Painting targets between shooters

[Anita Margarita]

We tried an experiment at last Tuesday's match:  We painted the targets between shooters. 

It did not seem to slow things down at all since it can be done while the shotgun targets are being reset and you don't have to pain the whole target ... just spritz, spritz, spritz on the splats. 

Throughout the match, several shooters were saved misses by the visible edge hits.  It takes a little pressure off of the spotters having to make judgement calls (How sure am I that was a miss?  I did not hear anything or see the hit, but I can't really be sure.)  Of course they still need to stay vigilant for Ps, etc.

An added benefit is that the shooter can get a look at where they were hitting the targets... high? low? left? right? concentrated in a small area or sprayed all over the target?)  That might help in knowing how to get better/faster.

I'd be interested in what others who were there on Tuesday thought about the idea.

AM

[Tombstone]

I like it, it removes questions. Very easy to count hits. It was easy to do and it did save a few shooters misses that we could confirm numbers of hits.

[Hurricanecharly]

Having been part of running T.M.M for a short while, I know some of the challenges  to trying  to get every thing efficient, fair and fun .
I was not there Tuesday, but I've seen shooters who have shot first saved from poor spotters by a freshly painted target!
I like the idea, as a person / cud who has a limited budget as we all do, I could see a clubs paint cost go  up easily by 33%.
We spend roughly 550 a year on paint.
Second problem  is in wet or cold months paint does not fully dry by end of shoot and folks get ,1 paint on hands and clothes helping to put targets up, and 2 if stacked on each other, they are stuck together next month for set up crew, creating a hazzard.
A.M not saying any of this to be a debbie downer, just my experience  with trying  to make the spotters be more consistent.
I really like the posse leaders who repeat often if you " think it was a mini it was a hit! Ect...
If you are spotting alot during  a match and you ate starting to zone out, no shame in backing out.
How about  small ribbons on bottom of targets  to help see dead sounding target at least move?
Clinics on shooting better, ro classes, how about clinics on spotting, and picking up brass, a lot to be learned about the sport from both important jobs!
Didn't mean to go on and on but it's a good subject .
Like democracy  it will never be perfect but it's the best we have.
Curious to hear others thoughts!

[Ringer]

It worked good for checking hits, edge and otherwise. Could be problematic on calling P's. Maybe just to confirm and not solely to call.
I noticed and painted some phantom marks. Don't know where they came from, splatter maybe. We still need to be very vigilant.
What Charlie said about the drying would be another consideration although it seemed to dry quickly.

[Anita Margarita]

I did not think of the wet paint problem.  It is not an issue on Tuesdays since we do not have to put targets away. 

Also, I guess painting would not be something we could do if the targets were damp from rain or fog.

Charly, I am sort of curious as to how you spend $40 a match on paint though.  That seems like a lot of paint.

AM

[Hurricanecharly]

The paint we use is that steel target paint, it like 6$ a can after shipping.
We tried cheaper paint, but it took 2 or 3 times as much to cover, and more time at setup, we tried rolling it with house paint, didn't work.
5 stages 5 or six cans.
Some times the paint will dry fast enough not to get on you're clothes when putting up targets, but my experience  was it didn't cure so targets were stuck together next shoot.
Just my experience  with painting targets.
I do like the idea of fresh paint for every shooter!

[TN Mongo]

When I competed in silhouette years ago we always painted targets after each shooter.  We did it so each shooter had the same view of the target.  Even with our close targets, sometimes a target with a lot of rounds on it is hard to see.

It would most definitely make spotting more consistent for us.

[Tombstone]

We are talking about just hitting the hits so to speak. It is only a few dots of paint so dont think of it as painting the whole target each time.

[Anita Margarita]

Let's continue with target painting on Tuesdays and we can see how it works out.

AM