Varying Distance with Reactive Shooting Targets

Rob Pincus has talked about the importance of varying your target sizes and distances. For defensive training, sizes are basically determined by the head- and chest-size target areas on paper or steel targets.

Reactive Shooting Targets

Of course, one option for varying distances during shooting drills is to place the targets at different distances from you, but another thing you can do, and which Rob demonstrates here, is use reactive shooting targets that change their distance from you on their own.

The little balls and boxes seen in this video do exactly that. They’re Do-All Outdoors targets and are a lot of fun. Keep in mind, though, that whenever you’re shooting at a target on the ground, the round you fire can skip and go over a berm. Because of this, make sure you’re relatively close to the backstop or that your backstop and your clear field of fire area beyond what you’re shooting at are safe for your bullets to skip and end up bouncing into at some distance beyond where your rounds impact the ground.

Balance of Speed and Precision

Once you make sure you’re safe, varying distance will be a product of the targets reacting to your shots. As you push the targets farther away, you need to take more time, energy, and effort to hit the targets. That’s the balance of speed and precision.

Rob demonstrates firing at the reactive shooting targets. When firing into a hill as he does here, the distance varies in both directions. The targets roll away initially, but as they reach the slope of the hill, they roll back down and end up closer. They also offer the chance to fire at slightly moving targets.

Use reactive shooting targets in your defensive rifle training and practice to add some unpredictability to the mix.