Tag: portable target

Shooting Steel Targets (Part I)

*Note: This is the first of a three-part series entitled “Shooting Steel Targets.”  Part Two and Part Three were published in October.

As the world’s leader for shooting range development, Action Target has a diverse line of products to meet the needs of all its customers. If there is ever a request for a target system not currently offered, we have a full team of Research & Development personnel to explore the creation of a new target solution. Many times, however, the training need can be met with some of the simplest targets.

Line-up of AT Portable Targets

Action Target has been hailed as the #1 steel shooting target manufacturer based on our unique designs, which have been developed and modified over 26 years. Our steel targets have been influenced, tested, designed, and used extensively by law enforcement, the military, and Special Forces groups around the world. These groups prefer our steel targets since they do not allow any exposed bolts or brackets on the shooting surfaces. This is a limitation to many designs, but the result is the safest possible steel target available.

When using any of our portable steel shooting targets, please remember these safety guidelines to ensure that your experience of shooting targets is a fun and safe one:

STEEL TARGET SAFETY RULES

1.         Always obey the Firearms Safety Rules listed belowMan shooting with PT Swinger

2.         Always wear hearing protection and wrap-around shatter resistant eye protection

3.         Always stand at least 10 yards from the target when using handgun calibers

4.         Always stand at least 100 yards from the target when using shotgun slugs

5.         Always stand at least 100 yards from the target when using rifle calibers like .223 and .308

6.         Never use rifle calibers on handgun rated targets

7.         Never use ammunition that exceeds 3,000 feet per second at the muzzle

8.         Never use ammunition that travels below 750 feet per second

9.         Never shoot BB’s, steel shot, or air gun pellets at steel targetsMan Shooting Bobbers Over Shoulder

10.       Never use more powerful ammunition than the target is rated for (green tip, armor piercing, etc.)

11.        Never shoot on steel that is cratered, pitted, or damaged in any way

12.        Hard ground surfaces under the target should be covered with plywood or boxed pea gravel

13.        Targets should be placed with a 3-foot lateral and deep offset from the adjacent target

14.        If shooting multiple targets, the angle of engagement should not exceed 20 degrees

15.        Use only non-toxic paint on steel targets

16.        Inspect all targets before use for damage, functionality, etc.

17.       Shooters and observers must wear long pants (no shorts), long sleeve shirts, a cap or hat with a brim, and closed toed shoes

18.        Instructors and observers should stand behind the shooter and observe all safety rules

19.        If using frangible ammunition, it is the responsibility of the Rangemaster to test fire all frangible rounds to determine the following:

  • That the projectile pulverizes completely on contact
  • That the projectile does not damage the steel target at the distances you intend to shoot from

For more information about our steel targets or the importance of safety while shooting targets, visit our Portable Targets page on the Action Target website.

YouTube Training Videos with Rob Leatham

Action Target has recently released the first of five training videos on YouTube featuring world champion shooter Rob Leatham. The videos feature instruction from Rob and the drills he uses in his own training. Each video showcases a different type of steel target in Action Target’s Portable Target line.

The first video includes drills and skill demonstrations as Rob practices on the PT Plate Rack . The remaining four videos, to be released in the upcoming weeks, will emphasize how to train on other steel targets like the PT Static and PT Dueling Tree . This group of training videos was filmed at Rob’s home range located at the Rio Salado Sportsman’s Club in Mesa, AZ.Screen shot of Action Target's YouTube Channel

“The cool thing about these videos is that they are real training videos and not some promotional piece where we only talk about Action Target,” said David Mathis, Marketing Director at Action Target. “Rob shows you some of the drills he uses in his own practice, and explains the purpose and relevance of each one.”

Rob’s resume proves that these drills work. Rob began shooting in the late 70’s and soon became one of the top shooters to watch at local and national competitions. He currently holds 24 national titles, including five world titles and 16 consecutive years as the Single-Stack National Champion. A professional shooter for over 20 years, Rob currently shoots for Springfield Armory and Safariland. When Rob is not competing, he is a sought after firearms instructor for both law enforcement and military.

“Working with Rob on this was a great experience and it really showed his level of skill,” added Mathis. “Except for one or two drills later in the day when we were all hot and tired, each of the drills you see was shot in one take. Rob is just that good. And his level of understanding of the mechanics and what is going on while you are shooting matches his shooting ability.”

We are excited to bring this form of virtual firearms training to shooters around the world through the Action Target YouTube page. Whether viewed by a law enforcement officer, a casual shooter, or a serious competition shooter, these training videos are designed to help all shooters increase their skills when using a pistol.

