Shur Kill Targets is releasing a new series of hunting simulation targets for gunhunters and bowhunters prior to the fall season. The targets have much more to offer than ordinary paper targets in that they depict a game animal’s primary and secondary kill-zones in realistic full-color shots, at several angles and positions to train hunters for the kinds of viewpoints they will encounter in the field.
The targets come in two sizes: the 11-inch x 14-inch version is designed for a gunhunter. On the other side is the 18-inch x 24-inch model, sized for the bowhunter, and it’s able to be sized to fit most popular archery foam shooting blocks.
Necessity was the mother of invention for Todd Burleson, senior designer at Shur Kill Targets, when he recognized his own need for a better target.
“A few years ago, I was on a whitetail hunt back East and I made a tough, twilight shot on a nice 4x4 buck standing at a very difficult angle. … What I thought would be a lethal hit ended up with me having to search to find that buck for hours in the dark. When I finally found that buck the next day, I swore to myself this kind of thing would never happen again. So I set out to create realistic hunting simulation targets for myself that depicted various big game animals in a multitude of angles and positions a hunter would encounter while hunting,” he said.
Burleson spent hundreds of hours learning the anatomy of big game to understand where their kill zones were, depending on approach. He even reached out to a wildlife osteologist to ensure accuracy in his research before translating that information into zones on paper that represent the animal’s kill-zone at different angles.
The target also allow shooters to score themselves as they practice using a Maximum Performance Simulation Training (MPST) system and score card designed for each angled target.
Burleson pointed out that in a real-world setting, rarely does a game animal stand still broadside.
“Almost every paper big game hunting target that is commercially available only represents a basic broadside shot, and some are pretty inaccurate when it comes to representing real kill-zones. … The legitimate kill-zone for a bowhunter is often very different than for a gunhunter, so many hunters have a very limited idea where the actual real kill-zone is on an angled big game animal with their weapon of choice,” he said. “Shur Kill solves this dilemma by providing the hunter with a preseason series of inexpensive, practice hunting targets that accurately represent where these kill-zones really are, according to the hunter's weapon of choice, when a game animal is angled or positioned in a challenging scenario.”
Priced affordably, as they are, they allow for hunters of all ages and skillsets to get that much-needed practice prior to heading into the field on a cold morning.
