Well, the Silver Mountain Stand-Along target is officially in service. We had a class for prospective users a couple of weeks age and the system was declared ready for use.
I don’t know if anyone else has used it so far, but on Tuesday I needed to do a quick sight-in to verify a zero and I set up the system on the 200-yard target frames. There is no better way to see any shortcomings in a system that to have to try to use it yourself.
Hang the SMT target holder just to the left of the two Coroplex backers – there are no nails in the top rail there
Things went together very easily until I got ready to hook up the battery; Oops, it was still in the cabinet up at the clubhouse. Lesson 1 – remember to bring the battery downrange. After another trip back and forth, I was ready to shoot.
The next thing I discovered was that my iPhone didn’t display all of the image from the SMT system. We had noticed this on some phones during the class, but I hadn’t checked it out on my phone. But – it was good enough and I got my rifle shooting where I wanted to shoot in about 10 rounds
Then, I invited another member who was doing some sight in work to use the system since I had it set up and operating. He had two rifles and the first one sighted in very quickly in about five shots. The second had a wonky scope in it and after a number of shots, we gave up on that particular rifle. The member agreed that the SMT system was a lot easier and quicker than driving up and down the range to see what effect a change in scope settings might have done.
Don’t judge the shooter – this was because of a bad scope
Out of this session, I will make some improvements to the stand-alone system:
- I will provide Coroplex backers with 100, 200 and 300 yard target faces on them that can be used with the target frame.
- Since iPhones and Android phones may not properly display the SMT target images, I am going to dedicate an iPad to the stand-alone system. It will be in the cabinet with the SMT system.
- I will add a multi-station charger to the cabinet to allow the two batteries and the iPad to be charged after use.
I am ready to hold another class whenever I get four or five people who request it.