Go to www.youtube.com/actiontarget to view the first training video with Rob. To receive updates on when other videos are released, visit the sign-up page for the free Action Target Journal newsletter or subscribe to the Action Target YouTube channel.

Action Target Releases New Catalogs

Having a diverse line of firearms products for personal and training uses can be challenging as needs among the firearms industry are ever changing. That is why Action Target continually creates new products and forms partnerships with the top companies in the firearms industry. To help educate our customers about all Action Target changes, we recently released new catalogs showcasing our new products and partners.

At Shot Show 2011, Action Target received thousands of visitors to our booth. The size and impressive layout of our booth were not the only things that caught people’s attention this year – the introduction of many new products and partners took center stage during this year’s show. One of the most popular products this year was the Hufcor Flex Tact reconfigurable shoothouse technology. Great for law enforcement, military, and firefighters, many people were able to experience this innovative training tool firsthand through actual demonstration.

The Action Target Portable Target (PT) also unveiled some new product lines. Prior to the Shot Show, Action Target partnered with Reactive Target System (RTS), making us their exclusive worldwide product distributor. Some of the many benefits of the RTS system include the ability to use the targets for close quarter live fire trainings, to the ability to count every round on target with the Mobile Wireless Shooting Range.

New partnerships and products like these are one of the many reasons Action Target wants to put our new catalogs into the hands of our valued customers. Now available at our web site, our new catalogs include:

For more information about Action Target’s full line of products and services visit our web site, www.actiontarget.com. To purchase Action Target products for drop shipment direct to your U.S. range or facility, shop online at www.shopactiontarget.com . For all other range-related needs, visit our subsidiary website at Law Enforcement Targets.

Action Target Named Official Target of the Scholastic Steel Challenge

For the past two years, Action Target has been the official target supplier for the youth shooting program, Scholastic Steel Challenge (SSC). “We’re very pleased to have Action Target as our official target. Not only have they provided us with an excellent promotional target package that clubs can manage, they are also bringing their 20-plus years of range and target expertise to the aid of coaches and clubs to make sure our kids are competing in a safe and fun environment,” said Scott Moore, director of SSC.

We are one of many companies that play an active role in the success of the Scholastic Steel Challenge event. Other supporters include The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), Smith & Wesson, and the Outdoor Wire Digital Network—all have provided significant amounts of funding and shooting products in support of this event.

“Action Target is very excited about the Scholastic Steel Challenge and the expansion of the pistol shooting sports it represents. We’re proud to be part of this growing, industry-wide effort to bring new shooters into the world of competition shooting and we look forward to working with ranges and teams all across the country,” said Chad Burdette, Portable Target consultant for Action Target.

Scholastic Steel Challenge Logo

The Scholastic Steel Challenge is a national team-oriented youth shooting program developed by the Steel Challenge Shooting Association (SCSA) and is partly funded by a grant from the National Shooting Sports Foundation. This program is open to young men and women ages 12 to 20 and offers the opportunity for a four person team to compete for the national title in the Action Pistol Discipline of Speed Shooting. The SSC competition is a family sport of “speed steel” designed with an supportive environment taught by trained adult coaches who focus on the safe handling and use of handguns.

The SSC competitive format is based on the Steel Challenge, the nation’s most successful handgun competition. We adapted the competition format to provide an enjoyable, safe, and action packed competition for both beginner and experienced shooters.

Click each link below to view the Scholastic Steel Challenge stage diagrams:

This year, Action Target is offering a discounted steel target package for teams and ranges participating in the program and will provide technical support during the question and answer section of the program’s website. This allows the opportunity for company experts to assist ranges and teams in their efforts to expand shooting opportunities.

If you have questions regarding the target packages offered at discounted rates for SSC affiliates, please contact Chad Burdette at [email protected] for more information.

For more information about the Scholastic Steel Challenge, please visit their website.

Action Target Weekly Newsletter Celebrates One Year Anniversary

On June 3, 2010, Action Target became the only shooting range development company in the world to produce a weekly newsletter, called The Action Target Journal. Accomplishing this challenging task created a new innovative source of information about superior products and special pricing on targets exclusively available to our subscribers, as seen in our ‘Steel Deal’ section.

For the last 52 weeks, without disruption, our newsletter has been published to an ever-growing list of subscribers. After launching our first newsletter, Action Target quickly gained over 15,000 civilian, law enforcement, and military readers. Now at our one year mark, our list of readers has more than doubled.

