For hunting larger game we very rarely use targets bigger than 250mm squares as we think this reasonably represents the chest area on a red deer. We do occasionally use smaller targets at closer distances in our hunter's events. Once you start using target sizes bigger than a "kill area" on game at a hunters event it just becomes a target shoot.
For our longer range precision target shooting events we use some simple minimum target size recommendations (1MIL=3.6MOA):
Position |
50m – 300m |
300m – 650m |
650m – 1000m+ |
Supported Prone |
0.3MIL |
0.4MIL |
0.5MIL |
Sitting |
0.5MIL |
1.0MIL |
N/A |
Kneeling |
1.2MIL |
N/A |
N/A |
Supported Sitting / Kneeling |
0.5MIL |
0.6MIL |
0.8MIL |
Standing |
2.0MIL |
N/A |
N/A |
Supported Standing |
0.6MIL |
1.0MIL |
N/A |
Keep in mind these are minimum target size guidelines only and the typical hit rate on targets sized to the minimums is well less than 50% based upon the results from our last 5 longer range events with first round hit percentages coming in about 20% for the shorter distances and down to 10% or less on the longer distances. These percentages don't look very good on their own but I am a big believer in that adversity makes people better and we have proven with several clubs that a bit of practice and using smaller targets than they are used to certainly improves peoples performance. We try to set our events to the ability level of the competitors we expect and with the aim that everyone gets something but no one gets everything.