Bullseye target camera tested

[Pommy Chris]

We have ordered one and it should arrive in a few weeks, but we have one on loan until ours arrives from a shooter. I wont be able to do any long range testing for a couple of weeks as I am on a firie course next weekend, but initial tests today at 300 yards look very promising indeed. The person I borrowed it off though said he used one in America out to 1200 yards so I am quite confident there wont be any issues at longer range.
I tried the target glued to corflute and the holes were hard to see at least using my android tablet and it was missing some shots. I then tried with the target not actually glued to the corflute and this improved things but it was still hard to see, but at least the camera system was seeing the shot but a flashing black dot on a black target is far from ideal. I then tried orange bin liner behind the paper target and this was better but again still not ideal. Finally we found the solution, I cut the center out of the corflute and stapled cardboard over the hole and I put the normal F class target center over this. This left small holes right through the target which show up as white dots on a black target no way can you miss the shots. Every time the camera flashed the previous shot and we peppered the target with holes again and again the last shot showed clearly. Next we tried a .223 and the small holes from the 223 still showed a small white hole which you can not miss on the black target, all in all a great success. Some shots even enlarged the previous hole and the new hole still flashed. I think the target will need to be patched out after maybe 3 or 4 shooters, less ant longer distances, but from my initial tests this seems to be a cheap option that could really work for small clubs for club shoots. In a couple of weeks after my course I will do some more tests and we can try it then at a club shoot, I will report back with how things go.
Chris

[lee_enfield223]

just a thought !!!!! you could save big bucks on repairs as well when someone shoots out the sound sensor on the edge or a target frame !!!!!!

[BenW]

Hi Chris missed seeing you and your wife at Canberra, wasn't kind to me. I have found the best targets for seeing bullet holes are the SSAA Fly targets, I can see 30 cal through the scope at 300m no problems so with the camera should be good. Anyway hope that helps.

[Pommy Chris]

Hi Chris missed seeing you and your wife at Canberra, wasn't kind to me. I have found the best targets for seeing bullet holes are the SSAA Fly targets, I can see 30 cal through the scope at 300m no problems so with the camera should be good. Anyway hope that helps.

We could not make it I had fire brigade courses, I would love to have come.
More testing done today in horrible conditions at 600 yards wind and very very bad mirage. This made testing even harder as we only cut a hole in the coreflute about edge of four ring size and replaced with a sheet of cardboard and placed the normal aiming mark over this as normal. Some small issues with wifi, but we realized the antenna needed to be on the tripod not left in the box, opps
When we worked the ipads and other devices out things started to work great, the only issue was when peoples shots went into the coreflute are and not the cardboard, the shot usually still showed, but it was black on black and on the less bright devices it was hard to see. The shots which went through the center "test" area all showed really clearly ie a white flashing dot on a black target is easily seen. Basically the target camera does not flash a mark where the last shot landed, it flashes a photo of the actual last shot so if it was in the cardboard backed area a nice clean hole is punched in the target and white light shines through the hole making the location of the shot very clear indeed. We shot I think 4 shooters in a row at the end without patching and the target was peppered with holes, but it was still obvious which was the last shot as the flashing makes is so easy. We even tried a 223 and it showed its holes easily too. We also managed a couple of times to get two bullets in one hole and the hole was enlarged enough to still show where the shot was. Shooting 300 yards though might be a challenge unless the target is patched every couple of shooters max especially if conditions are perfect. We still need to perfect things, I think the camera will work better positioned not off to the side as we had today, but directly below the target as the light shining through the holes will line up even better and show the shots even more clearly. It was great today, but these changes might make things better still. We had sandbags in front of the camera for obvious reasons and this did not seem to affect the wifi which is good.
Next test will be 3mm coreflute to see if that shows light points like cardboard does and we also need to make up the whole aiming area all the black bit anyway the same, today only the 4 ring was card which is fine if you keep the shots in the 4, but we need to make a whole target that registers clear shots. I will do some more experiments in the week, I need to find something that allows neat holes where the shots are, card is great, but still looking for a better solution, fingers crossed for the 3mm coreflute.
Anyway proved this works great especially at longer distances, I will report back as I learn more.
From what I learned so far this is going to be good for club shoots and informal comps only simply as there is nobody up at the butts to gauge a shot and second three shots in one hole may not register (no data on this yet). This is not an electronic target, but we all had fun today and in the 4 ring and inwards "test area" we were not loosing peoples shots, so a very positive test IMO.
Chris

[Pommy Chris]

Another day of testing, but this time things are almost perfect. The antenna was out of the box at the end of the butts and signal was amazing even out at 600 yards which is the longest we can go. I need to go to Atherton to try longer. We cut a large hole in the center of the target and stretched clear builders membrane over the hole very tight. Then the aiming mark was attached to the front. The shots showed up like stars in the night sky and the flashing last shot was obvious and easy to find. We shot five shooters and the target was peppered with holes, some shots going in previous holes but the shots always showed. We patched out after this which is a 5 minute stoppage and we started again. In the whole day 7 shooters we had difficulty finding one shot, it was a .223 which we did find, but it has gone into a .308 hole and it only made the hole a tiny bit larger and this was at the end of the day when the target was tattered. In all a big success for club shoots set up correctly this system works very well indeed for very little money. I will download some pics off my phone which I can send to anyone who is interested I also have a short vid I can send to anyone who wants it.
Chris

[superx10]

Great to get some feed back on this system, Thank you for your effort.