Action Target NewsletterThe Action Target weekly newsletter has definitely caught the attention of the firearms industry. Despite the many requests to purchase advertising space by industry related companies, firms, and organizations, our readers will never see their advertisements in our newsletters.

“Action Target previously adopted several different forms of a newsletter, but the formats did not fully support the entire world market that makes up the shooting industry. After discussing the matter very candidly with many of our clients, it was obvious there was a need not being met. So, we put together a very ambitious plan for a weekly newsletter that would properly address the items that encompass the aspects of the shooting world desire from Action Target. To date, we have received thousands of positive comments about our weekly newsletter in addition to the hundreds of times it has been republished,” said Chad Burdette, Portable Target sales consultant.

Action Target’s weekly newsletter continues to evolve since its first publication. It went from a static publication to one actively soliciting feedback from our readers. The received feedback resulted in strategic partnerships, as seen with Hufcor and their FlexTact reconfigurable shoot house and Reactive Target System (RTS) for their Self-Healing Targets and economical Mobile Wireless Hit-Counting system.

To subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Action Target Journal, click here. For Action Target’s full line of products and services, visit our website, www.actiontarget.com. To purchase our products for drop shipment direct to your U.S. range or facility, shop online at www.shopactiontarget.com .

Action Target Media Contact:

Chad Burdette
[email protected]
3411 S Mountain Vista Parkway
Provo, UT 84606,
Ph: 801-377-8033

New Target of the Month Program

At Action Target, we know budgets are tighter more than ever right now. We also know that training needs have to continually change to avoid complacency. To help ease the burdens these factors place on the training industry, we are excited to announce our Target of the Month program.

The Target of the Month program offers one of our portable target systems at an unbelievable low price to our newsletter subscribers. The discount price lasts the entire month that the specific product is advertised, so be sure to place your orders early before the month ends. There is NO LIMIT on the number of products ordered.

To kick off this program, we are featuring our PT Hold (Set of 3) Package . This package includes three target bases that utilize 1” x 2” strips of wood and provides a superior stable platform for you to mount targets onto. Regularly priced at $199 for the three-pack, this program allows you to purchase all three PT Holds for $150.

Action Target Hold Plus

This offer is now available through June 30, 2011 at our Action Target online store, www.shopactiontarget.com , by entering the coupon code HOLDUP3 upon checkout.

With this promotional offer changing each month, we also want to announce our ‘Standing Offer’ that starts this June and continues through the end of December 2011. This offer includes our Newsletter Steel Target Package consisting of the following target systems:

  • AT Hostage (AR550 rifle rated steel)
  • AT Dueling Tree (AR550 rifle rated steel)
  • AT Plate Rack (only available in AR500 handgun steel)

When priced individually, these target systems cost about $1800, but through the Newsletter Steel Target Package, you only pay $1,500. To purchase these systems, add the Steel Target Package (AT Hostage, Dueling Tree AR550 & Plate Rack Package) to your shopping cart and enter the coupon code STEELSPECIAL2011 upon checking out to receive your discount.

Action Target Selling Paper/Cardboard Targets and Backers at Discounted Price

Action Target is selling its existing inventory of all paper, cardboard, plastic and foam targets and backers at a discounted rate for newsletter subscribers, available through the online store. This offer will run the entire month of May. After the sale is over, we will be moving our inventory to Law Enforcement Targets.

Here are the items that are available:

Type Product Description MSRP/ea Liquidation Price/ea
Cardboard Targets B21 E – White Perforated Silhouette (23”wide x 34” tall) $0.80 $0.59
B27 E – Black (23”wide x 35” tall) $0.75 $0.63
FBI-Q – Die Cut for Turning Target Systems (19”wide x 39” tall) $0.65 $0.50
Transtar II – Blue Color Image; Die Cut for Turning Target Systems (24”wide x 39”tall) $0.95 $0.70
Paper Targets B21 E – Black (23”wide x 35” tall) $0.35 $0.29
B21 E – Blue (23”wide x 35” tall) $0.35 $0.29
B27 E – Black (23”wide x 35” tall) $0.35 $0.29
Plastic Backers Vertically Fluted Backer – White; (24” wide x 36” tall x 4mm thick) $2.75 $2.00
Vertically Fluted Backer – White; (24” wide x 36” tall x 8mm thick) $7.50 $4.75
Foam Backers Foam Backer – Cut for Turning Target Systems; White (24” wide x 48” tall x 3” thick) $40.00 $30.00

These prices are ONLY available through the Action Target Online store . If orders are placed with Law Enforcement Targets, you will be charged full retail price. No coupon code required; discount automatically given upon checkout.

