I wish someone would come up with regulation size white sticker sheets of silhouette animals for practice. White dots could be included to cover bullet holes. I like shooting the cast iron but can't mark my shots on a miss. I have traced the outline on paper, but I think silhouette stickers placed on cardboard would be closer to a real sight picture. I would cut them out and paste on but that is a lot of work.

Here's a good site with some pdf files of the animals. Just get some label paper and make your own or just paste them your backer board.

Opp's forget to include the link

http://www.sunnyvalegunclub.com/SportSh ... uette.html

I took one of each of my targets and used the copier and made a copy then ran a bunch off ... I wasn't having much luck with trying to download and print. I attach them to cardboard and practice away when I actually get time to practice. The sticker idea would work here too ... I may try that.

My friend Danne and I were shooting a practice match with each other on paper one day, and after shooting my 40 shots I took a few shots at a steel square pipe in the steel pit down at 100m while I waited for him to complete his shots, and noticed something odd. My hold is much steadier when aiming at that then it is when aiming at a piece of paper on a cardboard backer. Danne gave it a try and noticed the same thing. For some reason, aiming at the 3D object seems to be processed differently by my brain than when aiming at the 2D paper. My theory was that, even though we're using one eye through the scope and thus don't have proper depth perception, and so the 2D paper and 3D pipe shouldn't present a different challenge, somehow it did. I'm guessing it is because my body sway while looking at the paper isn't giving me as much feedback as I get from the 3D object. I think the big 2D plane of the cardboard backer and the paper simply doesn't give the brain as much info to work with. But the 3D object, and the difference between it and the background behind it, due to the parallax effect perhaps, gives the brain more to work with, giving you more feedback on how you're holding. Whatever the case may be, it definitely felt like our holds were better on the pipe than they were on the paper. And I'm not talking about how the actual shots went. Just talking about how the view looked while looking at the different targets. It sure looked like we were holding more steady on the 3D object.

There are a couple ways to make cardbaord targets or targets for cardboard. The first is to get some heavy paper and make a stencil of each animal then use some spray paint and paint them on the cardboard.
The second and what seems the easiest is to go to the old copy machine. You can get two chickens on a 8 1/2 x 11 or two pigs or two turkeys or one ram. Then just staple this to your cardboard.

Now for why you seem to shoot better at an object vs just paper. When you look at an object to shoot at such as a rock or scrap of iron you are concentrating on that object and more likely to hit it. When you are shooting at paper you are looking at the whole sheet and thinking I want to see where I hit. You need to concentrate on the animal on the paper. You may want to try putting a small dot or mark on the animal and see how you do. This will give you an aiming point and I bet you will do better. Just like shooting the real steel targets if you are satisified to just hit the animal you will do OK but if you pick a spot or a point on the animal you will do better. This is where you mind comes in handy. Use it to create a spot or a point of aim.

Here's another link with printable targets:

http://www.cfrpc.com/Silhouette/silhouette.html

I'll give the dot a try the next time I go practice.

Printing the animals on white stick-back paper is a great idea.

When you shoot at a target, pick a small defect near the center and try to hit that. "Shoot small, hit small". If you are just shooting at the animal, you may hit it anywhere, same goes for the paper target. You have to concertrate on a "spot" on the target, not the cross hair or dot in your scope.

It has just crossed my mind that you might be better off if the background on your paper target was the same color as the surrounding area. I guess using a small target on a very large piece of cardboard would trick you into not looking at the paper, but looking at the animal. Just a stray thought.

Would be cool if we could get Shoot-N-C silhouette targets.