Minimum target distance?

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Hey Jon,

I am a nerd 🤓 , so I have some notes...believe it or not.

I can speak for shooting a rifle that is equipped with a scope in a competition.

For speed and precision, you rarely shoot at less than 20 Yards. Most of the targets will be between 45 and 55 yards. Less than 8% of the targets will be at 85 yards to about 125 yards. For this reason, among others, I typically keep my guns sighted in at 50 yards. My home range goes from 25 to 95 yards.

I hope this helps, my friend 🤞
 
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rsfrid said:
Since you can get commercial NRA 15 feet bb gun targets, I'd say at least that close. I regularly shoot at 7 yards with pistols since that's a common distance for IDPA stages.
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Brilliant!! I think I'm gunna find a stretch of 15 ft somewhere for my super low powered slingers!😍
SkeeterHawk said:
Hey Jon,

I am a nerd 🤓 , so I have some notes...believe it or not.

I can speak for shooting a rifle that is equipped with a scope in a competition.

For speed and precision, you rarely shoot at less than 20 Yards. Most of the targets will be between 45 and 55 yards. Less than 8% of the targets will be at 85 yards to about 125 yards. For this reason, among others, I typically keep my guns sighted in at 50 yards. My home range goes from 25 to 95 yards.

I hope this helps, my friend 🤞
Click to expand...
I've been working on sighting in my decently powered slingers at 50yards🎩🤙
 
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While I have no practical experience with this, I believe and LEO once told me they qualify with their duty arms starting at 3 or 5 yards!
An old friend of mine used to practice his bowhunting skills at whatever distance he could get in his one-car garage, and downsized the little piece of foam he shot at that hung by a string from the rafters. As I recall that was about 1" square. So my thought here is any practice is good practice, aim small to hit small, and simply downsize your targets to fit the range, and stay safe!
 
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I guess you could look at like nra or cmp and find range and target size info .

See how somthing like this works out

https://www.olympicpistol.com/target-calculator/

Or somthing in things as this

Target bulls-eye sizes at various ranges. - CMP Forums

Use this forum to post questions that other forum users can answer.
b34da70920f9-006155.vbulletin.net

Shooting irons the bulls size at 100 looks the same size as if at 10. Your bulls sizes grow larger as you go out but visually all look the same size.
 
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iAMzehTOASTY1 said:
What's an acceptable range for minimum target distance?
Pistol?..rifle?....5yards?5ft?10?...
😅and yes:
Depending on powerplant and what not...
*I have backstops that will stop pellets point blank; no worry of pass through.
Thoughts?
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i do not think there is a distance to recommend i watch a lot of you tube and many guy's shoot in the basement 3,4,or 5 yards and have a lot of fun , you do what you can do .
 
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iAMzehTOASTY1 said:
What's an acceptable range for minimum target distance?
Pistol?..rifle?....5yards?5ft?10?...
😅and yes:
Depending on powerplant and what not...
*I have backstops that will stop pellets point blank; no worry of pass through.
Thoughts?
Click to expand...
10 yards is the shortest target at Fieldtarget matches. Smallest KZ is 3/8”….steady…
 
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BlindPig95 said:
While I have no practical experience with this, I believe and LEO once told me they qualify with their duty arms starting at 3 or 5 yards!
An old friend of mine used to practice his bowhunting skills at whatever distance he could get in his one-car garage, and downsized the little piece of foam he shot at that hung by a string from the rafters. As I recall that was about 1" square. So my thought here is any practice is good practice, aim small to hit small, and simply downsize your targets to fit the range, and stay safe!
Click to expand...
My knowledge goes back to 2004. In Florida we have shot at the 1-3 yard line, four shots from the hip
 
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Acceptable for what reason?

For self-defense with PB handgun, I usually practice at 21 ft, sometimes 30 ft, and I consider 21’ bare minimum because someone could get to me very quickly from only 21 ft away!

For informal air rifle target practice—which I think you are mainly asking about— is this minimum supposed to fill in for days when you can’t drive to a longer-distance range? If so, then I guess practicing at a shorter-than-usual distance means you make the target smaller and don’t settle for less than a perfect hit.

This site’s ThomasT posted a target that I might try at the bottom end of the distance range it suggests: 10 ft. Reason: That’s doable under the front porch cover. It’s the one he titled “General Target.” He gave a link to it in post #125 of the “What Paper Target Did You Shoot Today?” thread, in the General subforum.
 
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For my 177 stuff I always set up at 15 yards when I initially get them. I shoot groups of all the pellets I have to see what the rifle likes. I do all my evaluations outside, so this minimizes any wind that may be present. I try and do it on still mornings.

After that I shoot a bunch at 18 yards if its a pesting rifle. My kill zone is 18 yards from my rear window, so I make sure it is always hit a 1/4 in there.

If it is a target rifle, I use 30 yards. I love the 30YC thread and my road to a 200 score.
 
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I do shoot into my house with a pellet trap and 10m Air Rifle targets mainly with a tripod. I do so to have practice for fast reload and aiming for the ratting.

My 4,5mm/.177 RTI Priest2 setup is very low power (7,5J/5.5ft-lb, 175m/s-575fps with jsb exact 0,547g/8.44gr) and I do zeroing at 12m/13yards that is repeated at 20m/22yards and gives me a vertical kill zone of 7,2mm/0,28" from 10m/9yards to 22m/24yards and in that range the rat will have a serious heachache.

My HW977, HW50S and HW30S are all the same low power and 4,5mm/.177; with all is easy to have the optics zeroed at 10m and then having the second zero at 24-25m so few cliks in case shoting to Air Rifle BR tagets at 25m.

All of them are a pleasure indoor when bad weather comes...
 
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