We're always looking for ways to challenge ourselves, and by extension, anyone who trains with us. That's the thinking behind our skill builder target. Multiple shapes with specific intent on dimensions and the drills that pair with them. Despite the success and positive feedback we received from this target design, we wanted to offer more value to your training experience. We're excited to announce our new silhouette target that will display on the back of our original. It will feature a new cardstock material that will hold up better in inclement weather. The best part; we didn’t increase the original price we offered our targets at before!
Why we created this target
We wanted a scoring system that would feel familiar, A-zone, C-zone, D-zone, the same breakdown you’d recognize from a USPSA-style target, but presented in true silhouette form. We also wanted to visually illustrate something that doesn’t always get called out clearly: the difference between a threat facing you head-on versus bladed, using shading on the target itself to make that distinction obvious.
But the real point of this target is hit factor scoring. In our opinion, the best way to balance speed and accuracy in a single number, and to actually diagnose whether you’re performing at your capability or leaving performance on the table.
How the scoring works
It’s simple by design, so you can run it with any drill you want:
- A-zone: 5 points
- C-zone: 3 points
- D-zone: 1 point
- Anything inside the white silhouette outline (including the gap between torso and arm): minus 10 points
That penalty is intentional and steep. A couple of C-zone hits at speed won’t hurt you much. But drop a round into D-zone territory, or worse, into the white, and it’s going to cost you. The target is built to reward staying accountable inside that upper thoracic cavity, not just shooting fast.
We have a score sheet located at the top of the target to easily keep track of your run. All you need is a pen or sharpie!
The assessment: pistol
The pistol assessment runs in four stages from three distances — 5, 10, and 15 yards.
Stage 1: Five rounds from 5 yards.
Stage 2: Five rounds from 10 yards.
Stage 3: Five rounds from 15 yards.
Stage 4: Starting at 15 yards, fire five rounds, sprint to 10, fire five more, sprint to 5, fire the final five.
Make sure your mags are loaded before you start. You’ll need at least 15 rounds in the gun for that last stage. Once you’re done, score and time each string, write it on the clearly marked rows, add up your total score, and divide by your overall time. That final number is your hit factor.
In our own cold-start run, stage times landed in the 1.9-to-3-second range per string, with the full combined stage four coming in around 8.4 seconds. A few C-zone hits crept in along the way, which is a good reminder: even a strong time doesn’t offset dropped points. The final hit factor for that run landed at 8.77, a number we can now use as a baseline to chase and beat on the next attempt.
The assessment: rifle
The rifle version follows the same structure, just at longer distances, 25, 20, and 15 yards. You can start from a low-ready position at 45 degrees lowered or from high ready 45 degrees upward.
Stage 1: Five rounds from 15 yards.
Stage 2: Five rounds from 20 yards.
Stage 3: Five rounds from 25 yards.
Stage 4: Starting at 25 yards, fire five rounds, sprint to 20, fire five more, sprint to 15, fire the final five.
Running our own rifle assessment cold, a common theme emerged: dipping shots low from over-controlling the gun rather than letting the bolt cycle back naturally into the shoulder. That’s a fixable habit, but it’s exactly the kind of thing this assessment is built to surface. Total hit factor for that run came out to 8.65, close to, but slightly under, the pistol score, mostly due to faster overall times offsetting a few extra dropped points.
Why the comparison matters
The most valuable part of this drill isn’t the single number, it’s what happens when you run it again. Track your hit factor over multiple sessions, and you start to see real trends: are your times improving but your hits getting sloppier? Are you clean on the target but leaving time on the clock? That’s the kind of diagnostic insight a flat “hit or miss” target can’t give you.
The challenge
We want you to run this yourself, pistol, rifle, or both and tell us how you did. Email your results to training@forcefrontier.com, or upload a video and tag us so we can see your run. We’ll be looking for standout scores. THE FIRST PERSON TO REACH A 9 HIT FACTOR SCORE OR HIGHER WITH THE PISTOL WILL RECEIVE A FREE LEAD AND STEEL PB3 OPTIC ON US!
You can pick up the new targets at https://axletargets.com/products/force-frontier under the instructor page, or find them along with our other training challenges at forcefrontier.com/challenge.
Don’t forget to take advantage of our free cold start target located on the challenge page!
Get out there, run the assessment, and let us know where you land.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS BELOW!
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