I am the USARC Senior Gunner at Fort Liberty, NC and have been working with various target designs for the Army's updated IWQ procedures, and specifically the current A8 zero target. Attached is a target design I've been working on specific to the M4 with iron sights. Well-trained shooters can zero just fine on a pizza box, but I think this is a good option for the average Soldier shooting iron sights on range day.
This is similar to the 25-meter target and plot sheet used in the very first version of Trainfire back in the 1950s during the M1 Garand days.
The current A8 covers optics well enough, though I have ideas for minor tweaks on that as well. I am fully on board with the concept of multi-purpose targets and a training plan to go with them. The A8 MOA target (Rite-in-the-Rain product number 9129) is great for the M68 and M150, and I would love to see MIL grid (product number 9130) and maybe even CM grid (for general offset data) options added to the inventory as well.
There are times when more specific targets can really help improve efficiency, though. The last cadre position I held, nearly all of our firers were iron sights only, and conversions from MOA to iron sight clicks were taking time we just didn't want to give. We ran a range every two weeks, so we had plenty of time to think of improvements. I noticed other Task Forces in the same situation were choosing to continue using the old A4-B target, but we didn't feel comfortable ignoring the .40 standard given our position. Instead we used the A8 and measured clicks with a measuring tool I designed (photo below).
I've also heard of other cadre carrying conversion tables that show how many clicks for different numbers of boxes. There are many workarounds, but I'm not sure that any of them are "better" than a dedicated target for a dedicated mission, which can be designed to have other benefits as well.
This target is purpose built for this one combination of weapon and ammo, so the bullseye can be optimized for consistent sight picture, objective and threshold rings can be placed with the proper offset, and I also replaced the large, solid black fill with a hatched pattern so that marker colors show up a little better. I think this target would have saved us a lot of time on the range, and possibly produced better zeros (though I don't want to make a claim that I can't back up with solid data).
Wild idea here, but an MOA grid on one side and iron sight grid on the other could make a lot of sense, at least in the large number of commands where the M4 and CCO/RCO are so prevalent.
I would love to put out a PDF with 5 or 6 targets that would cover a large range of situations, so units could choose how to print them locally as needed, but the TC does not allow for such substitutions anyway.
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On a somewhat related note, here’s a less serious diagnostic target courtesy of George Harris:
Diagnostic Target (courtesy International Firearms Consultants, LLC)
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It is a must to find new targets that help a soldier zero his weapon better with the optics package on current and future rifles.