Re: What's a good shooting mat?
I have a few mats. I have the TAB gear mat - it (to me) is just a small mat to keep in the pack for if you have a choice between the hot roof or this mat. It rolls up tiny, and goes with you easily. Lay it on a position in a briar patch, and it does almost nothing. But it goes with me everywhere in my pack. I think everyone should have one.
I have a Champion's Choice highpower mat. The light color is nice for most of your body, but the non-slip pads are very aggressively textured, and black. They get hot, and if you are in a t-shirt, the combo of texture and heat will make you uncomfortable quickly. When I was shooting across-the-course highpower, this was not an issue - my shooting jacket and this matt played well together. It's made for that purpose, and serves well for it. But for PR shooting in light clothing, it's not ideal. It's actually better to turn it over and use the back side without the non-slip pads.
We got several of the older Midway shooting mats. They were too small, black padding that got crazy hot, and they didn't hold up very well to regular use by the officers at my PD. We still have several, but they don't get used much.
For long training days at the range, the Midway deluxe shooting mat with the tan-brown padding is really good (especially when you catch it on sale - which they have quite often). They have a bipod hook thingy up front, a dust flap, and the lighter colored padding doesn't set you on fire when you lay on it after it's been in the hot sun. That is very nice. The ones we have have held up well over the last few years. We use these all the time. They're not worth a shit taking to a callout, but for square range training, they're the cat's behind. I only wish they made the padding actually a little lighter in color, as it still gets a little warm (we've had some warm summers, with many days over the 110 mark).
