Marking bullets…sharpie?

[Flyjunky]

I’m getting really tired driving down to the target after every 3 rounds to check impacts.

Does the sharpie method really work? Is it better to use on just cardboard or paper/cardboard?

 

[rentalrunner22]

Get a cheap spotting scope

 

[Pro953]

I find the Sharpie method works great. I have not tried it beyond 300 so I cannot speak for long range shots.

I bout a set of red, yellow and green sharpies. And I find it noticeable enough where I can use a combo of two colors and still ID what is what. Opens you up to playing with a lot of load variations without running down range a ton.


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[Flyjunky]

Get a cheap spotting scope

I have a swaro but that doesn’t help at 1000.

 

[Flyjunky]

I find the Sharpie method works great. I have not tried it beyond 300 so I cannot speak for long range shots.

I bout a set of red, yellow and green sharpies. And I find it noticeable enough where I can use a combo of two colors and still ID what is what. Opens you up to playing with a lot of load variations without running down range a ton.


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Thank you. I’ve never tried it, I’ve always ran down between loads and that gets annoying real fast.

 

[BDWMT]

I shoot all my ladders with sharpies typically at 600 or 1000 yards and around 10 rounds. I put butcher paper over cardboard and it works well. Some of the colors don’t work as well as others and can be hard to sort out.

 

[TxLite]

I haven’t seen this before. I’m assuming we are talking about coloring the bullet and seeing colors on the target to know which group is which? Does this work on steel? Kicking myself for not trying this yet

 

[Lee_R]

I have a swaro but that doesn’t help at 1000.

Why not get one of those camera/target viewing systems? Much cheaper than a Swarovski.

 

[Flyjunky]

Why not get one of those camera/target viewing systems? Much cheaper than a Swarovski.

That’s next on the list but it’s hard to justify those when it hardly gets used compared to the spotter

 

[Flyjunky]

I shoot all my ladders with sharpies typically at 600 or 1000 yards and around 10 rounds. I put butcher paper over cardboard and it works well. Some of the colors don’t work as well as others and can be hard to sort out.

I have brown butcher paper, will that still work or will the color be hard to distinguish? I can’t find any white where I’m at. They had it at Chef’s Choice but it was $87 for 1000’!

 

[bradb]

I would use white.
Sometimes a little alcohol on a qtip will show you some hard to tell holes.

 

[N2TRKYS]

Shoot n see targets

 

[Flyjunky]

I would use white.
Sometimes a little alcohol on a qtip will show you some hard to tell holes.

I read about that trick so I’ll take some of that with me as well.

I did find a roll of paper at staples so I’m all set for final load development tomorrow.

 

[Pro953]

Shoot n see targets

Shoot and see are great, but it’s nice to use one target and shoot 10-15-20 shots moving up in grain weight so you can look for pressure and try to find a sweet spot for me at 300 yards you can pickup some data this way. The marker helps differentiate the loads. Shoot and see only lets you see the hits, not what load hit where.


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[Flyjunky]

Shoot and see are great, but it’s nice to use one target and shoot 10-15-20 shots moving up in grain weight so you can look for pressure and try to find a sweet spot for me at 300 yards you can pickup some data this way. The marker helps differentiate the loads. Shoot and see only lets you see the hits, not what load hit where.


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That’s correct.

For anyone who cares the colors that were easiest to see on the paper were green, light blue, red, yellow. Btw, the alcohol tip worked awesome.

Thanks for all the help everyone

 

[Pro953]

You know that you can hang more than one target at a time, right?

Correct, but the way I shoot a ladder (others may have a different process) the proximity of the two loads have to each other matters. So multiple targets to see where the velocity settles would be challenging and a lot harder that the marker process.

Before I used markers I would use a shoot and see and note the position of the shots in a spotting scope or or run down between cease fire and mark the shots, but the marker is a lot easier.

Nothing against shoot and see targets, I use them a ton. Just not the ideal setup for this process in my opinion.


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[AkMtnRunner]

I like to stick a bunch of 1" bright orange stickers on the back of a large cheap target or cardboard in a grid pattern. I have a drawing of the grid in my notepad with each sticker labeled for each round. I shoot one round at each sticker. Then I can measure the dX and dY for each afterwards. I will also note in the drawing where the rounds hit in case they went closer to another target point.

If the number of rounds are limited, one could also just use the same target point and keep notes of where each hit on a notepad. A good spotter is needed for this, obviously, but we should have one anyways.

 

[PineBrook413]

I do something similar to AKmtnrunner.

I print targets at home with 4-6 aiming points per sheet and shoot my individual groups for each charge at a different aim point on the same paper. Noting which target is for each load in my notebook at the shooting bench.

I also run a cheap vortex diamondback spotting scope @ the range and can easily and clearly spot bullet holes at 100,200 or 300 yards. Also easily spot steel impacts out to 1000yards.

Never tried bullet coloring but for my system it doesn’t improve anything since I don’t shoot all rounds at the same spot.


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[brant89]

I use the Sharpie method and it works beautifully. What I do to get more color combinations is color a bullet differently on each half (half red/half blue) and then I run a q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol through the hole and the color will show on the swap and also bloom around the hole. Can’t think of a better way to do a ladder test.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Here’s what I’ve done…

Put your iPhone a couple of feet in front of the target, aiming at the target, and turn on the video. Go shoot and then go get your camera. Bring up the video and swipe through the video (so you don’t have to watch the whole video). You’ll see each bullet hole pop up. Then label them 1-X shots. Done!

Don’t shoot your phone.