After Action Target sells the inventory set aside for the sale, they will move their inventory to Law Enforcement Targets. After May, you can continue to place all future paper and cardboard target/backer orders by visiting the Law Enforcement Target website or by calling the following individuals at (888) 489-7830:

  • Federal & Military – Kara Hale
  • International – Dan Swanson
  • Western US – Kathy Dube
  • Texas to Southeast US – Louanne Slattery
  • Midwest to Northeast US – Jennifer Deelstra

Please note: Action Target will continue to inventory and sell the 3D cardboard targets and the cardboard target holder used for indoor shooting range retrievers, even after May.

Action Target Introduces New Sport Rack

 

The Sport Rack is a new training option that provides a ‘shooting gallery’ type of design and application. The Sport Rack is another bolt-on head option to the AT Static and PT Practice Stand and can be applied to various organizations and levels of training. Similar in design to the Plate Rack , these plates do not need to be reset once struck.

Here are some things you need to know about the Sport Rack:

Target design:

  • Bolt-on option
  • Mounts onto Static and PT Practice Stand
  • No welds on moving plates – welds on front protective plate
  • Auto-reset & reactive
  • Does not affect the safety of the shooter at appropriate distances

Specifications:

  • Four (4) 4” round plates in 3/8” AR550
  • Total weight of option is 20 lbs. (4 plates, mounting bracket, bolt kit)

How do I order?

Since the Sport Rack is currently a prototype, they are not for sale yet; however, we are putting names on our wait list for when they become available:

Person Information
First Name *
Last Name *
Email *
Options
Please select one:
Yes, I am interested in the Sport Rack and would like to be added to the list so I will be sent more information about the final products price and release date when it becomes available.
Yes, this looks like a product that I would buy when it is released, but I do not want to be sent more information about it.
No, I don’t imagine ever purchasing this product and would prefer not to receive any more information about it.

We are always creating new innovative products and we want your feedback and ideas. If you have a design or concept that would assist your training needs that is not available on the market, let us know. Email Chad Burdette at [email protected] with your product ideas.

Introducing the Pelvic Torso

As a leader of innovative solutions for firearms training, we recently announced the addition of two new items to our product line, the Pelvic Torso and Sport Rack, at the 2011 Shot Show in Las Vegas, NV. In this week’s newsletter, we will highlight the Pelvic Torso and how to utilize it to enhance your training.

AT Pelvic Torso and Mini PlateUntil recently, there were only paper targets replicating the pelvic area of the body, but with the Pelvic Torso, you now have the first and only steel target option in the world that simulates this area. The steel provides instant feedback to multiple senses as you hear the bullet strike and see the steal plate swing upon impact.

The idea to design the Pelvic Torso came from inquiries from law enforcement and the military for a training element that gave them a tactical solution when engaging with a specific type of threat. As they engaged with threats wearing body armor and no clear head shot, the pelvic girdle became the optimal target area. When an individual is struck in the pelvic girdle, the bullet strikes the ball-and-socket area, which not only causes immense pain but immobilizes the threat completely. If you are participating in disabling drills, the Pelvic Torso is the best training option in the market.

The Pelvic Torso is designed to have two 4” round reactive and auto-resetting head plates added to a non-reduced torso-type head plate. These “bolt-on” options are able to attach to your existing Static Target Stand or PT Practice Stand . We recommend using the torso head plates to protect the reactive components and keep all bolts/brackets out of the shooting zone, although it can be used with the Hostage and Full Size IPSC Torso Head Plates . This allows the splatter to continue to be directed down from the head plate and will not be redirected toward the shooter.

Since the Pelvic Torso is still in prototype mode, it is not yet available for sale. However, if you are interested in purchasing one of these in the future, please let us know:

Person Information
First Name *
Last Name *
Email *
Options
Please select one:
Yes, I am interested in the Pelvic Torso and would like to be added to the list so I will be sent more information about the final products price and release date when it becomes available.
Yes, this looks like a product that I would buy when it is released, but I do not want to be sent more information about it.
No, I don’t imagine ever purchasing this product and would prefer not to receive any more information about it.

For more information, download the Pelvic Torso Cut Sheet here (PDF). Stay tuned to for next week’s newsletter focusing on our new Sport Rack.