This is very cool! A website where you can design and then print your own custom targets. (h/t ENDO) It’s quite full featured and it’s free!
Unless I need some sort of specific target, I like finding free target websites and just printing my own targets. I even made a few quick and dirty targets of my own:
I use those targets for dry fire practice. Buff color because it’s the color of cardboard. The dots are just useful to provide a small target, or multiple small targets. The scaled IPSC targets are of the size that, when I’m physically 2 yards away from the target, they will provide a scaled size simulating their distance (7 or 15 yards). All are intended to be printed out on a 8.5″x11″ piece of paper.
Another simple and inexpensive target solution is paper plates. Avoid the 9″ plates. Get the smaller “dessert” plates that are what? 5-6″ diameter? Aim small, miss small. 🙂 And you don’t need Chinet, the cheapest bulk paper plates at the grocery store are fine.
Do you get lots of cardboard? Maybe from packages/boxes being shipped to you. After a Costco trip we always end up with lots of cardboard. As a result, any cardboard that’s of a reasonable size I keep stacked in the garage. Quick and simple targets or target backers. I even cut out a crude template that replicates the IPSC A-Zones. Ten seconds tracing with a pen and viola, I’ve got a cheap simulation of an IPSC target, or at least, the zone that matters. To boot, this is a nice “green” solution, since I’m reusing the existing cardboard before ultimately recycling it.
If you want to talk recycling, how about junk mail? An 8.5″x11″ piece of paper can make a reasonable target for “defensive practice”. I still think it’s a bit large of a target area, but it’s fast and easy enough. Or if you want, since most junk mail letters will be tri-folded, cut it into strips along those fold lines for a smaller and more challenging target.
I just don’t feel like spending a lot of money on targets. By their nature they’re going to be destroyed and you can’t reuse them. Those “shoot and see” things are really nifty, but that cost adds up. I love shooting proper IPSC/IDPA targets, but at $0.50 each vs. $0.00 for recycling the cardboard from a UPS shipment? I know which math I prefer. Sometimes yes you need a specific target, yes you have to spend the money. But for general work, there are lots of inexpensive ways to get the job done just fine. Furthermore, I think the variety is good for your eyes and your skills.
Do you have any other suggestions for inexpensive or free target solutions?
Stuff From Hsoi 
We use paper plates stuck with a piece of tape to cardboard here. Couple of lines with a black marker on the plate and presto instant target. The cardboard (cut quite a bit bigger than the plate and then folded in half to make an upside down V) makes it easier to position in the yard, then we taped a heavy metal ruler to one bottom edge for weight so the slightest gust of wind doesn’t take off with it. Plus when the cardboard’s so full of holes the tape won’t stick any more we can use it as firestarter material.
Ah, I like the further bit of recycling: used targets = tinder!
Been living in hippie Austin for so long, my base reaction is unusable cardboard goes into the recycle bin. 🙂
our main heating source is wood, we have a furnace, and the thermostat on that is set to kick on if the temp in the house drops below 58, but except for some of the extreamly cold days/nights its not been used much. So generally anything that could be firestarter stuff gets stashed for that purpose (junk mail works well…..).
I like it.