Shooting on the Bullseye

One of my colleagues tried out the Advanced Super Test after I posted my run of it. He said that it was difficult. (I'm paraphrasing, he used stronger language.) And so it occurred to me that for a shooter that has spent a lot of time shooting very big targets, a bullseye can certainly be daunting, and it can be even more so when you start adding time pressure.

To that end I'm doing a series of videos on the B8, and how to gently ease into shooting them. I am hopeful that they'll be of some use to any of my former or current students, as well as many of my colleagues.

The issue that I've seen with police firearms training is that it often focuses on qualification style and size targets. And on those targets a hit anywhere in the scoring area is graded as the same. The issue, of course, is that it doesn't really encourage actual shot placement, it just rewards shooters with a "good enough" mentality. When actual defensive shooting is a possibility, "good enough" is not always. A determined attacker won't be impressed by hits that aren't anatomically significant. That means high upper thoracic cavity or brain box. Other hits may cause issues long after the altercation is over, but they won't be enough to change the course of what is happening.

The same is true of some types of competition shooting. When you're shooting at a USPSA or IDPA target, hits that don't get into the central scoring zone start causing you real issues with your overall score and placement. Add in a few rounds that completely miss the target and you have a recipe for not coming in near the top in any match you shoot.

And so, at least in my mind, that is the relevancy of a B8 target. It isn't exactly sexy but it can build skill and definitely show you where you are in terms of your personal shooting voyage. It is also a consistent measure of your skill at any point in time, so if you're worried that you've gotten rusty, shooting a B8 in the same time and at the same distance you did it before will give you a very objective measure.

If you want to order some B8 targets, here they are on Amazon.

Please note that my Amazon links are affiliate links. If you purchase any of these items through these links it will get me a small percentage of the cost of the item, but at no cost to you. This helps me offset my expenses for running a business, such as hosting fees and buying items to review.