one on the right. When wind is blowing from left to right, it is expected your point of impact will drift to the right so you will use the left bull to test this condition to see how much that particular wind push is effecting the bullet drift. The opposite applies when the wind direction is from right to left. This way the bullet doesn’t end up “off paper”. The middle sighter bull is generally reserved for a situation when you are in the middle of shooting the record target and the condition suddenly changes. You would then go to the bottom centre bull hold off the amount which you think you have to and if calculated correctly, hold off that amount on the record target. and finish the group.

This scenario is shown on the targets below.

There is also the big black square on each the record and sighter target. This square is used when the mirage is extremely bad that you can’t see the rings on your target. The best way to use the square is to try and line up your vertical cross hair with the middle of the square and your horizontal cross hair with a line on the mirage board either side of your target. This really works well when there is a strong mirage, especially at 200 yards or more.

Your time on the target should also be managed. For the first target of every yardage, you are allowed 10 minutes to finish your group and for the subsequent 4 targets you are allowed 7 minutes for each. My method is to fire the sighter targets early and give my self as much time as possible to determine when to go to record. If I fire a couple of sighters on the one bull in the same condition and they go where I expect them to, I will generally go straight to the record and shoot the group. At other times, conditions may be a bit more erratic with more sighters required, but you have to weigh up the risk of waiting too long and the condition getting worse as the clock nears the cease fire call. It can be a bit of a gamble waiting for a condition you want to shoot which may never come.

I would recommend that any new competitor read the  rulebook  in relation to shots on target so that you get a clear understanding of how a target is scored, what to do if you accidently fire a shot on your record target, crossfires etc..