Let’s be honest: if you shoot a lot (like we all want to), targets can get expensive. Surely, there’s no shortage of target designs. You can get everything from the traditional B27 silhouette target to oversized spiders dripping venom from their fangs targets. For law enforcement training though, we have a specific requirement for firearms training that has been in existence since 1994 by way of a court decision. With the event having occurred in 1985 and a law suit filed in 1993, the ultimate impact on law enforcement came with the court’s decision that said, in part, law enforcement agencies have a duty to train dynamic decision making as part of their firearms training programs. They have to train shoot/don’t shoot as part of their program.
Many agencies do this through using shooting simulators or Simunitions (or similar) training cartridges and role play scenarios. Other agencies, sometimes due to budgets and sometimes due to creativity on the part of their firearms instructor cadre, use modified or carefully selected targets. That said, let’s recognize that buying targets can get expensive. Depending on the target you’re buying, the quantity you’re buying and the source you’re buying from, targets can cost anywhere from $0.25 to $2.50 each. The ugly reality is that the more realistic the target is, the more it costs (typically). And if you want to have a target that looks the same as the target next to it, with the exception of one target having a gun shown in the hand of the person pictured and the other doesn’t, you’re going to pay a pretty penny.
Enter Patriot Stencils. Having identified the potential financial challenge that comes with upgrading your training, the good folks at Patriot Stencils created a series of target stencils that allow you to modify whatever target you have handy to suit your need; or, if all you have is blank paper (as I used for testing), you can create your own targets. As you can see from the accompanying pictures, I received several stencils from them for testing purposes. In using them, I learned a few lessons that I’ll share.
The stencils I received were:
- The 8” Bullseye Target
- The Handgun Target
- The Knife in Hand Target
- The Open Hand Target
- The Pointing Hand Target
- The Zombie Head Target
To use the stencils, you simply lay down your target, put the stencil on it where you want the image placed and spray paint carefully. What you DON’T do is put the target up in the stand, hold up the stencil (so it’s not quite flat against the target) and spray paint the stencil/target. If you do that, what you end up with is an uneven blurry target, and paint on your hand. (I obviously needed more coffee that morning).
Even using such a method, however, I was able to quickly create – on plain white paper – a target that had a zombie’s head, a gun in the right hand, a knife in the left hand, and a torso containing the eight inch bullseye target. The good news is that I was able to put up another target a short while later and use the stencils to switch the gun to the target’s left hand (flip the stencil over) and to make the target’s right hand open, with fingers spread wide.
When you look at the stencils – essentially heavy duty white plastic squares with shapes cut in them – you can’t really see the image up close. It looks jumbled and confusing. When you hold it a bit farther away, you can see the image that will be imparted to your paper target. As I mentioned above, if you want to have a gun in the right hand you apply the stencil that way, but to put the gun (or knife) in the left hand you simply flip the stencil over and paint it that way.
For personal training, the set up takes very little time and you can have an assortment of targets ready to go as fast as the paint will dry. Depending on circumstance, you may not even need to wait for the paint to dry (if you’re spraying them on the range). If you are training dozens of student officers in an academy or range setting, you can set up the targets needed prior to range time and spray dozens of them in a relatively short period of time. At an MSRP of roughly $10 per stencil, and assuming you don’t abuse the crap out of the stencils, you can paint thousands of targets in an assortment of variations, thereby lowering your overall target cost without compromising your training value.
For more information or to find out where you can buy a set of these stencils, visit Patriot Stencils online at http://www.patriotstencils.com.
Stay safe!
