Anybody up for a.....

....postal match?

It's been years since we had one.

Perhaps yes!

Sounds fun Rod! I've been tinkering with 3-gun lately, so my pride is already bruised

Noooo.....not the buzzer, it's never messes with you! LOL

I work for the Postal Service. How does a Postal Match work?

We all shoot at a similar target at a prescribed distance, on our own, and then mail the target to a scorer. Hence "postal".

Rules of golf apply.

I'm in.

Was thinking of two categories; supported and unsupported. Each with three subcategories; open sights, non-magnifying optic (red dot) and scope.

Unsupported meaning that neither the gun, nor the hands may rest on, or against any object. Forearms and elbows okay.

Supported includes anything but a mechanical (Ransom) rest. The gun must be fired by finger on trigger, and grip held by the hand.

Scope category would recognize either rifle or pistol scopes.

I was thinking 50 yards distance.

Could have separate rimfire and centerfire disciplines.

Open to suggestions.

Can we compete in more than one category?

Shoot a target and mail it in, the more the merrier. If you shoot a better target in a later session, swap it for one already submitted. We would have to set a final postmark date for submitions.

sounds good to me so what's the target. The only thing I might change is make it 25yds for irons. My eyes aren't what they used to be and with my tremors it gets interesting. You could probably keep rimfire and centerfire ranges the same except I would move scoped centerfires out to 100yds and keep the scoped rimfires at 50 since wind can really screw with rimfire groups out that far. You might also want to separate scoped into single shots and revolvers. I can already tell you though at 100yds Ernie will win with a one hole 5 shot group.

Yeah, I too would separate them, but shooting them offhand could be interesting. The equalizer, so to speak.

Yea. We may need a separate category for bolt guns and long barrels.

Sounds like fun,... Im in.

Perhaps we can agree on something from here:

http://targets.ws/

I'm for simple and would say the 4th bullseye target down:

Bullseye target with six outer
rings that alternate between black and white. Also includes a red numbered bullseye and numbered rings for scoring.
Colors are black, white and red

That one looks good to me.

Sounds like fun to me!

The one drawback is it will use up a lot of black ink. How about the one directly above it? I also like the one that is third up from the bottom as it has lines that might aid those using crosshairs. The third down from the top of the "sight-in" targets also has potential.

I'm open to whatever you want to use but let me know as soon as possible I'm actually planning on taking my daughters shooting in the next day or two.

It really doesn't matter that much. Printer ink is a rip off and there may be a lot of targets being printed so just thinking about the bottom line. Heck, a sharpie and a sheet of paper is all it takes to make a target, but I thought it would be neat if there were some consistancy.

I won't be shooting, but it would be best if all shot the exact same target. target type/size will affect group sizes.

I just want it to be fair for all sighting systems, how about:

Target A?


Or target B?

I like target A for the smallish aiming point. That would be my choice.

So for me it would be shot at 100 yds with a scoped revolver from shooting sticks or from the bench?

If you place your shooting stick under your wrist/forearm, you would qualify for unsupported, but if you rest any part of the gun or hands on sticks you would then be supported, same with sandbags or rests.

We will review the categories but for now was thinking:

Unsupported:
Irons @ 25 yards
Dots @ 50 yards
Scopes @ 100 yards

Supported:
Irons @ 25 yards
Dots @ 50 yards
Scopes @ 100 yards

Do we need to segregate by platform?

I disagree on the unsupported category. Offhand is unsupported and resting on anything is supported as far as I am concerned. Not trying to be combative, but a rest under the gun or your forearm is still a rest. JMHO.

I never refered to it as "off-hand". There could be an off-hand category, but I was just trying to get folks to realize that they don't need to rest their handgun on something to be able to hit a target and this might be a good vehicle. Perhaps it should be called "field position" instead.

Supported
Revolver
Single shot/bolt

Unsupported/off-hand
Revolver
Single shot/bolt

Yes, with the shooting sticks I would expect to be in the supported category. Yardages sound good.

Or we could all just shoot a group on the designated target and mail them to Rod with the info on the gun and position and let him sort it out.

Just to add to the chaos, what about lever actions?

This sounds like it could be fun but I have no scoped pistols, my only gun with a red dot is a 30-30 lever, and my bolt action carries a 3-9x scope. Why not have two categories: open sights and optics (red dot or magnified), unsupported/off-hand at 25 and 50 then supported at 75 and 100 for both categories?

I would say two catagories:

Offhand-no support at all up to the shoulder. Sitting, or leaning back on a chair is fine.(no elbows on knees)

Supported-field positions only. Otherwise we give an advantage to those with expensive heavy duty rests.

We are after all a hunting site!

This is the way I am leaning as well.

So, how about:

Offhand Position:
Irons @ 25 yards
All optics @ 50 yards
Nothing but hands on the gun and nothing but the feet touching anything else.

