The most fun you can have with a loaded magazine?
A few years ago Ben and I took a self defense course at the Sig Sauer Academy. We used frangible bullets on steel silhouette targets at ranges from 7 to 25 yards. One of the things our instructor stressed was to forget head shots.
“Head shots,” he said “are for Navy SEALS and Hollywood a$$holz. Your job is to stop the threat, and I can guarantee you that multiple center-of-mass hits will give any armed aggressor a whole new perspective on his decision to go after you.”
Damned good advice. Head shots may be decisive for highly trained professionals—like Navy SEALS who shoot hundreds of rounds every day—but for the rest of us they are just too easy to miss, especially under stress. Our instructor proved the point later in the course by setting the five of us up at 15 yards and telling us to put 10 rounds into the head sections of our targets. When the smoke cleared, their were four visible hits out of 50 rounds—a remarkable 92% miss rate.
But—marksmanship standpoint—that doesn’t mean it’s not practical to practice from…aim small, miss small. One of the best (and most fun) practice devices we’ve found to date is the new Gravity Plate Rack from Salute Products. Priced at $699.95 ($799.90 with armored front legs), it offers five head-size (5.5”) round steel plates that lock up and out of sight when hit, plus a reset paddle at the right hand end of the rack. Hit the paddle and all of the plates drop back down into shooting position. It is 73 inches wide, stands 52 inches tall, measures 31 inches front to back, weighs 93 pounds and easily breaks down for transport.
Made from the finest AR500 steel armor plate the, unique, Gravity Plate Rack and base system is designed to survive everything shooters can throw at it: pistol, shotgun rifle. The original prototype took months of hammering by Salute staff and their local industry partners at Leupold using full-auto Thompson submachine guns (.45 ACP), AR-15s (5.56 NATO) and AR-10s (7.62 NATO).
Like all Salute Targets, the Gravity Plate Rack is designed for safety and rugged dependability. And it is made in America, so you don’t have to worry about foreign welds and inferior steel. With strategically designed and placed “weep holes” and angles that drain and divert water, you can leave it outdoors permanently in rain, sleet or snow without damage. No grease or lubricant is necessary. The target plates are easily reversible without tools so you can shoot both sides to prolong target life. A can of flat white Rust-Oleum paint is all you need to bring your target plates back to their out-of-the-box appearance.
Scan the QR code or go to our website (www.ontargetmagazine.com) to see a quick action-video of Ben shooting the Gravity Plate Rack. For more information contact Salute Products, Dept. OT; Tel.: (503) 439-3006; E-mail: [email protected]; Web: www.salutetargets.com
