Shooting stuff is fun. Shooting stuff that does stuff after being shot is even more fun. Examples: When you shoot a plastic gallon jug full of water with a high caliber rifle, it explodes. When you shoot a clay pigeon with a shotgun load, it turns to dust in mid-air. When you shoot a glass bottle with any caliber it breaks, and when you shoot a little green propane canister with a small caliber gun such as a .22, the thing goes haywire. I think this is where Jeff Foxworthy would say.... You might be a redneck. But sometimes you need to sight in a gun by shooting at a paper target, and some people dont find it as fun simply turning the paper into swiss cheese. I like to use the Birchwood Casey Shoot NC targets because they offer instant feedback and are fun to shoot at. The NC doesnt stand for North Carolina, it stands for and see.
-------------------- What does it do?:---------------------
What separates this from a regular flat paper target is that the entry hole turns bright yellow being highly visible to the shooter the instant the bullet passes through it. The background is actually a florescent chartreuse color covered with a flat black coating. When a bullet passes through the flat black flakes off around the edges of the bullet hole leaving a bright and highly visible circle at the point of impact.
-------------------- Size and Appearance:---------------------
The Shoot NC targets come in different shapes and sizes. This particular one is 5.5 inches and is a round circle. It has a pinky nail sized bulls-eye located dead center with three outer rings. The center ring with the bulls-eye has a denomination of 10, the middle ring a 9, and the outer ring an 8 if your keeping score at home. The rings are slightly visible from a distance of more than 50 feet because the bright yellow lines are so thin but are more visible upon closer inspection.
-------------------- Any other Features:---------------------
All of the Shoot N.C targets have a sticky adhesive backing to them and they come attached to a slick waxy paper. You can peel them off of the white paper and stick them to a regular paper target or to a board. Most of the time I dont even bother peeling them off of the paper and just tack the entire thing onto the board with thumb tacks. I might peel and stick the next one on top of the one that has turned colors and replace it with a fresh target. Each individual target comes with four spots which are also stickers and can be placed over bullet holes to re-fresh the target and make it look new and black again. Sometimes I leave these dots in the corners and work on picking them off with my Ruger 10/22T. The dots are a nice feature to extend the life of the target or to give the shooter a smaller target to shoot at.
-------------------- Why Do I use them?:---------------------
I like them because I get instant feedback from the target . It combines the fun glass bottle style shooting of yesteryear with the serious target shooting of today. I dont have to use a spotting scope or bi-nocs to aid in seeing where the bullets have hit the target as the holes become visible with the naked eye from greater distances with Shoot N.Cs. I dont use them every time I shoot but I do when I am getting kids into shooting, them seem to enjoy it as much or even more than I do. The larger ones are obviously easier to use when trying to get sighted in on paper and these smaller ones are perfect for the .22's with or without scopes. When you get really good you can make smiley faces on the target. It is also fun to try to turn the entire target yellow like the days at the fair when you had to shoot out the entire star with the pneumatic BB guns. Shenanigan.
-------------------- When to Use Them:---------------------
I like to use them when target shooting for fun or even sighting in a scope or gun. I find them particularly fun to use with .22 pistols and the Browning Buckmarks. The nice thing about them is that they work with every caliber or load. I have used them indoors with BB and pellet guns, and outdoors with just about every caliber I can get my hands on. The larger ones work well with the shotguns for patterning specific loads.
-------------------- Price and Availability:---------------------
I have pretty much bought most of mine from Wal-Mart just because they keep them stocked and I frequent the store and the sporting goods section. The bulk packs are much easier to find on the internet and for a pack of 50 like these they will run about $20. The basic round ones are carried by most sporting goods and shooting stores.
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