Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world. Nothing beats heading into the weekend (or coming out of a Monday) and having a good set of reactive targets to plink at to get in some trigger time and blow off some steam. Steel targets are a great, durable and sustainable way to do this kind of practice and shooting and can often be far more affordable than steel targets designed to withstand centerfire cartridges. While thicker shooting steel can be used with rimfire firearms, they often don’t react the same due to the massive differences in power between centerfire and rimfire cartridges (mostly .22LR). Today we’ll look at some of my personal favorite steel rimfire targets currently available on the market to add to your backyard gallery.

More on Steel Targets @ TFB:

• Full House: KRATE Tactical’s Deck of Cards Steel Target Set
• Wilson Combat Scorable Steel Targets
• Paper vs Steel Targets – Pros and Cons of Both
• DIY Simple Steel Target Hack For Night Shooting

The Rimfire Report: My Favorite Steel Rimfire Targets

Caldwell Rimfire Resetting target

Caldwell has all sorts of great targets on the market for almost any type of shooting. I started off a long time ago using one of the air gun targets that are more or less the same thing as the rimfire version. The rimfire version is just beefed up to handle rimfire cartridges. Caldwell even makes an even beefier version of this auto-resetting target for centerfire handgun cartridges.

This particular steel rimfire auto-resetting target has 5 different targets. Each of the targets on the bottom row is engaged one at a time where they will spin and rest on the retention bar attached to the topmost target. When you want to reset the entire setup, simply shoot the top target and the 4 lower targets will swing back into their original position. The Caldwell steel rimfire resetting target is affordable at just $27.99 and comes with some orange stick-on targets. I find it much easier personally to use a can of orange or white spray paint to refresh the targets after they’ve been shot up. This is an inexpensive, fun target that will last a lifetime.

Action Target Rimfire Dueling Tree

This is a great target if you like to train with a friend or want to have a fun time dueling with them for training practice. The Action Target Rimfire Dueling Tree is the same size as a full-size centerfire dueling target but is tuned specifically to work well with the .22LR cartridge.

The Action Target Rimfire Dueling tree comes ready to shoot with a 3’x2′ target stand and six 4-inch steel targets. Each of the targets is made of quarter-inch AR500 armor steel. One of the great advantages of dueling trees is that they don’t make use of any other complicated parts like springs which can break or wear out over time. If you leave this target out in your gallery, all the love it’ll need from time to time is a bit of oil and paint to keep it going strong. The steel rimfire dueling tree from Action Target is quite a bit more expensive at $199.00.

CHallenge Targets Rimfire Bullseye Target

This one is great if you’re really going for accuracy over the volume of fire (and with today’s prices, who can blame you). The Rimfire Bullseye Target from Challenge Target isn’t quite as expensive as the dueling tree we mentioned before but is geared towards a completely different discipline. The target comes with Challenge Targets’ stake and shoot system and all that is needed to complete the setup is a 2×4 board cut to your preferred height.

The target features a 4″ diameter front paddle with a 0.90-inch bullseye hole to challenge your accuracy with a rimfire pistol or rifle. This is great for brushing up on your pest control discipline or bullseye competition skills and will prove to be a substantial challenge for any rimfire pistol shooter who isn’t world-class. This particular target was developed by Challenge Targets with help from everyone’s favorite rimfire trick shooter 22Plinkster. Dave has a passion for rimfire trick shooting and he is the absolute authority when it comes to challenging targets to shoot. The Challenge Targets Rimfire Bullseye Target with a ground stake is priced right at $159.99.

Honorable Mentions

There are a lot of targets out there on the market and each of them offers its own bit of fun. Some of the ones that weren’t on this list but are absolutely worth it to more dedicated rimfire shooters are the popular KYL (Know your Limits) Rimfire Target, the Birchwood Casey Qualifier Rimfire Target, and the Champion Diamond Pop-Up Target.

The KYL Target is a well-known Precision Rimfire Series target that always causes a riot on the range. It features 8 targets decreasing in size from 2-inches down to 1/4″ and remains one of the official stages used for the 2020 and 2021 NRL Championship event. The Birchwood Casey Qualifier Rimfire target is another standalone option that is inexpensive and offers 3 swinging targets of varying sizes – great for a backyard rang with limited space. Finally, the Champion Targets Diamond pop-up reactive targets are an extremely budget-friendly option when it comes to auto-resetting targets – each one is only about $13 so you can order a whole bunch and spread them out to your liking to create some fun courses of fire.

Once again it seems like the rimfire firearm world is spoiled for choice when it comes to our options and these were just some of my favorite targets that I’ve come across in my experiences. What are some of your favorite steel rimfire targets? Let us know down in the comments and thanks as always for stopping by to read The Rimfire Report! 

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