When it comes to shooting targets, “Variety is the spice of life”. Shooting the same old target over and over again can get boring. We like to shoot a variety of targets. And we have to admit, the arrival of a new set of colorful targets in the mailbox has been known to motivate us to grab our guns and gear and head to the range. Midsouth Shooters Supply stocks a wide variety of colorful Birchwood Casey and Champion targets, both the splatter variety and conventional types.

Here are some of our favorite fun-shooting targets. They are all relatively inexpensive to buy. You can sometimes get free shipping if you combine a target purchase with a larger order. And if you order targets through Amazon and are a Prime member, you’ll get free shipping. The Dirty Bird targets are produced by Birchwood Casey as is the Pairie Dog Pair, a B/C Shoot-N-C target.

And here are a couple of FREE fun targets, courtesy of the NRA Blog:

We like to use the Birchwood Casey 2″ and 3″ orange “Target Spots” stick-on circles (with diamond centers) for shooting at 300 yards and beyond (photo right). These give you a very precise aiming point if you align your cross-hairs with the corners of the diamond. However, we know that some guys, particularly those whose scopes have “target-dot” reticles, prefer to have a small box for an aim point. In addition, the orange Target Spots are not a true “Day-Glo” color, so they may seem a little dull (low-contrast) when the target is in shadow.

For guys who want an ultra-high contrast target with a square box in the center, Birchwood Casey offers a series of neon green targets with box centers and spike-style extended vertical and horizontal lines (like on a compass). The manufacturer explains: “These newly-designed adhesive Target Spots come in highly-visible Atomic Green. The crosshair design fulfills the needs of open-sight shooters along with scope users. Easily line up your open sights on the center square or lay the crosshairs along the vertical and horizontal diminishing lines.” You can also rotate the Atomic Green Target Spots 45° to create a diamond center with the crosshairs in an “X” pattern.

We’ve sampled these targets. The Atomic Green background is a true “Day-Glo” color (like safety signs) so these circles appear very bright on a target backer. These work well in low light. We won’t throw away our orange Target Spots, but these Atomic Green circles are a nice option. NOTE: Atomic Green spots are NOT “splatter” targets — a contrasting bright color does NOT appear around your bullet holes.

We’ve used these targets with both iron sights and scoped rifles and they work great. The 5.5″ bull is easy to see at 600 yards with a scope, and the contrasting yellow hit circles are highly visible at long range. For iron sights shooters, the 5.5″ black circle is a good size for 100-yard practice. (Note that the NRA official MR-31 100-yard High Power target has a 5.75″ bull.) And, when shooting offhand at 50 yards using a rimfire lever rifle with buckhorn sights, this target was just about ideal — not too big, not too small.