Colonial Targets

[miki]

I am not sure if this is the right spot, but I am sure you are the right folks to ask. I am helping plan an 18th C. event in North Carolina, and we want to have a shooting program. I have been looking but have not been ablt to find any images of period targets. I was hoping that someone would be able to stear me in the right direction so I can get these things painted.

Thanks in advance for your help,
Miki

 

[musketman]

It is my understanding that targets were natural objects, like stumps, rocks, slabs stood upright, ect...

I would even venture that some were made to look like Indians, since they were a major threat back then...

This is just speculation on my part, but it seems right, paper was needed for writing on, not shooting at...

 

[CrackStock]

We just paint a picture of a REDCOAT and use the crossed belts as the bullseye!

CS
(Gleefully tweaking the Loyalist trash!)

 

[Stumpkiller]

We just paint a picture of a REDCOAT and use the crossed belts as the bullseye!

CS
(Gleefully tweaking the Loyalist trash!)

Bah! Ye beat me.

I believe a true, authentic target is to char a plank in a fire to black and then carve an "X" at the top so that the light wood beneath shows as the legs of the "X". Then drive the plank into the ground. The center of the "X" is the target.

Some turkey shoots required the shot be in the black above the "X", closest in the upper "V" formed there without touching the lines wins.

The head of a live turkey tied to a stake behind a log is a good one, too. Be sure to invite PETA. :rotf:

 

[Ashworth]

Here is a website on 18th century Target shooting.I has some good information.I am in NC can you say yet where the event is to be held.
Alan Ashworth
[url] http://ballindalloch-press.com/society/index.html[/url]

 

[mikelange]

Blocks of wood with an "X" marked on them with charcoal or paint. One target, one shot, no argument as to whose ball hit where, as with a larger board that multiple shooter are aiming at, or that a single man fires at multiple times. Plus, this serves the same purpose now that it would have served then -- getting rid of scrap bits of wood while at the same time providing decent targets; and, on the flip side, not wasting larger chunks of what would, if nothing else, make good firewood.

Just one suggestion.

 

[loishd]

:thumbsup: :hatsoff:

MOST EXCELLENT REFERENCE SITE !!!

Thank You!!

 

[miki]

I thank you for the site and the insite from all. The event is listed in the public events area and is in Hertford, NC just off the coast.

The topic reads new event in NC

Miki

 

[Gary]

Printed target weren't available at the dry goods store. A shingle was procured and a black mark was made upon it. Sometimes a piece of white paper was used (read this in C. W. Peale's diary).