[BenW]

How's your gsp going still a scatter brain mine still is to a degree and he's almost 11. The system seems to be a viable alternative to et's for small clubs with aging members. How many of your club shoot f class to tr

[Pommy Chris]

How's your gsp going still a scatter brain mine still is to a degree and he's almost 11. The system seems to be a viable alternative to et's for small clubs with aging members. How many of your club shoot f class to tr

Dog is still nuts, but that is GSP
We have one TR the rest are scope. Really for club shoots if the targets are set up as I said there is no problem for any club. The only issue could possibly be if someone wants to gauge a shot and if people do this in a club shoot it is a bit sad as it is not sheep stations at stake, and even then you can zoom in and make a visual call ( you can zoom in so big it is just the shot on the screen). They are not going to be any good for OPM's simply as you cant actually gauge shots as someone is always going to want it checked even if it is obvious visually. That said I really cant see any reason why they cant be used for any clubs normal shoots. To be honest it is just as accurate as a marker as through the camera you are looking at the actual shots in the target. Not so with electronic targets.. The camera is not putting a marker in the target (you can put one there if you want) the flashing dot you see is the ACTUAL hole so it is like standing in front of the target and making a call on the score.
In many ways more accurate than electronic targets as you are seeing the hole not a calculation of where the hole should be.
Chris

[BenW]

Well I for one would be interested in seeing a short video of the system in action.

Yes they are scatter brains when young but love the breed.

Ben

[Pommy Chris]

Well I for one would be interested in seeing a short video of the system in action.

Yes they are scatter brains when young but love the breed.

Ben

I need to work out how to post it??
Chris

[BenW]

Standing bye and I am no help as I am not that tech savoy. Just out of curiosity how much does the system cost ????

[Pommy Chris]

Standing bye and I am no help as I am not that tech savoy. Just out of curiosity how much does the system cost ????

Delivered from America is around 1,000 dollars just under actually.
I dont really want to open a youtube account apparently how I post vids, but I will takes some stills on the weekend.
Basically the shooter takes a shot, the person scoring presses "show shot" and the last shot flashes. It is the actual picture of the shot hole that flashes so the challenge has been to get the shot holes as clear as possible. The way we have done it means the holes are a "star in the night sky" like white mark on the black target so really easy to see. On 5mm normal coreflute however the hole was a black mark on a black target, very hard to see and impossible. Modding the coreflute as we did though changes everything and makes the system work great.
Each time show shot is pressed the previous pic of the shot before flashing is sent to the bottom of the screen. You can then save the shooters shoot (last week I saved everyone's) and at lunch I was able to show club members every shot they took ie shot one, shot two three etc. You load saved session of a person and 12 thumbnails are on the bottom of the screen you click on the shot you want to see, number 4 for example and that shot opens up flashing that shot. You can add markers to your group too, even measure your group.
Yes there is a small chance of loosing a shot if it goes through a large shot out hole, but if the target is patched out every 3 or 4 shooters the chance of this is small so great for club shoots.
All the best
Chris

[BenW]

Thanks mate i'll pass that along to my club this afternoon when I finally get to shoot again Seems to be a good alternative to ET's for clubs with quite a few ageing members and let's face it what club in regional area's aren't in that boat.

[Pommy Chris]

I received a private message notification, but oddly it did not arrive in my inbox here so I cant reply re seeing the vid. This afternoon I will go into battle and try and post a youtube vid. If I manage I will post the link here. I did this video with my phone and since I have worked out how to get the tablet screen much brighter so I can probably do a much better video next week but it will give you guys an idea.
Cheers
Chris

[Pommy Chris]

Pm is working now..
I am did not have time to post the vid yesterday, I will try today.
Here is a roundup of what we have learned so far..
We have learned a lot about these cameras. Beware charging the packs without switching the pack on, a member did this and killed the protection board. I have ordered another board off ebay which are only a couple of bucks and a couple of spare battery packs again cheap as chips off ebay. If you use these at your club just be careful who you give to charge them as it seems the packs can be damaged if charging is not done correctly, my only moan so far. You will be fine though as long as you turn the pack on before charging and dont turn off before the charger.
We also learned that the range is amazing, but dont put the base station on a car roof or boot, put it on a plastic chair as the metal messes with the system. We tested the bullseye on our soon to be 800m range and walked out to 1000m up the hill for a laugh and the camera and base station worked perfectly, but again you cant just put the antenna on the ground, maybe Ravenshoe is bad for this due to the iron in the soil. Also we bought a 10m lead for the antenna of the camera, this way we can pile sandbags in front of the camera to protect it and put the antenna off to the side out of harms way on a plastic stool or something. We also had communication issues by opening the base station the wrong way so the battery and the plug pack was in front of the antenna, the antenna was pointing down range correctly, but the battery and plug pack were shielding the signal.
In a nut shell position both antenna on plastic base pointing in correct direction keep away from metal.
Most have had issues as coreflute heals up, 3mm less so, but make life easy and cut the middle out where most shots fall and shots will show up so amazingly clear.
More later
Chris