Shotmarker electronic targets- UPDATE

[rardoin]

My wife gave me a Shotmarker target system for this past Christmas (I guess an even swap for a few months of her shoe purchases ...but I digress...).  I have had the opportunity to shoot on it at 300 and 600yds as well as compete at 1000yds using that system.  I will say that it has functioned flawlessly as a personal target at 300/600yds.  The system is very easy to set-up/calibrate once a frame is made and the sensor bases mounted/measured.  It takes me no more  time to set-up the target and connect than my two target camera systems do...and perhaps less once I become more proficient (I can see myself selling the cameras systems in the near future ).  One great point about testing with the target is that I can offset the acoustical, or electronic if you will, center from the aiming center so it is not degraded...the same way I offset it now by giving the scope an extra few clicks of elevation to form the group above the aimpoint.  However, I can shoot as as many targets as I like without having to retrieve/change out targets and get instant/automatic group measurements (just like 'On Target software provides).  Ladder test are very simple...no more coloring projectiles or trying to keep track of different impacts relative to the charge group they are in.  In practice at distance I can easily see group formation relative to the wind/holdoffs to determine true wind effects.  I see the most benefit as being a teaching/learning tool for me and also a fun way to shoot with a group of people while everyone present can watch shots on their smart phone or tablet.  I think Adam McDonald has truly made a great contribution to shooting sports by shattering the price barrier of electronic target systems (much like he gave us a 'Prometheus' powder charging system at a budget price by building the Autothrower/trickler).  I almost pullet the trigger on the cheapest system available in 2017...the $3,000 SMT system.  The Shotmarker is every bit as well made/precise/reliable (and arguably better) and cost $799.  Our club is now interested in buying 10 targets for competition.  This would cost just under $8000.  If I was building a new competition range today and had to build an impact berm, a target pit with carriers and a pit protection berm I would be in it for at least $50K.  A reliable, well supported target system like his makes building longer ranges for competition much cheaper and more possible.  I could not thank Adam enough for this contribution.

Robin

[Ranger 188]

How far will this system work?
You should have told Grant about this, before
he bought that telescope. 

[rardoin]

How far will this system work?

Adam claims over 2 miles!  It uses LoRa vs WiFi as a signal carrier.

https://www.autotrickler.com/shotmarker.html

[gman47564]

Gregg you know with me shooting anything remotely close to the target might get hit. I would have the internals of it looking like a screen door.

[jvw2008]

I think that's the beauty of this system. It's not likey that you would hit a sensor if you put them far enough apart. And if you do it's a simple replace of one sensor rather than the whole system.

[DHuffman]

You should bring it out to ND and we'll try it out! Just when I think I have everything.

[rardoin]

^^^^^  yup...what Jerry said.  My 300yd load testing frame is a 36" x 36" piece of 3/4" baltic birch plywood with a 32" x32" 'aperture' cut out in the center with the sensors located at the extreme 4 corners.  Using a rested rifle of reasonable accuracy one would be very unlikely to hit a sensor or cable.  The 'brain' of the unit, the sensor hub, can be mounted remotely...as remote as the sensor cables allow which is plenty.  On my competition frame, at 6ft x 6ft again a hit is a low percentage deal and most likely would be a sensor cable.  If a sensor is hit I think they are $40, the cables are a standard 3.5mm audio jack cable available at a big box store or radio shack.  Adam really designed it to be a low up front cost as well as a low back end cost if damage occurs.  The main cost is the sensor hub which is $500 and that can be mounted in a safe position (the antenna can be mounted remotely if the hub is located behind a berm) or behind a piece of AR 500 plate.

[rardoin]

You should bring it out to ND and we'll try it out! Just when I think I have everything.

I'd love to head up there for a pheasant hunt, or a P-dog shoot and bring the target along.

[Henryrifle]

Robin:

Your write up may drive me to purchase one of these.  Our club has purchased one and has been testing it on the midrange course for the past 4-5 events.  I was waiting to see what they are going to do, but for load development at 300-400 yards this would be much better than my somewhat unreliable and cobbled-together camera system.  It is great that Adam give a parts list and instructions on the site to build a portable practice frame.  Thank you for your thoughts and endorsement of this system.

Henryrifle

[lathoto]

I definitely got spoiled shooting the electronic targets on the Petrarca Range at Camp Perry. I'll check into the Shotmarker.

[DHuffman]

I'd love to head up there for a pheasant hunt, or a P-dog shoot and bring the target along.

I'm not much of a bird hunter but I could put you on some. Prairie dogs are more my specialty and as for the target we could set it as far away as you want.

[boltman13]

One of the Clubs I belong to has mid range matches at 600 yds. with mostly Shotmaker ET's and one SMT.  I prefer the Shotmaker.  we have monthly matches April to November.  I have also shot at the range at Rawlins WY at 1,000 yds on Shotmakers and it was great.  I can not see any club building a new mid or long range set up and not using ET's and Shotmaker seems like the way to go.

[rardoin]

I now have 3 months and about 2 dozen testing sessions and one competition on my Shotmarker target.  I did not think I would completely replace my paper testing targets but I have.  It has been flawless except for one quirky microphone that I have been troubleshooting with Adam (we finally decided it was a bad mic and he sent a new one out....since then it has worked flawlessly ).  It takes me less time to set-up than my TargetVision camera (less than 3 minutes) and it has captured every shot in my test sessions without failure even with a bad mic (there are 8 on his system and more than 5 is just redundancy).  It gives a great amount of data and stores it conveniently...no more binders for my target files!  In competition we experienced 3 missed shots/240+ due to adjacent target's shots arriving at a near simultaneous time as on the E-target.  New sensors are being shipped now that are less sensitive to avoid this issue.  I could not be happier with this system.

[jvw2008]

Guess I need to check this out a little more closely.

[rardoin]

I've attached some cell phone screen captures of target displays from a match and a testing session.  Each session also has a data file that opens up in Excel as a spreadsheet displaying raw data for velocity, positioning, pitch/yaw angles and other data.  Pretty cool.