Clothing on IDPA Targets?

[rob_s]

Agree with above, used to be done a lot more, and pain to score.

We used to slice them up the sides to make them into a poncho, which greatly aids scoring.

[TR675]

John Hearne has something similar which Tom Givens uses at his tactical conference


http://www.dvctargets.com/

Johns targets are great for shirts - they're reactive so no scoring needed, and the shirts add an extra level of challenge to the match. I've always enjoyed Rangemaster's matches and Johns targets are a good bit if the reason.

[ST911]

Shirts on targets used to happen a lot. The worst problem is scoring and pasting. You have to fold back the shirt to score and then paste with the shirt trying to fall back over the target. Sometimes the shirt would bend the head of the target when it was folded back. The holes weren't as precise in the targets after going through the shirt. Sometimes, with several people pasting, holes would get missed when the shirt would fall back over the target and the pasters would think the target had already been pasted.

Shirts are fun for shooting, but a pain to administer in a match. It increases the time for resetting a stage.

Infrequent use here, but same experiences.

We used to slice them up the sides to make them into a poncho, which greatly aids scoring.

Thanks, I'll pass that to my MDs and try it.

[Peally]

You see it once in a while. Usually it's to simulate body armor or something and force two shots anywhere in the chest and one in the head or some such thing.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Same experience, it was fun once in awhile. One variant was a target with the center circle cut out, t-shirt over it and you had to shoot from close retention. It was easy to see if one missed the center and pasting wasn't a problem.

The 3D reactive targets like John's are fun.

[NEPAKevin]

We used t-shirts mostly on close targets where the center of mass/down zero is cut out and on Reed Reactors. For paper targets, if you cut the shirt in half, i.e. front and back. you can then staple the shoulders to the sticks, then to score, you check the head and neck, flip the shirt over for the body, then the pasters reverse procedure to "reset." For the reactors, when ever possible, I like to use a long sleeve shirt and slide it over the paper target. Then when it goes down, the arms will often fluttter much to the amusement of some.

[cclaxton]

I have found that cutting the shirt along both sides and using steel binder clamps at the shoulders makes it much easier to score. You really don't even need the back of the shirt. Also, I often paint hard cover on the heads to force shots to the body to challenge the shooter. Also, it's a good idea to turn the T-shirt logos to the inside, so that no one might think badly of the company/message printed on them.

Thanks,
Cody

[Peally]

I've never seen hits under a shirt scored aside from hit/miss. If you can't physically see the target you're pretty much just guessing where the -0 circle is.

[PPGMD]

I've never seen hits under a shirt scored aside from hit/miss. If you can't physically see the target you're pretty much just guessing where the -0 circle is.

Which IMO is the only way to do it with any consistency. Honestly gimmicks like that have no place at a major match where the scores actually matter.

[Peally]

I'm guessing it's club matches, and I'd probably complain like I do about everything but I'd still shoot it. At a major that shouldn't fly (although things like that still occasionally do).