Sonic Sensors in Talladega’s Target Systems Plot Shots
Photo courtesy CMP and www.AL.com.
What lives in the Alabama backwoods and has 54 sets of ears? The answer is the new, $20 million-dollar CMP Marksmanship Park in Talladega. This new facility, set to open in May, boasts electronic Kongsberg Target Systems (KTS) at 200, 300, and 600 yards. All totaled, there are 54 Kongsberg target units, each with its own acoustic sensors — the “ears” as it were. Each KTS target has a set of acoustic sensors (very precise microphones) that plot the shot location using sound triangulation. Shot locations are accurate within a fraction of a millimeter. What’s more, because electronic targets do not expand or shrink with humidity levels, as paper does, scoring should be more consistent match to match.
Monitors Display Score and Shot Location Instantly
Each target connects to a monitor that displays the hit locations to the shooter. Easy push-button controls allow the shooter to cycle through hits and options without having to change positions. The monitors employ non-glare glass protected by an aluminum frame that acts as a shade. This ensures good visibility for the shooter.
Engineered in Norway, Kongsberg target systems do more than just display shot locations to competitors. The system automatically calculate scores, and every target is networked to a central, “command” computer. This can provide updated competitor rankings, and can even display the results to event spectators on large view screens. See how it works in this animated demo video from Kongsberg:
Video Demonstrates Kongsberg Target System
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Tags: Alabama, CMP, Electronic Target, high power, Microphone, Talladega, Target
It’s good to see some U.S. ranges adopt this system.
Electronic targets exposed to the atmosphere work well so long as the maintenace procedures are rigorously adhered to. Otherwise there will be problems. Electronic targets can be compromised by exposure to natural elements such as dust, rain, heat, cold etc., Treat them with a regular formalised maintenance regime and they should perform well.
The decisive downside to the currently available electronic target systems is that they are extremely expensive. The typical cost for a single target is in the neighborhood of $10,000. Several systems are in the neighborhood of $20,000 for a target.
Over the years that I have look into acquiring an electronic target for a club range, Kongsberg has been the most responsive and the closest to being possibly affordable. But the cost is still around $5,000 delivered in the USA and, as of late last year, they did not have a distributor in the USA.
The ready alternative to an electronic target is a camera system or, for the closer ranges, a very good spotting scope. Until electronic target systems are available in the USA near the price of a camera system or good spotting scope, about $1,200, the electronic target is not an affordable possibility.
I’m Pres of a nice 1000 yard range in NY and they are just too pricey for us. Would be nice…no more pullers to worry about.
In Australia we have a few local manufactures to pick from, I’m VP/Sec of a 900y range and I installed the Ozscore system 2 years ago approx cost 30k this gives me 4 firing points, what it has done is get more shooters to the range because they DON’T have to pull targets.
There is a very good and affordable system out of Canada, Silver Mountain Targets. Used in Europe, USA, New Zealand and Australia.
I shot on the Silver Mountain targets this past weekend. They worked marvelously. A feature they now have is a tag line at the bottom of the screen which shows hits on the other targets on the line. This was a major break through.
Test Silver Mountain accuracy.
If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
I have shot the Silver Mountain target system now for several years…it works very well and is very accurate at scoring.
Here in New Brunswick Canda we have adopt this target system for provincial shooting matches we hold out to 1000 meters.
For more info go here: http://www.silvermountaintargets.com/
I will add that your ammo should be supersonic at the target…otherwise there is problems with scoring. This gets touchy when shooting .308Win at 900m & 1000m unless you are pushing the right combination of projectile and powder.
If you are supersonic this system works well!
I just got back from the F-Class Alabama State championships at the CMP range in Talladega, AL. The facility is literally fantastic; absolutely top notch. And the Kongsberg targets look great. However, they were a complete flop when push came to shove. The match was a total failure, no results were obtained, the match was cancelled and what looked to me to be about 35 shooters went home empty handed and bitterly disappointed. Many drove long distances and had hotel expenses to boot. In spite of the very high price tag the Kongsberg system is not ready for prime time. It recorded some shots, but most hits were recorded as “fired but off paper”. What was even worse was when the RO defended his target system as working fine as he repeatably blamed the very experienced shooters as not being able to hit a 36″ disk at 600 yards. Pulling the backers proved him wrong and the shooters right. CMP didn’t make any friends, that’s for sure. If an important match uses electronic targets without any kind of back up, they MUST work. The Kongsberg targets failed, big time. Someone needs to go back to the drawing board.