Back at SHOT, in January, one of the vendors I met at Range Day was Neely from Ready Range (now known as “Right Now Range”). She had a simple, but pretty neat, product which is basically a “target in a box”. Well, I suppose the target is the box, but you get the idea.

Somewhere near the end of March, I received a complimentary Right Now Range system to use and abuse. And now, a little under five months later, I am finally writing about it.

Construction

The construction is actually pretty simple. It is laminated cardboard that has been pre-printed with some ring style targets.  It has been pre-scored and pre-cut for folding and assembly.  The instructions for assembly are pre-printed.

The top part is a scaffold that holds six clays (in convenient little slots), and is also sturdy enough to hold light weight objects. The scaffold also has a place to hang things (with some included hooks).

Target set up with clays and cans hung at their booth back at SHOT.

The target, as shipped to me, came in a flat bundle, maybe an inch and a half thick. Assembly was pretty easy. Just follow the preprinted directions (i.e. “put tab A into slot A” type of stuff; a poorly trained monkey can probably do it).

The Good

This thing can take a ton of abuse. I’ve probably got somewhere a little north of two thousand rounds against it (both from myself, and by surreptitiously tricking friends and others at the range to try it out). Because I know someone will bring it up, not all of the rounds are in the main body (which has taken somewhere around six to seven hundred). Compare that to the Zombie Industries Bleeding Zombie Targets which I was only ever able to get five hundred or so into before it was wrecked. So, yeah, I’m pretty impressed that a paper based product is holding up.

Scaffold, a little tore up.  Someone was not using their hold over… 🙂

As I mentioned above, one of the clever things about the Right Now Range is the scaffold piece that mounts to the top and allows for the user to place clays (or cans or apples or stuffed chinchillas, if that is your thing) in conveniently demarcated areas. Note that I did not list bottles, since shooting glass is banned most places. But let’s just say, unofficially, that it may hold glass just fine…

As we shot the main body, and once we were dialed in, we started clearing out the center of the target (“we” being a couple of buddies that had more ammo than me that day). An easy fix was just slapping target stickers (which I just get from Amazon) on it to cover the damage, and which actually served to increase the lifespan. It started getting pretty tore up after about two-hundred and fifty rounds–enough so that it needed something over the center to shoot at. That said, it still was standing just fine.

A couple of target stickers applied. They really increase the life of the target if you maintain a decent grouping.  The orange border is the edge of the sticker for reference.

The wings are not really structural (though they helpfully provide some more points for anchoring). They can take basically the same abuse as the main body. I didn’t really shoot much on the wings, but you could easy set up some shooting games that would utilize them.

Pretty early into shooting on the target. Fold out wing provides stability and additional shooting surface.

If you don’t have a wood or metal based target stand available, and you want something a bit higher, you can tape (or staple–though more holes equals less life) a target to the scaffold. I’d recommend aligning it so that the part you plan to shoot is over the opening (you’d think something like that would be obvious though, right?). Alternatively you could set it up on top of a table—just pay attention to your shot placement.

The Not Quite As Good But Not Really Bad

That clever scaffold feature that I mentioned before is also the part that is most likely to fail first. Since it is really the most convenient place to put “things to shoot at”, it also tends to absorb more than it’s fair share of near misses. And enough of those near misses will eventually degrade the integrity of the structure. You can see some of our shots actually tore up the the middle shelf. It still closes but it is not really all that solid.

Shelf getting a little tore up after some near misses on targets.

The main body, when placed on the ground (which is how it is intended to be used), places those targets pretty close to the ground. That is fine if you are shooting from prone, but if you are standing and shooting, you will likely have some skips. Just something to be aware of when using it. And as I mentioned before you can set it up on a table top (or other flat surface), but you can’t easily stake it down for added stability (though I suppose you could tape it).

In breezy/windy conditions it was a little “tippy”. This could be (and was) mitigated by playing with the angle of the wings and making sure they are appropriately anchored with the included stakes. If you have targets placed on the top scaffold it may become a little more top heavy and further exacerbate this problem.

Range Right Now as it came out of the cardboard shipping layers. (yes, a cardboard target shipped in cardboard)

I could not get the Right Now Range to fold back as tight as it was when it shipped. Once it was released from the constricted band, and tasted freedom, it really wanted to stay semi-open and relaxed. Big deal? No. But it irrationally offended my OCD nature. And was easily solved by storing it in a place that did not give it room to expand. You can also leave the bottom section folded into a box and store the top scaffold (still assembled) inside the box—though the side wings are still loose.

Overall

I like the idea, and really enjoyed shooting on it. It evoked emotions and memories from boyhood putting cans on a fence rail and plinking them off. This is obviously not going to be something that you use when setting up a 3-Gun match, nor a tactical course. It is something that makes a great portable target stand for that camping trip out to BLM land with the grandkids. And if you take care of it, should last for quite some time. That means NO SHOTGUN (or tannerite).

As I mentioned before, I have been using it for several months. I’ve had it at the range dozens of times and it has definitely been shot a ton. I didn’t go out of my way to abuse it, but shot it like I would think most people would use it. Honestly I was expecting it to fall apart long before now, but it is still holding together pretty well. I’ve had it in rain and wind and New Mexico hot sun. Even though it’s been wet, knocked over by wind, drug though the dirt and shot it still stands.

It fits nicely in really any flat space (like behind a vehicle seat, or under the mattress in a camper, etc).

For $30 I think it is a great thing to have one (if not a couple) on hand.

You can buy them online directly from http://www.rightnowrange.com/