At my house I have between 200 and 250 yards that I can safely shoot (235 yard to be exact). The property behind where I am at belongs to a relative, and the land behind that belongs to yet another relative. If I cut down a couple of small trees I could probably get beyond 300 yards, maybe even out to 400 yards that I can safely shoot on without really leaving home. I have several steel plates that I think are all 2/3 ipsc size but I am thinking about getting more steel of various sizes and shapes to supplement those.
I shoot lots of different guns to be honest but for the purpose of this I want to shoot my .22LR out to distance and start practicing that way but still have the option to shoot those plates with an AR or whatever (hence AR500 is a must). I have a new optic on the way so once I mount that up I can go to 235 yards without doing a thing, but I very well might try to make a longer lane just because I can.
I have other places that I can shoot at much greater distances so ideally I could take a few targets with me if need be and make a temporary shooting lanes or whatever (primarily for rimfire but who knows).
The question here is how big of plates I should get, possibly what thickness to get good feedback on, and what shapes are better suited for my goal? By shape I don't mean just round or square, but rather I see round targets with one 'ear' on them and some with two ears, and a plethora of other shapes. The one ear type seem to me like they would rotate to some degree when hit of course depending on how they are hung up. That said I could hang those up with a single post or cheap piece of rebar or something, whereas the ones that have two mounting points typically would need two anchor points.
Above all though, I want to set realistic expectations for shooting primarily .22LR. If I hang a small three inch plate out at 300 yards, that to me is kind of asking a bit much for a .22LR (but I could be wrong because I haven't done it yet). All in all though what would you say are the best size targets for shooting .22LR at distances as described above? Say 50 to 350 or 400 yards... at very least having a variety of shapes and sizes would make it interesting for sure. What is a good rule of thumb to follow when selecting targets as described above?
I shoot lots of different guns to be honest but for the purpose of this I want to shoot my .22LR out to distance and start practicing that way but still have the option to shoot those plates with an AR or whatever (hence AR500 is a must). I have a new optic on the way so once I mount that up I can go to 235 yards without doing a thing, but I very well might try to make a longer lane just because I can.
I have other places that I can shoot at much greater distances so ideally I could take a few targets with me if need be and make a temporary shooting lanes or whatever (primarily for rimfire but who knows).
The question here is how big of plates I should get, possibly what thickness to get good feedback on, and what shapes are better suited for my goal? By shape I don't mean just round or square, but rather I see round targets with one 'ear' on them and some with two ears, and a plethora of other shapes. The one ear type seem to me like they would rotate to some degree when hit of course depending on how they are hung up. That said I could hang those up with a single post or cheap piece of rebar or something, whereas the ones that have two mounting points typically would need two anchor points.
Above all though, I want to set realistic expectations for shooting primarily .22LR. If I hang a small three inch plate out at 300 yards, that to me is kind of asking a bit much for a .22LR (but I could be wrong because I haven't done it yet). All in all though what would you say are the best size targets for shooting .22LR at distances as described above? Say 50 to 350 or 400 yards... at very least having a variety of shapes and sizes would make it interesting for sure. What is a good rule of thumb to follow when selecting targets as described above?
