Product Reiview - Do-All Outdoors "The Big Gong Show" Self Healing Target

[TEA]

I was a bit skeptical as to how this "self healing" target would hold up, especially with .308 FMJ, but I must say I'm impressed.
http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/st...428+4294965596

I took this out to the ranch the other week to give it a try.


One problem I found is that that the target stand that is included leaves the target fairly close to the ground, which makes it hard to use in tall grass.


It did hold up well against .308 FMJ (Malaysian 7.62 NATO spec), though.


I also tried .45 ACP FMJ from about 20 yards and found that it makes a bit more of a noticeable and a little less "self healing" of a hole.



On a follow up trip, I tried some Winchester whitebox .45 JHP as well as .45 FMJ and would recommend using hollow points on these "self healing" targets as they do not "self heal" much from the hollow point rounds.


I was also skeptical at how well the metal rods that make up the target frame would hold up to accidental bullet impacts. During my last outing I practiced some quick shots and accidentally hit the target frame. At least with .45 ACP, the metal rods were able to take the hit. They bent a little bit, but the metal was otherwise intact.

My main criticism of the product, aside from the low height of the target stand, is that the gong doesn't really swing much, especially when using the higher velocity .308 rounds. Overall, though, for the money this is a pretty good target that you can use for many range sessions.

[Tom .C]

I was a bit skeptical as to how this "self healing" target would hold up, especially with .308 FMJ, but I must say I'm impressed.
http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/st...428+4294965596

I took this out to the ranch the other week to give it a try.


One problem I found is that that the target stand that is included leaves the target fairly close to the ground, which makes it hard to use in tall grass.


It did hold up well against .308 FMJ (Malaysian 7.62 NATO spec), though.


I also tried .45 ACP FMJ from about 20 yards and found that it makes a bit more of a noticeable and a little less "self healing" of a hole.



On a follow up trip, I tried some Winchester whitebox .45 JHP as well as .45 FMJ and would recommend using hollow points on these "self healing" targets as they do not "self heal" much from the hollow point rounds.


I was also skeptical at how well the metal rods that make up the target frame would hold up to accidental bullet impacts. During my last outing I practiced some quick shots and accidentally hit the target frame. At least with .45 ACP, the metal rods were able to take the hit. They bent a little bit, but the metal was otherwise intact.

My main criticism of the product, aside from the low height of the target stand, is that the gong doesn't really swing much, especially when using the higher velocity .308 rounds. Overall, though, for the money this is a pretty good target that you can use for many range sessions.

Is the target visual good at longer scoped ranges? It lookslike it might be hard to see
at long ranges.

[Mr. Machette]

Do you feel like it's worth the $26.99?

One thing about that "self healing" plastic is that it needs to make contact with itself to re-seal the holes. That's why the relatively thick HP .45 bullets left noticable holes. The stuff will heal cuts quite well, but not so much missing chunks. I bet shotgun slugs would "void the warranty" like a mofo!

For that reason, if longevity is a concern then small cross section, hig velocity FMJs are probably the projectile of choice for these.

Pretty cool!

[TEA]

I only tried one magazine with the hollow points just to be thorough in my review. I was pretty sure that the hollow point would tear a hole that wouldn't self seal, but needed to verify my theory. I had initially thought that the higher velocity of the .308 rifle rounds would do more damage than much slower moving .45 pistol rounds, but turns out I was wrong on that score.

As for visibility with a scope, I would imagine that the you could still use this with a scope at longer ranges depending on the power of the scope and the how far out you put the target. The orange gong is pretty high vis (as long as you don't have grass obscuring the target as in the second pic I posted) and is 9" in diameter (compared to 6 3/8" for the aiming black on an SR-1 100yd target or 13" on an SR 200 yard target). I was shooting my rifle at the gong from roughly 100yds (from the roof of my pick up truck so that I could see the target over the grass) and had no problem putting iron sights on the target. I would imagine that iron sights would still be doable at 200 yards - so a scope should be doable at longer ranges than that. The biggest challenge I had with shooting a rifle at this target at 100 yards was registering hits on the target. I'm not sure how much velocity of the bullet and how much the range of the target played in this, but I could not see the gong move when I hit it, so I couldn't visually tell if I was hitting the target except by where the dust kicked up in the sloping ground behind the target and by inspecting the target after my string of fire. I think I would need a spotter to tell me if I was actually hitting the gong while I was shooting a rifle at 100 yards at the target. At 20 to 25 yards with my pistol, I could see the gong swing a bit when I hit it, but it still was not a very dramatic swing.

Is it worth $26? Well, since it's reusable it is probably cheaper than a year's supply of store bought targets if you shoot on a regular basis. However, it is more expensive than printing off free targets from the Interwebz and taping them to old yard signs (free), which is what I usually do for targets. I was hoping that the gong would swing more in reaction to rifle fire so that I wouldn't need to use a spotting scope to register my hits and wouldn't need to paste over my holes in the target every see often so I could keep track of my hits. I don't have to paste over my holes with the gong, but I can't clearly tell if I'm hitting the target with a rifle without a spotting scope, either. In that regard, it is probably better for pistol use than rifle.