Field Position:
Irons @ 25 yards
Dots @ 50 yards
Scopes @ 75 yards
The wieght of the gun must be supported entirely by the hands but the arms, up to the wrist joint, may rest on other bodyparts or objects. Shooting sticks, or similar devices, may be used as long as no part of the gun nor hands touch them. A carry sling may be used as an aid as long as it touches nothing but your body. You may lean your torso up against a tree, post, car or similar object to steady your hold, whether sitting or standing.

Target A?

Rimfire and centerfire categories?

How about separating the specialty pistols from the revolvers?

How would we define a specialy pistol? Should a 10" Contender with a red dot be lumped into a special category with a bolt gun sporting a 40x rifle scope? Where does one draw the line? Barrel length? Action? Weight? We could have a revolver class, semi-auto class, break-action class and bolt-action class for that matter but was hoping to keep it simple.

Rifle cartridges? Action type? A bolt action with a 14-inch barrel couldn't be further from a revolver IMHO. Just a thought.

as an outsider offering ideas........

a)field position auto
b)rested auto


a)field position revolver
b)rested revolver


a)field position break action
b)rested break action

a)field position bolt/falling block etc action
b)rested bolt/falling block etc. action

25, 50, and 100 yrds. choose your range, gun, and technique. just shoot and have fun. it's not like you are about to win a million dollars. simple will probably draw more shooters.

Sounds good. Let's just shoot.

Rimfire
Straightwall, 1.8" max case length
Bottleneck

Offhand Position:
Irons @ 25 yards
All optics @ 50 yards
Nothing but hands on the gun and nothing but the feet touching anything else.

Field Position:
Irons @ 25 yards
Dots @ 50 yards
Scopes @ 75 yards
The wieght of the gun must be supported entirely by the hands but the arms, up to the wrist joint, may rest on other bodyparts or objects. Shooting sticks, or similar devices, may be used as long as no part of the gun nor hands touch them. A carry sling may be used as an aid as long as it touches nothing but your body. You may lean your torso up against a tree, post, car or similar object to steady your hold, whether sitting or standing.

Target A?

Scopes limited to 4x maximum?

That'll work for me, Rod!

You sure now Max?

Hey just want to level the playing field.

I know brother, but it can be hard to find the boundary lines at times ;-)

You've got that right!

How many shots?

5?

That's what I was thinking.

Great, when do we start?

Anytime, I guess. We can post pics of targets and our own measurements on the bragging board as we go, to save postage costs. I can post pics to the BB for those who have trouble with that aspect if they want to mail them or e-mail pics of them to me. At the end of the time period, the best targets can be sent in for "official" scoring.

Shoot often and update targets if they improve. This exercise is all about learning to shoot better in the field, trying new positions and loads, all to make us better handgun hunters.

Snail mail addy:
Rod Holmgren
PO Box 725
Park Rapids, MN 56470

E-mail addy:
s4sindus@yahoo.com

How does August 31st sound for a deadline?

The target can be printed from here:

http://targets.ws/shooting-targets/bullseye-target-18.gif

Very nice work guys.

Now... who has some 22 ammo to sell me?

all sounds good to me.

Great. I will condense this thread into a new post with the pertinent info then. Should be fun.

Thanks for getting this going. It will be fun.

I think we should add a portable rest category for bipods, sticks, backpack, etc. The butt of the gun must be held only by the hands and neither the handle nor the hands may be rested on anything. All optics @ 100yards?

That would be good. When using my sticks or any other rest, tree, sagebrush, or rocks, I don't rest my hands, I rest the gun so that would make sense.

I don't even have optics at the moment except for my 454 which is torn down at the moment for some minor re fitting before I sell my lathe and mill and it just has a millet red dot. I have a MKIII with the same sight so all the rest of mine will be irons. I don't even have a single shot set up right now except a contender with a 44mag/44shotshell vr barrel. I'll shoot my single six in 22wmr with irons and my chiappa 1911-22 with irons then the MKIII with the red dot. As for revolvers I'll probably just shoot my Reeder African Hunter in 475 if I can stand it. I shot it the other day for the first time in over a year and with the arthritis in my hands and wrists it felt like they were getting smashed with a sledge hammer. I may also shoot my 460 Rowland with irons if I can get it sighted in. I machined an aftermarket adjustable rear to fit my R1 and haven't tried it yet. No laughing at my groups with my tremors, I'm already figuring on hunting elk with my 300RUM this year since I'm losing confidence in my shooting. I do fine with a solid rest like bags but other than that it's questionable, I have good days and bad.

Whats the demensions of the target when printed out? How about the length of the crosshairs so I know I have the right size setting?

Thanks,

It is 6-1/2" diameter.

New thread:

http://www.handgunhunt.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/134603/page/1#Post134603

We're gonna need a different target, this one is hard to get an aiming point on with a red dot.

How about this ine?

http://lousgunwork.com/Images/Gallery/PDF/Target-Pistol-001.pdf

I think this is the easiest for all sights and positions

http://mytargets.com/target102gs%20grid%20square%20center.pdf

A problem I can see is that at 50 yards even a 4moa dot will obliterate the entire shaded area and leave nothing to sight on. The shaded center needs to be at least 3" so it can be seen with these sights.