It’s a clear calm Saturday afternoon in early September. Your work around the house is finished, and you finally have time to get in some shooting. After packing up your gear, you just have one more decision to make: What are you going to shoot at? Nowadays, you have many options depending on where you plan to shoot. If you’re headed to the back forty, you can add exploding targets, plinking cans, and bleeding zombie 3D targets to the list of possibilities. However, if you’re going to your local indoor range, your options are limited to paper and reactive paper targets. As you weigh your options, consider these 5 benefits of choosing a paper target—no matter where you plan to do your shooting. 

1. Cheap

Unless you drink a lot of soda and have cans aplenty piled up, paper targets remain the most cost-effective targets. Exploding targets are great fun, but the spectacle is over in mere moments, as a single shot will use up the target in a most fantastic fashion. Plus, at several bucks a piece for even the smallest targets, they’re hardly easy on the wallet if you shoot often. Forget about those cool-looking 3D bleeding zombie targets. Those will set you back more than $80 each!

2. Accurately Records Shot Placement

If you’re serious about improving your marksmanship skills, then you must use paper targets for shooting practice. Thompson Target  paper shooting targets are made to allow the bullet to punch a clean hole with minimal tear for precise documentation of shot placement. This allows the shooter to study and diagnose shooting errors, as well as easily track improvement. Although reactive targets also allow for easily visible shot placement, many shots in a group will quickly degrade the graphic, making it more difficult to see your hits in relation to the original target.

3. Designed for Every Shooting Application

Targets made of paper range in design from life-like hunting readiness targets like our  Deer Kill Zone, to diagnostic targets with helpful information for improving handgun skill like the Trouble-Shooter or the Group-Shooter targets we have for sale. Printed paper targets allow a great deal of design flexibility, as well as the option to include a great deal of helpful information on every target. Need to sight in your long range-scoped rifle to pinpoint accuracy? It’s much more efficient to use a scope target designed for precision crosshair centering and a 1” grid for making fast and accurate adjustments.

4. Optimum Down Range Image

Reactive targets require a dark image so that when shot, a bright contrasting mark can be made against the dark target and bullet hole. The downside to this type of target is that you end up shooting at dark image down range. Paper targets provide the shooter with a bright clear down range image and let the dark bullet hole provide the contrast for locating your hits. Take our  Sight Bright targets for example; you don’t have to sacrifice your down range image in order to see your hits clearly.

5. Clean

Exploding targets, bleeding targets, and plinking can leave quite a mess after a good bit of shooting. Paper targets not only leave a clean range, but also provide take-home proof of your excellent marksmanship! In the ever-expanding world of targets, paper continues to play an important role in maximizing your shooting range time. Choose your target today.